Bon Vivant

[ouch!]

An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry.

Ok, Bon Vivant....................

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, It does basically smell like strawberries and champagne, but.... the champagne smell is not like a real alchohol smell. It's more likened to a well known perfume by a well known designer who I won't mention. (not sure if we are allowed to express the fact that some scents are very similar to designer perfumes) . It's basically "that" with a background of strawberries.

Ok that was possibly the lamest review in history but it's the only way I can think to describe it! Sorry hehe!

Ouch!

[kakiphony]

In the imp: Sweet strawberry candy -- specifically, those strawberry hard candies that come in Christmas gift boxes.

 

Wet on skin: See "in the imp."

 

Early dry down: The alcohol note begins to tone to down the saccharine sweetness of this as it dries, and after about ten minutes it starts to smell more like a sweet floral than candy. It has not yet made me sneeze though, so it's a very mild floral note. The scent that lingers after the initial sniff is quite like strawberry kool-aid.

 

Late dry down: Over the course of an hour, the strawberry amps itself and I'm right back to where I started. I think this would be a lovely scent for a little girl, but it's way too sweet and saccharine for me as an adult. I feel like a Strawberry Shortcake doll.

[cybra111]

Bon Vivant

 

I want to love this, champagne and strawberries sounds so luscious!

 

In the bottle: very ripe strawberries

 

On me: Not good. A bit sour, yet bland. I can't pick out any certain notes. It just lingers in boringness. Once again song lyrics are running through my mind. Cheap Trick "I want you to want me, I need you to need me...Didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin'..

Edited July 27, 2006 by cybra111

[fairy]

Wow. I didn't get strawberries *at all*. In the bottle it smelled like yellow, sunshine flowers...like a field of daffodils. On my wrist...it turned into yellow rice :/ This one has a edge to it that I didn't care for.

[ND¢]

In the bottle: Some super-berry smell. Very one-dimensional.

 

On me: The berry loosened up somewhat to include a note I couldn't identify. I guess that's supposed to be champagne? It's not sour like champagne, but it's round, adds some dimension... like the barrel a white wine was stored in. MUCH more subtle. This would be a perfect perfume for an outgoing party girl, out with her friends at the center of an evening's partygoings-- which I am not. When I let it sit for a while, the champagne does come out a bit. Toned itself down surprisingly well.

[indicolite]

Bon Vivant is Grand Guignol's strawberry cousin. It is also very bubbly. I had kept Grand Guignol for pick-me-up occasions, and I do not use it much. I fear Bon Vivant, although very nice indeed, will not get much exercise either. However, Abberlaine Arrol suggested it would make a nice room scent, so I may use it for that.

 

It is a very fun, merry scent. I recommend it.

[neuilly]

Well this is mostly strawberry on me...not so much the champagne note (which I get better in a scnet like Aglaea). I was hoping for a refreshing fruity scent and this technically falls into that but it's a bit too "young girl" for me. The strawberry is very sweet and is almost to the point of smelling like a sweet tart. I see this more for a young girl and I'm simply not that young.

 

I actually almost get a sticky feeling with it...maybe it's more like a red jolly rancher?

[PilotKitten]

Hmmm... berries most definitely... and a hint of fizziness. Not sure if I'd quite classify it as a champagne note but it's definitely got that feel to it. A sweet fizziness.... not *exactly* a strawberry and champagne scent but I'm really getting the impression that it's what it's striving for. Fizzy summer scent. Perfect for a little girl scent I think.

[catslash]

In my search for a berry scent I decided to give Bon Vivant a try. I am very picky about berry scents - they can't be too sweet, they must be tart and/or fresh, they can't be too light, they mustn't be too strong, other notes can't interfere too much . . . you get the picture.

 

Bon Vivant is the only scent I've worn right out of the house without giving it an initial test at home first, and I wished it hadn't been. While it's lovely strawberries for the first twenty minutes or so (sweeter than I'd like, but for strawberries exceptions can be made) it dried down to pure champagne. My nose identified the champagne as being very woodsy, and I couldn't shake the association. The strawberries came back eventually, much lighter than before, and the scent was totally unremarkable. I wore it once more just to make sure, and now it's sitting in my swap bag. The search for my One True Berry continues.

[maijasu]

I was hoping this would smell like fresh strawberries and bubbly champagne, but all I got was strawberry candy. It's a pleasant enough smell, but not really what I was looking for.

[Trish]

This was a frimp from the lab.

 

From start to finish this was an extremely sweet fizzy strawberry. The sweetness did lessen a little after a while, but it remained very sweet all the same.

 

As I suspected this was way too sweet and girly for me. However it wasn't horrible, far from. It's 100 times better than that awful artificial "strawberry' scent. It's just not me, and I felt about 20 years too old for it.

[Ghost_Light]

I loved Swank so much that I was really look forward to another boozy, fun scent.

 

Unfortunately, this is not the one for me.

 

It was just so sweet and so young I didn't care for it. I didn't get the Strawberry Shortcake/plastic that some people posted about, I just wasn't grabbed by what I did get.

 

I sent it off to a friend's god-daughters, so hopefully they will fall in love with it.

[supremegoddessofall]

This is the first BPAL scent I ever tried.

 

I can definitely smell the strawberry, but it's more of a strawberry candy type smell than a strawberry fruit type smell. Not really getting the champagne. Definitely fruity, seems more kiddish than adult. Not sure that this is something I would wear on a regular basis. Probably going to end up for trade/sale. It does seem to be picking up a bit of champagn-y smell as it dries, but the strawberry is staying predominant. This could grow on me, but it's not going to be one of my favorites because it's *really* sweet.

 

Score: 3 out of 5

[QueenFae]

Delivers what it promises; pure, sweet, bubbly pink champagne. Just a beautiful scent; so sweet and innocent while at the same time it's very...naughty. This is the smell of strawberries and the champagne that you drink in a hot tub full of bubbles on Valentine's Day or your first wedding anniversary. Even reminds me a little bit of strawberry Boones. This was one of my first BPAL discoveries, and I still love it!

[fiddledragon]

This is straight-up sweet strawberry candy, with that same bubbly effervescent note in Swank. It's strawberry candy made with real strawberries -- I don't get any sort of artificial note -- but it's not something I'd wear unless I were feeling really impressively girly. It'd be adorable on a little kid, and you might be able to do some disturbingly beautiful things by layering this with, say, Satyr or Sheol.

[steffanina]

Bon Vivant-

 

In Bottle: A very light scent! I don't smell strawberries at all. Just a hint of booze, but just a hint.

 

Wet: Ah, the strawberry blooms intensely! But it's light and beautiful. It's lighter than strawberry oils I've smelled. Wonderful!

 

Dry: A fade to a soft strawberry blend; I really can perceive the champagne-smell in this. It really isn't boozy at all, it's the light smell of effevescent wine. This is a bee-yoo-ti-ful scent, right up my alley! It's like all the memories of the strawberry oil I used to wear but not heavy at all.

 

Overall: I love.

[RaeiNarcissus]

MMM.......... bon vivant is yummy. Champagne and strawberries,damn, now all I need is a man to take to bed.

[blackfelicula]

In the bottle: Bon Vivant smells like strawberry: the kind in fluoride treatments or the kind scenting toys.

 

Wet: The strawberry has toned down somewhat, and the champagne is coming out. The mix is very fruity.

 

Drying down: The strawberry continues a slow decrescendo, as the champagne swells. The word effervescent is appropriate for this scent. It is helpful for this overcast autumn morning. I usually use Imp to similar effect, helping me wake up and lending extra energy.

 

Dry: This is sweet and bright, even bouncy. My husband says it smells like Pez floating in ginger ale. I agree with that scent association. Its sweetness is rather candy-like, but that only adds to its effect.

 

Later: The happiness of Bon Vivant does not last forever. After a few hours, it has faded considerably. It was fun while it lasted!

[lilfaerywingz]

This is VERY ripe juicy SWEET strawberries. I didn't smell the champagne until dry down, but it was pretty subtle - just enough bubbly

[mtlaise]

This was an imp from my first Lab order... the description intrigued me for a perfume. Wet this was pure alcohol on me, with just a hint of fruitiness if I searched for it. As it dried, the strawberries caught up, and the smell fits the description - sort of a strawberry champagne spritzer... interesting, but having tried it, it's a little too alcoholic for me to wear as a perfume.

[Faeried]

Sugary, bubble gum goodness, with a hint of strawberry. Reminiscent of Pink Phoenix, but only slightly.

 

Overall it's a nice scent, very playful.

[evilbee]

In the bottle: Something sparkling, but very floral.

 

Wet: More of the same but stronger. Where are the strawberries? Did I get a mislabeled imp? I have never smelled anything with less strawberry.

 

Dry: Just more of the same. I'm very disappointed! I was hoping for a pretty, light but real strawberry scent. Weird.

[jasmine]

On the wand, this is high, sharp, and chemical-smelling. Having confidence in the Lab’s metamorphic blends, I hoped for strawberries and champagne once it hit my skin. In actuality, I got fermented strawberries. It doesn’t smell perfumey, and I suppose that’s something, but it smells distinctly and unpleasantly “off”. Being as fond of the Lab as I am, I’ll give it some time and see if it gets better.

 

There’s a lightness and a hint of white grape that must be the champagne, but champagne sprinkled over overripe, fermenting strawberries is highly disappointing. I suppose it’s familiarity. I know what a strawberry ought to smell like, and this just isn’t it.

 

It doesn’t get any better. In one way, it starts to smell plasticky, and in another, it starts to smell moldy. Really. There’s a specific way that strawberries smell when they start to get that white fuzz... and there’s a trace of something about this scent now that suggests that smell, even though the rest has gone very fake-seeming. How utterly repulsive. I hope it's better on other people.

[wikkidraven]

this scent reminds me a lot of pink phoenix, on booze. i've had my bottle for some time and never got around to testing it, because i was wary of the crystalline champagne. but now i'm so glad i did! this dries down to a fruity fresh strawberry, juicy and ripe. it went plasticky during the morphing stage, but i'm impressed with the long lasting fruityness. a keeper!

[joojifish]

In the bottle: Bon Vivant smells like soapy, artificial strawberries.

Wet: the strawberry comes out and smells less artificial. There's also a bit of a floral edge.

Drydown: kind of a weird floral strawberry.

 

Not really sure if I like this. It isn't offensive but doesn't excite me either.

Edited December 17, 2006 by joojifish