Bon Vivant

[ianastar]

An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry.

I love this. Its so sweet, but not sickly sweet. It reminds of my childhood days, sitting on the front stairs eating Pixie Sticks.

Or of my adulthood, Strawberry Mimosas at Sunday Brunch. Ha Ha.

So clean and sweet. Makes me happy. I like this way better than Hollywood Babylon which was almost too much for me. This is softer, much nicer.

[anmorata]

Bon Viviant:

 

This scent is dead-on in its description: champagne and strawberries. It couldn't be any simpler than that. The strawberry, unfortunately, comes across as a very synthetic strawberry, and reminds me of some of the strawberry scented lipgloss that my 8 year old daughter loves.

 

Bon Viviant also reminds me of Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo, in a sense.

 

I like it, but it's very young and bright. Not an everyday scent for me.

[joseybird]

This scent is pretty dead-on...not insanely fizzy (not like Fresh's Lemon Sugar!) but nice...definately champagne, and maybe strawberry candy (doesn't smell like the real, fresh variety). Not sure if this is FBW yet though...

[jett perilous]

This was one I really liked when I picked up a 5ml at the Black Broom. It smelled so lovely, like real strawberries. It is very similar to the Victoria's Secret strawberries and champagne scent, though Bon Vivant definitely smells like fresh strawberries, rather than that synthetic candy strawberry.

 

Wearing it right now, it's a little too cloying. Very very sticky sweet smelling. Reminds me of how the glasses smell after we drink strawberry vodka. I may not be able to wear it, and instead use it sparingly as a room or car scent.

Edited April 4, 2005 by jett perilous

[tsarina]

I love this scent. It's celebratory, champagne fizzing and sweet strawberry juice. I can almost taste it, the scent is so vivid. I think I will wear this for parties.

[girlmadasbirds]

in bottle: syrupy strawberry, champagne

on skin, wet: same as in bottle

on skin, dry: fresh strawberries and champagne. it kind of reminds me of strawberry incense.

final thoughts: this is a bubbly, happy scent. i have a feeling i'm going to go through this imp quickly.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Strawberry champagne perfect.

 

On Skin: I feel like I’m drinking champagne with a strawberry in it. Sweet and you can smell the effervescence. Tart and sweet, delicious. I’d be afraid to wear it though because it does smell like I’ve been drinking champagne. But oh is it yummy!

[Spastik_Kitty]

In the bottle: Ooh, bubbling champange and slightly under-ripe strawberries.

 

First on: The champagne note is very strong and I get a faint whisp of tart strawberries.

 

After a bit: This turns weird on my skin, I can't really explain it, but it's not a good thing. There are no wafts of strawberries or champagne.

 

Off to the swap pile.

[Pixie-elf]

Bon Vivant! Yum!

 

In the Vial:Strawberries, almost Plasticky.

 

Wet: Strawberries... Yummy.... SO yummy! Not plasticky anymore, either!

 

Dry: Mmm big juicy strawberries. Just so yummy! I really like this scent! And Champagne takes over and calms the juicyness a little... still very good though.

 

Conclusion: I'll use up my imps, but I dunno if I'll buy a bottle. It's still very good and if you like fruity / strawberryish scents.

[kmasden]

I think Bon Vivant smells exactly as described. Light and bubbly strawberries. I don't get any alchohol from this - aka champagne - but the effervescense is definately there. The strawberries are light and happy. Unfortunately this fades very quickly on me, as the lighter scents tend to do, and I am a smell her coming girl, so it's not a big bottle. Another scent I would love to give to my niece or a younger girl just starting to appreciate perfume!

[cormeretrix]

i wanted to try bon vivant because it sounded like such a lovely spring scent, especially for the evenings. my skin, however (as usual), had other ideas. completely ate the strawberry, and left all the champagne. i shouldn't have been surprised though; it did that with grog, too, so that all i smelled was alcohol.

also, the description made me think of the color pink.

[requieminblack]

First sniff from the bottle- Strawberry car air freshener.

 

After 10 minutes- This smells like strawberry scented air freshener or a strawberry scented candle. It is overly sweet and fake smelling which churns my stomach.

 

After 30 minutes- Luckily the over powering strawberry scent faded. Now it smells just like pink champagne on my skin but also kind of like strawberry lip gloss and Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

 

Summery- This scent is just to sweet and girlie for my taste.

[oatmealneko]

I had this imp for awhile, & I liked it at first, but after wearing other scents, I realized this really isn't for me. It smells exactly like strawberry champagne, but it smells too boozy on me. I like alcohol notes, but I prefer them if they don't smell boozy.

[Malista]

Bon Vivant

 

Great name. I read the description and thought "I'll bet I get flashbacks." I confess to being an unreconstructed hippie, and I have smelled more artificial strawberry in my life than anyone under the age of 50 can probably comprehend (unless they were raised by unreconstructed hippies). I juice real strawberries daily as part of my juicing regimen, and have very little tolerance any more for the necessarily artificial compounds used in perfumery, syrups and sodas. I like Beth's wine notes, though, and this was a frimp with an eBay purchase, so I popped the Imp.

 

In the bottle: Strawberry wine cooler.

 

Wet on skin: Strawberry wine cooler. Strawberry incense. Strawberris 'n' Cream body lotion. Strawberry glycerine soap. 1967. Under the strawberries, some sort of white flower I know but can't put a name to, pretending to be champagne. OK, any second now I expect I'll start to -- *Atchoo! * Yep, that's what used to happen when I was around strawberry incense.

 

Drydown: Less strawberry, more of the sharp white floral. More sneezing.

 

Dry: I don't know. I had to wash it off.

 

Conclusion: Nice (if sneezy) trip down memory lane, but I don't think it's a trip I want to take again. In truth, I was always more a sandalwood, patchouli and myrrh incense girl. I have come to the conclusion that I was never young enough for strawberry.

[AnaisSatin]

Strawberries and champagne, exactly. On my skin, the two are perfectly balanced.

 

I used to tell the folks at Victoria's Secret, "I can't smell the champagne" in their Strawberries and Champagne. Now they need to add BPAL Bon Vivant to it.

[Nepthys]

This is the sharper, bubblier sister of Hollywood Babylon. At first the champagne and strawberry were perfectly balanced but eventually the strawberry triumphed. Luckily it isn't an overly sweet note like so many synthetic strawberry scents - this smells like the actual fruit, not the many products people try to make smell like strawberry.

[empi girl]

Bon Vivant smelled like strawberry in the imp, very sweet and sticky. On my skin, it goes from strawberry syrup to straberry-violet pastilles... Not for me, but hopefully it's new home will like it more.

[Tournesol Noir]

My skin ate up all the champagne. So I was left with sugary strawberries, which is a very pleasant scent, but not very me. I'd have to force myself to wear it if I'd kept the imp. I hope its new owner likes it better.

[Essay 28]

In the bottle: very tart, sweet strawberry.

 

On skin initially: Strawberry lip gloss.

 

After an hour: Still semi-lip gloss scent, with a bit of strawberry hair conditioner thrown in. It reminds me of some reviews saying it smelled kind of like plastic, or the Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Too artificial on my skin for my liking, which is disappointing. Strawberry is one of my favorite scents. I'm hoping for better success with Hollywood Babylon, which is en route via trade.

[rdeadline]

In the bottle: Strawberries!

On: I smell like a strawberry!

[theshapeshifter]

In the imp: Sweet, juicy strawberry.

 

Initial application: The champagne note comes out really strongly, which is interesting. I'm surprised how much it IS specifically champagne.

 

After about 20 minutes: There's an odd note coming out that I can't quite put my finger on. Something sweet and flat, almost coconut but not quite. Since I REALLY don't like coconut, this is disappointing for me.

 

After an hour: It's less strong now, but alas, a mix of strawberry and pina colada. Not for me, but I'm sure others would adore it. Curious to try more strawberry blends, though!

[pensive]

Expectations: Champagne and Strawberry. I like both those things - what's not to like, really.

In the imp: Yummy smelling.

Wet: I started sneezing immediately. And then I smelled something sour and bitter. This was not a fresh strawberry.

No other tests. I scrubbed it off.

 

May try again in about a week or so but I really imagine this one in the swap pile.

Probably just not my thing.

[Sunbear]

Sweet-smelling and pinkish-orange in the vial.

 

I put it on and smelled pretty much pure strawberry. On the other hand, when I had Arne sniff my wrist and then said "Strawberry!" he looked perplexed. When I added, "It's strawberries and champagne," that worked for him.

 

So. Anyway. It certainly smelled like strawberries to me, but the scent was a little too simple for my taste. I layered it with my Demeter Ginger Ale, and that was more fun -- it provided the fizz I expected from the champagne note.

 

Pleasant enough, fun for the party I went to last night, but I don't think I'll keep it.

[quimerula]

Wet it's a perfect mixture of the dry fresh feeling of the champagne and the sweet touch of the strawberries.

Dry it looses a bit of the fresh part, but that doesn't make it too sweet.

 

Nice and conforting, but not a scent for me to wear every day.

[lucytalk]

Unfortunately I don't really get on with very sweet scents, but Bon Vivant was a freebie from the lab so I tried it. Strawberries and champagne is exactly what I got, or rather sweet strawberries with an underlying slightly alcoholic scent, which I assume is the champagne. It didn't change from the vial, on my skin or on drydown, but was ultimately far too sweet for me. I swapped it away so it can be appreciated more.