It’s rare that I am not so keen on a product but fall madly in love for the brand. I would never have bought Bon Parfumeur’s 203 perfume because it doesn’t have the scent profile I like, but I’m happy this fell into my lap, otherwise I would have never looked into the brand and that would be tragic.
The 203 fragrance is part of the fruity line from Bon Parfumeur. The amount of notes in the perfume go far beyond the three mentioned in the name, but I can safely say vanilla and raspberry are certainly the two notes that stand out the most. This one does not mislead you.
Smelling the bottle directly, this feels like it will be more of a milky, yogurt-y scent. After a spritz, the raspberry cuts through that sweetness, giving it a more acidic note.
The top notes are pear, raspberry and neroli. Of those, I clearly detect the raspberry, and maybe I can sense the pear, because without it the scent would be very acidic, and pear is fruity but not so tart like the other top notes. The heart notes are jasmine, rose and blackberry, and I’m sure the jasmine and rose contribute to the overall sensorial experience but I can’t pinpoint them when smelling this perfume. The base notes are white wood, musk and vanilla – and even though vanilla clearly overpowers everything else, this scent is not sickeningly sweet, and not as pungently gourmand as vanilla scents tend to be. This to say, I believe the white wood and musk are balancing out and toning down the vanilla scent.
On the skin, there isn’t much evolution with this scent – it becomes less fresh and sweeter (more gourmand) after dry down and as the day progresses, but first impressions are very honest: what you see (smell?) is what you get. It remains true to its main notes, and it won’t disappoint even if buy blindly.
Overall, even though Bon Parfumeur classifies all perfumes as unisex, this is incredibly girly, and very young and summery. Sillage is medium and gets intimate (aka, weaker) after 5 hours. At the 10 hour mark, I can still detect a very faint fragrance on my wrists.
It’s not my kind of fragrance, and I will give it away – however, I will be trying other scents from Bon Parfumeur (601 and 702 are the top contenders).
Bon Parfumeur seems to bring to the perfume industry what The Ordinary and The Inkey List brought to skincare. Strip down all the whistles and bells of marketing and focus just on ingredients (or notes, in this case). And make it affordable to the public. I appreciate how their lines are organised (the 100s are floral, the 200s are fruity, the 600s are woody, etc) and their website is an encyclopaedic reference for anything perfume related – check the Journal section and have fun getting lost in all the articles, from the perfume making process to ingredient characteristics. I know I did.
I’m excited to get to know Bon Parfumeur better. Sephora in Portugal carries a few of their fragrances, but none of the ones I want. I may have to order online and buy blindly – but judging by 203, that won’t be a risky undertaking.
