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Dimich_90 – :
Absolutely love at first sniff. Sexy salty sunkissed skin with an enveloping and warm cedar base to anchor it. The seaweed is very realistic; the orange blossom is refined and elegant rather than sweet or overtly floral. Barbara and Antoine have made a modern classic!
Р.Б.М.К.1000 – :
I’m surprised how much I like this one. I don’t usually reach for aquatic scents but the salty note in this makes it very beachy-pretty in a realistic way.
At first spray I was reminded of celery wrapped in scented Kleenex (what?) but then mercifully that impression resolves itself quickly.
In the drydown I’m reminded of someone who’s been surfing all day – you can really smell the ocean salt – then rinses off & goes picking beach flowers. It’s a very breezy/casual/pretty floral – yet oceanic – scent. I like it! Don’t be afraid of the seaweed note if you like salty scents.
I agree with the reviewer below that there is something a bit ’90’s about it… except that it’s ’90’s but better. It’s that fresh floral aquatic done right, without the hairspray-body splash elements.
The perfect scent to go with “beach hair” if that’s your thing.
fokin – :
I like Belle De Jour, but I don’t love it. There was a lot of alcohol in the opening, making it as pleasant as old fashioned hairspray. Around 10-15 minutes later, I get the seaweed, jasmine, and orange blossom as the major accord. The seaweed has a metallic bite, sort of like… fresh blood, actually. The impression I get overall is aquatic floral as some others have mentioned.
This perfume kind of makes me feel like I’m laying on a wet beach with white flowers in my hair, the seaweed laden surf crashing over me. It’s really nice, but also it feels out of place with my surroundings. I’m completely landlocked, and this is so aquatic that I feel like I’m wearing snorkel gear in my living room. That said, if aquatic white floral floats your boat, then Belle De Jour is straight down your canal. It’s very well done- never turns indolic, rubbery, artificial, or cheap smelling.
Update: wearing this is the dead of summer, and it smells much better this way, definitely summer seasonal. Belle de Jour is what I wished Womanity would have been. Just got back from a beach trip to Hilton Head, and Belle would have been much better than what I had which was far too heavy. Belle is an abstract flowery breeze coming off the ocean, landing on clean laundry. The second half of development has musk as the lead, supported by the coriander and allspice. I love this development, I feel like the second half of the perfume is the night falling. I read kafakesque’s review and agree with the summarization, although my review is positive by contrast. I could stand to have a bottle, after all.
Тоболовец – :
I’m going to buck the trend below and give this one a thumbs up. Definitely in the “weird floral aquatics” camp but surprisingly compelling and unique. I will not wear most florals or aquatics, but I did wear out my sample of this. If you are feeling the itch for exploration give it a shot.
newsome699 – :
Antoine Lie’s description is apt. It’s a familiar, watery, early-spring floral that is elevated and made more interesting by a borderline-foul top layer of briney, salty sharpness. When I first sampled Belle De Jour, before reading the listed notes, I liked the contrast but I misidentified the “seaweed” as wet cardboard. This will appeal to those who like Antoine Lie’s other pretty/ugly scents and it will probably horrify those who are expecting a femme floral. The mix of contradicting notes makes this a nice option for a man who wants to wear a floral without smelling like a mother of the bride.
AndreSAW – :
To me this is a floral-aquatic. Take some of the 90’s aquatics, but tone down the melon-like note, and pump up the florals. That is what I get most of the time–jasmine, a bit of orange blossom, and an aquatic note, in that order. I would believe it if somebody told me that this was a gardenia perfume with watery green notes. I like the fact that it’s not heavy and overpowering.
I love sweet spices, and allspice sounded great, but it doesn’t really come out much on my skin. There was a point in the mid-notes where I thought I smelled it, and it gave an extremely subtle smokiness, but it soon disappeared. I was hoping it would grow a bit stronger, but instead the perfume reverted back to the jasmine, orange blossom and melon-like note again.
The seaweed note is nothing to fear. I felt there was a bit of saltiness in the top notes, but it blended in nicely and did not become too strong. It soon faded, anyway.
I wasn’t wowed by it. It was pleasant, but I’ve never liked aquatics, and it was too aquatic for me.
maaaksim – :
Every time I smell my sample of it, I get an old-timey lipsticky smell (only less powdery) overlaid with my fingers smelling dirty from outside, like touching aslpahlt or something. After maybe five different such occasions, I realied that the steel/aslphalt/dirty smell was part of the perfume. I hadn’t looked at its composition until now; it might be the seaweed that is making me think of this.
I don’t think I dislike the seaweed, or whatever the scent is, on its own. In fact, all the notes in this fragrance could be interesting. They just seem very discordant in this one, like a bunch of smells thrown together at random rather than a perfume/fragrance. Scattered, all over the place. No clear scent profile, and it doesn’t carry my imagination anywhere.
I didn’t get the sillage or longevity out of it that others reported.
On skin, the floral and more ‘femine’ elements definitely overcame what I referred to as the aslphalt, or perhaps in reality seaweed, note. But that didn’t make it any more meorable or interesting. Bleh.
o_g_n_e_v – :
Belle de Jour begins with the essence of a dirty water in rusty pipe & i guess it’s the seaweed note with the help of jasmines. It turns into a kind of soap that is sold in the middle east specially in Iraq and it’s made of “Bay Laurel” as the smell of it is like a dirty water with dust or sands but remains a soap with it’s extreme benefits to the human skin when used.
I guess it’s another experimental attempt for Antoine Lie to come up with weird fragrance since Barbara’s aim was plants animalic fragrances.
LaurenHolly – :
I absolutely love this fragrance. I do not pick up on the seaweed note, but wish I did. Maybe I do subconsciously as I adore seaweed. I wear my sample everyday which says a lot as I never wear the same fragrance more than 2 days in a row.
sa111ha – :
Sharp, bitter opening followed by orange blossom and seaweed. Strange. Unpleasant.
pvt981Unlogrere – :
Luis Bunuel is my favorite film director, so when I found about this perfume I ordered a sample tout de suite. The virginal floral opening made me crinkle my nose (although something seemed to be biting it’s way out as I kept sniffing) and dismiss it, until the brothel in the bottle opened up a few minutes later and all sorts of quiet sexiness happened. Much like the film. A great transposition from celluloid to fragrance.