Design Edition № 13 - Aphrodite by Les beaux arts

Design Edition № 13 - Aphrodite 2000

Florblanca
11/16/2016 - 06:45 PM
13
Top Review
2.5Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage 8Bottle

Luxury, Art or Just Kitsch??

In my search for a very specific fragrance, I stumbled upon the Les beaux arts scents. I looked at all of them and also got to know the prices. They are all Eau de Parfum, and the fragrances WITH sculpture caps cost between 150 and 200 euros, sometimes more. Apparently, they are no longer being produced, so there are only remaining stocks available online. However, they are also available as refill bottles, and somewhere among all the scents, I found a refill bottle that I purchased for just a few euros - curiosity about the "what is this stuff" won out here!

With sculpture caps, there are 22 bottles, although several bottles contain the same scent. For example, my refill bottle is not only intended for the beautiful "Aphrodite," but also for Rizzi's "Four Seasons."
This is probably also the reason why the bottles are marked with a "design edition no. xx." The name of the sculpture cap is only on the outer packaging, not on the bottle itself. There are two more editions that are not listed here: DANAIDE after August Rodin and LA DANSE by Marco Piono.

Regarding the scent: the fragrance is - very - sweet, feels very artificial, fruity more than floral, and not really interesting. It seems to me that the scent hardly plays any role at Les beaux arts. Unfortunately, this sweet fruit water lingers on the skin for quite a while, but at least the sillage is somewhat more restrained - there are much stronger "stinkers" in this category.

Here, it seems more like someone had the idea of how to sell somewhat pleasing fragrances expensively and originally.
But this is exactly where I find the crux buried. Either I want a high-quality scent whose bottle also looks good, or I want sculptures based on well-known and/or famous designs as collectible objects.

These sculptures - as nice as they may be - are neither half nor whole. The bottle actually serves only as a base and is correspondingly heavy, as many of the sculptures are made of bronze. For me, the bottle would probably never be empty, as I don't like the scent well enough. And so it will probably also be the case with the little brother refill bottle that I purchased. It is more of a quirky curiosity in my collection.

As much as it pains me, I wouldn't pay more for such a scent - even with a sculpture cap - than I paid for the refill bottle, which is €1.
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8 Comments
ScheeheratzeScheeheratze 9 years ago
There are bottles where I don't care about the scent. And this one... *panting*
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PaloneraPalonera 9 years ago
One euro just for the refill? That roughly balances out with the prices at House of Sillage - the "regular" bottles do cost a bit more than pocket money, but the limited edition sculptural bottles are worth small fortunes... At least the scent isn't just super sweet!
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YataganYatagan 9 years ago
Hey, you’re good at writing scathing reviews too! :))
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ErgoproxyErgoproxy 9 years ago
Oh yes, I can still vividly remember the bottles. Definitely interesting for collectors!
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ParfumAholicParfumAholic 9 years ago
Once again, it proves that the content matters more than the packaging. I can only agree with you on that. Better to go for Lalique and/or Guerlain; usually, both go well together.
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CatwomanCatwoman 9 years ago
I was also interested in these "art objects," but since I couldn't find much information about the scent content, I left it at that. I would prefer Factisen instead and wouldn't have to deal with a shabby little fragrance.
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ChanelleChanelle 9 years ago
When I used to buy every bottle that wasn't too common, I had a few of those as well. Funny enough, I never tested them and now they're gone. It was just an attempt to lure out the collectors, and I fell for it too... back then.
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Can777Can777 9 years ago
I once had the Berocal, beautiful sculpture but a disgusting scent.
I had this one too, it smells like strawberry body lotion, or those sweet foam strawberries from the kiosk.
Not nice!
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