Billet-Doux (Valentines 2012)

[lulu]

Official description: "This is a love note, a "Sweet Note" in French. The scent of paper with a bit of perfume still lingering in it, a slight zest of the ink while it is still wet, a great deal of melting musk to say that you lover the "other" part of your heart. This is a light but tenacious fragrance, bright but musk imbued. I was thinking of scented stationary when I made this."

I have to admit that I tried this shortly after it arrived and my immediate reaction was that it smelled just like scented toilet paper!!! Paper, but mostly a strong blast of that strange lilac type of scent they use on loo paper and some sanitary products that is somehow meant to make you feel......what? Clean, hygenic, more feminine????? I quickly bundled Billet-Doux away, ashamed of my insults to Fabienne's perfume, never to be mentioned again. :">

No-one else has reviewed Billet-Doux however, so I thought I would jump in and retry it and give my thoughts.....

So thankfully, it is actually now quite different after settling for a few weeks! Wet, the paper note comes to the fore and it almost has an almond-like edge to it. Shortly after it's still all paper, but now I can really smell the ink and a tiny edge of light florals. Quite pleasant, but not sure if I would ever reach for it to wear.

20 mins in and the florals start amping and I'm getting back to the toilet paper thing, oh no! :-S
They do start to calm down after a while and the musks come out and now it becomes quite lovely and very similar in my mind to 301 which is one of my faves.....that quiet and dignified classy but fuzzy musk fragrance.

In short, I have really changed my mind about this and I will definitely be hanging onto my bottle....this dries down to a very unobtrusive and versatile perfume, a nice kind of perfume for everyday.

[mina]

I really like billet doux.
It smell clean and fresh to me but not like a scent toilet paper. I don't like clean and fresh perfum, I'm an oriental, spicy, incense, perfume lover but billet doux is really a nice scent.
I think it smells a lot like my boyfriend tshirt by savor.

[Jubilee]

Billet Doux is a clean, powdery fragrance reminiscent of lilac or violets. It has a light almond tinge to it too. It's a nice, inoffensive fragrance that is quite pleasant (doesn't really remind me of toilet paper though).

[sertso]

I absolutely love Billet-Doux. Yes, it's somewhat floral (well, mostly just a darned good floral), but it has a very attractive something about it that I just can't resist. I also like that it stays with me for a fair period--well over 4 hours, probably more like 6 or 7. Now that Scent of Angels is gone, this is (so far) my second most favorite. And that's surprising, because usually I'm more drawn to the darker, more resiny perfumes.

[waxesnostalgic]

Billet-Doux has such a lovely ink note. I get quite a lot of ink from this one, with a slight backdrop of paper and a floral over all of it that smells old-fashioned, powdery and indistinguishable as a particular flower (though lilac or perhaps rose does come to mind. I don't think it's sharp enough to describe as violet). It makes me think of a wealthy lady from the 1900s sitting at her desk writing letters.