I am a “signature” kind of woman.
I like things that highlight my personal tastes and style and I don’t like changing 
things up. I have a signature hairstyle with my pixie cut (although I do try to grow it out from time to time before I give up and cut it again) and a signature clothing style with my classy/casual pieces. But my signature fragrance…..that has been eluding me since I was a teenager.
It all started when I was about 16 in the 1980’s and I saw an ad for Emeraude perfume. My younger readers may not know what that is but I know my fellow 80’s girls do. It was in a green bottle and I thought it smelled so wonderful, The advertisement in Seventeen Magazine showed a beautiful woman saying “I Love Only One Man and I Wear Only One Fragrance.” Sigh. That phrase stuck with me and I knew I wanted to find one man and one fragrance of my own.
Let me just say that neither one of those things came easily to me, but I had far more love affairs and break-ups with my perfumes then I ever did with my men.
My brief flirtation with Emeraude didn’t last long. Liz Claiborne came into the picture and caught my eye with its trendy triangle packaging and young fresh scent and like any respectable 80’s girl..I was hooked. But we broke up when a more mature me moved onto Obsession. How I loved Obsession with its heavier, rich, grown up scent. But I became bored with it too and went through a period of casual dating with Victoria’s Secret fragranced body lotions. When I discovered their Heavenly perfume, I thought for sure it would be the one for me…but that didn’t last long either.
The truth was that when it came to perfumes, I was a serial dater – I’d fall for them quickly, but as soon as the “new” wore off or I found another one that caught my nose, I’d break things off.
That all changed last year when I tried La Vie Est Belle from Lancome. To be honest, I was never interested in trying La Vie Est Belle because the commercials left me a little flat. However, I was at Macy’s one day and sprayed some on my wrist and I liked it very much. I could feel myself falling again.
It was such a pretty, soft scent….not too flowery..almost a little powdery. It smelled of elegance. And the name was French. French is my thing. I love all things French, even if I don’t speak it so well. I knew it was a sign that La Vie Est Belle was meant to be my new scent.
But sadly that one fateful meeting wasn’t to turn into anything special that day. I looked at the price and it was too expensive for me. Not surprisingly, elegance is not cheap. So, feeling discouraged, I sprayed myself about 10 times and then walked away as it left me wanting more.
The scent lingered on my clothes the entire day and I kept thinking to myself how much I LOVED this scent. I kept catching the scent and I found that the longer I had it on, the better it blended with my own body chemistry and that enhanced the scent nicely.
A week later when I put the sweater back on that I had been wearing that day at Macy’s, I smelled the La Vie Est Belle as I pulled it over my head and it was still just as lovely. I told my husband that I really wanted some for my birthday.
“Just go buy it now if you love it that much”, he said.
But I couldn’t. I had just bought some new clothes for myself and I would have felt too guilty spending more money on myself for something that was a “want” rather than a “need”. No, I would wait until my birthday which was a few months later. It would be hard, but I would do it. In the meantime, every time I went to Bergner’s or Macy’s I made sure to run by the perfume counter and cover myself in La Vie Est Belle.
On the day of my birthday, after receiving my gifts that morning, I made such a production of taking a shower and putting on nice clothes and spraying myself with the perfume. I told my husband…. “I don’t care where we go….just take me out in public where people can smell me.”
We went to Mrs. Fields first because I always get their cookie cups anytime there is somebody’s birthday in my house, and the man behind the counter said “What is that perfume you are wearing?”.
I told him proudly “It is La Vie Est Belle.” He said “I don’t know how to spell that….can you write it down?” My 9 year old daughter was with me, just beaming up at me because she knew I was loving every second of this.
We then went to Express to look around and a woman stopped me as I was looking through a rack of clothes and said “May I ask what perfume you are wearing?” My daughter beamed up at me again as I smiled at the woman and said “La Vie Est Belle.”
“That is so nice.”, she said.
Having anxiety issues, I normally want to run and hide if anybody even glances my way. But not now. I wanted to stay and chat with her and say ” I KNOW! Isn’t it great?!” But I played it cool and just smiled and thanked her.
As we walked away from the woman, my daughter looked up at me and said loud enough for everybody to hear “Wow Mom, you are like a famous person with all these people complimenting you!” I hurried her over into the fitting room area and looked down at her and excitedly whispered “I KNOW!”
When its true love…...you just know.
La Vie Est Belle can be purchased at major department stores, on Amazon, as well as at Lancome.com.
Even if you aren’t interested in purchasing La Vie Est Belle, I noticed today while browsing the site that they have a fun rewards program with lots of ways to earn points! 6500 points will earn you a free bottle of La Vie Est Belle so its definitely worth checking out.
This review is my own opinion. TheWorryGames.com is an affiliate of Amazon.com. I was not paid to write the review, and I am not a paid ambassador/affiliate or employee of Lancome.
Thanks for stopping by!
Return to Favorite Things Page
Pix Property of Lancome