La Vie Est Belle EDP Spray

Without doubt the 5-ounce bottle of La Vie Est Belle EDP I received is genuine. The bottle is beautiful, very heavy and of obvious quality. The only drawback: the large size, angular shape and sheer weight make it hard to hold at the correct angle to spray; those with arthritic hands (or weak biceps) might consider a smaller size. This is no defect of the product - just something I didn’t anticipate. The different-sized bottles are refillable, which is great.The scent is strong, multi-faceted and lingering - no need to re-apply later in the day. I’m not sure how much I love the actual fragrance, which opens with an intense floral-musky jolt. But after a couple of hours it mellows into a warmer, more vanilla-tinged but still assertively floral scent that I’m increasingly enjoying. It seems to improve with each wearing. I live far from shops where I can try on perfume before purchase so this was a blind buy.It’s a fact that even high-quality perfume sometimes continues to develop weeks or months after it’s been opened and can become more rounded and full. This process is called maceration and might possibly be happening here - again, not a fault of the perfume. It could just reflect the high sales volume due to its popularity, so bottles don’t get a chance to age at all before being sold.I’m not knocking the quality at all. It’s obviously real, complex and full. This is personal preference - I just tend to prefer green, less-sweet chypre perfumes. But I continue to wear it and it’s growing on me.