I have FINALLY organized the hundreds of uncategorized reviews on this site. They have now all been properly archived and can be found at the “Perfume Review Archives” link. Please read them, because oh my god y’all that literally took me hours. There is also a new page for the “Help Ari Buy Her Kitty a Roomba!” fund. That page will contain any future perfumes for sale, as well as pictures of Zelda sailing around on her Roomba.
SCENTS OF SELF 
I had a good old click around – your Herculean hyperlinking task was not in vain! Enjoyed your Baiser Vole review, especially the bit about it being so realistic (at least initially) that you could almost feel the orange fur of the stamens!
And I so agree on Allure, which is the other one I lit upon. Gave a friend a sample of Bottega Veneta the other day, which she said she would wear by way of Dutch courage to a big meeting. Turns out she wore Allure instead. And she found *BV* sweet! Oh well, you can’t win ’em all.
It was all worth it!!! Sounds like your friend was not ready for change. But for my money, BV is MUCH nicer than Allure. Honestly, if I were Chanel I would axe it. (And then I would reintroduce No. 22 at the non-Exclusif level! And then I would call Sheldrake just to say hi. And then…)
You know, I just tried BV again and I have to say I sympathize with your friend. It is sweet! That being said, it is still a much nicer fragrance than Allure!
I have tried it again since and I do agree that the opening of BV is on the sweet side – it’s the apricot jam business. But it becomes less sweet and more leathery as it develops at least, whereas Allure is relentlessly so!