Bonne Bell Bottled Emotion Playful's Perfect Match - Kahala Hawaiian Surf

The classic Bonne Bell scent Playful has achieved a sort of cult status among its fans. This clean and deliciously-fresh scent was originally marketed for teenagers and was sold either alone or in a pack with other fragrances such as Flirty, Hip, Daring, Crazy, Frantic and Romantic, but somehow more seasoned perfume connoisseurs took notice. When Bonne Bell stopped selling these fragrances almost a decade ago, once quiet fans went ballistic.

For a while, these perfumes were nowhere to be found, but now, as each year passes, more and more bottles turn up on eBay and other online stores. At the time of publishing, Playful lovers can buy their favorite perfume by the caseload at http://www.storepulls.com/products/for $31.68 for forty-eight bottles. Other stores such as www.rockbottomdeals.biz sells Playful for $18.80 for the same forty-eight bottles, or forty cents a bottle - a killer deal! If you go to Google Product Search you will see tons of these bottles for sale at low prices, and not all are sold in bulk.

Despite the abundance of Playful in clearance bins at the moment, this fragrance as well as the others packaged under the Bottled Emotion name have been off store shelves for almost ten years and therefore quickly sell out after a sighting. Last year I purchased two bottles on eBay and was pleased to learn that the scent hadn't gone bad, so to speak. Perfumes do have shelf-lives after all, but thankfully this one lasts a long time.

One common complaint among Playful fans was that no one had found a perfume with a similar scent. None of us knew which notes inspired the scent, so we didn't know where to begin looking. Numerous online forums were devoted to Playful and we all bragged about our large collection of costly designer perfumes and laughed at how we were all obsessing over this one scent marketed towards children for around $4.00 a bottle in the mid 90's.

Finally, after all these years, I am thrilled to announce (by a pure stroke of luck) that I've discovered Playful's perfect match!

It's called Kahala Hawaiian Surf and is manufactured by a company called Demeter Fragrance Library. I blindly bought it online from Victoria's Secret thinking it would smell like jasmine or coconut. Its only description was, "...inspired by the exotic scents of the islands". I took a chance. When I first smelled it, I thought I might not like it because the initial alcohol scent was rather strong and damn if the scent of a beach didn't smack you right in the face. I sprayed it on and forgot about it for five minutes. The second time I smelled it on my arm I realized I had struck gold.

Now when I wear it, I smell Playful right away. I don't notice that initial alcohol scent, which could have had something to do with the freezing temperatures outside since the box was on my front doorstep all day. The icy temperature could have temporarily altered the scent, but it's fine now.

Kahala Hawaiian Surf can be purchased at Sephora and Victoria's Secret for $20. Smaller online boutiques carry this perfume at slightly higher prices. Happy shopping!