My sister is an Avon lady and when she comes to visit she often brings me a few goodies that she has had through as samples or items that people have returned that my sister cannot be bothered to send back. One such item she brought me was a bottle of Rare Pearls Eau de Parfum which is a reasonably priced perfume at just £12 and one of Avon's best sellers according to my sister.

Rare Pearls comes in an absolutely beautiful bottle; it's much prettier than the photograph above simply because in reality when light hits it the bottom section of the bottle is so pretty and shimmery in a way you cannot capture in pictures. I much prefer perfume bottles to the actual perfume inside and this one looks absolutely wonderful sitting on my dressing table.

The scent of Rare Pearls is very floral in my opinion, it's a definite bouquet though as I cannot pick out individual flower scents although the fragrance is very well blended indeed with no 'rough edges' or rogue fragrances popping out willy nilly. There is a touch of fruitiness to the perfume too although this takes a little while to come through and seems most apparent once you've allowed the perfume to settle down a little on your skin.

When I first spray Rare Pearls it is a very strong scent, I can almost imagine a floral smelling gassy cloud floating around me it's so strong and sometimes it makes me cough quite badly so this is one perfume I daren't use if my asthma is playing up for whatever reason. To be fair it doesn't take long for the 'cloud' to dissipate and then I am left both better able to breathe and then I can also smell the fragrance of the perfume much more clearly.

Once the fragrance settled I found it became a little fruitier and a vague musky scent fought it's way through the floral aroma which rounds out the perfume nicely in my opinion. This muskiness lingered much longer than I thought it would considering how subtle it is and seemed to get sweeter as time went on, ending up with an almost vanilla scent for a time which blended beautifully with the aroma of Magnolia which is a very sweet floral tone and too seems to linger better than any other smell in the perfume.

I find the scent of Rare Pearls lasts far longer than other Avon perfumes I have used, which generally seem to have a staying power of ten minutes. When I wore it yesterday I sprayed it on at around 10.30am and when my niece came to visit at 3pm she could still smell it and commented about what a pretty scent it was. She was astounded when I told her it was an Avon perfume and asked if she could have a spray as she is a real perfume addict and doesn't think anything of spending £40 - £50 on a bottle of something which doesn't smell half as nice as this one!

I think Rare Pearls would suit women of most ages really. The sweetness of the fragrance would appeal to younger wearers, and the overriding floral aroma is blended to smell very feminine and attractive to women of any age - whereas a lot of floral scents smell like older person's perfume I'd say this one is good for younger women too. I am very impressed with the longevity of the fragrance which was still vaguely apparent when I went to bed that evening, despite the fact that I hadn't reapplied it at any point during the day.

My bottle of Rare Pearls is 50ml so I think the price tag of £12 is very reasonable, especially considering this is an Eau de Parfum and contains more perfume oils than the Eau de Toilette fragrances that Avon usually sell. It's down to the increased levels of perfume oils that makes the perfume so long lasting on my skin so this very reasonable price is looking better and better!