Eau du Cloitre

I just visited the nice folks at BeautyBridge.com today to pick up this beautiful fragrance in person. This is just the most beautiful, natural, light smelling rose. The other notes enhance the rose and are perfectly blended and balanced. Not an ounce of synthetic fragrance here, just pure bliss. This will make you feel so beautiful. The only flaw is that it doesn't come in a larger size!

A bouquet of freshly cut roses with an air of minty greens. It dries down to a crisp and uplifting, clean rose. Perfect company in spring and summer, both charming and fresh, while natural and almost "organic". It lasts considerably well, even though it is only a cologne it lasts about 10 hours and envelops it's wearer in a soft cloud of scent.

I got this for a steal from Ulta once years ago, and it was my favorite perfume for a long time. Not crazy sillage, but I could still smell it on my clothes after a few hours. Its like a pretty green fresh scent, like a bouquet of the more spicy-scented cut flowers, with sweet rose on top.

Eau du Cloître is my least favourite of Le Couvent's range, which I wasn't expecting since rose is one of my favourite notes, but if I'd bothered to check the note list beforehand I could have seen it coming: it's just not up my alley. I don't think this is a bad perfume by any means - in fact, like the others from this line, it's really excellent for its price, and it outperforms most of the others when it comes to longevity (although it does retreat close to the skin after half an hour or so). Unfortunately, it's just not my kind of rose, although it's an admirably natural-smelling one. I do enjoy the opening where there's a good balance between the sweet rose note and the peppery geranium accord, but very soon the latter takes over completely, at least to my nose, and from then on it just doesn't do that much for my personal taste. So I probably won't get a lot of wear out of my little bottle, unless my taste evolves dramatically. I'll still keep it around, though, mainly for aesthetic reasons - this pink one looks so nice in the colourful row of 30 mls from this range I have in my cabinet, it makes me happy just to look at them. And even though that's a bit silly, at least it doesn't feel like a waste of money at this price.

This fragrance has grown on me a bit. When I first tried it, I thought it smelled a bit cheap and soapy - I suppose I was hoping for something more like the old Tea Rose Crabtree & Evelyn fragrance that I used to love. But over the summer, I've come to appreciate its very light rose qualities. I usually wear Weleda rose deodorant, so it marries well with that, and the Dr Organic rose shampoo by Holland & Barrett. It lingers surprisingly well on cloth (my dressing gown usually smells of it) and has a sherbety, refreshing quality. So, although I probably wouldn't buy it again, I no longer feel like it was a mistake. The richness of Jo Malone Red Roses Cologne is definitely more to my taste, though.