We’re quite short on gifting ranges that look prestige but don’t cost an absolute fortune here in the UK. Not everyone has Jo Malone budget! I posted on Le Couvent des Minimes when I first heard it was coming to the UK – it’s a sister brand to L’Occitane, so we can expect good things.
The brand is named for the Minim Brothers, 17th Century monks who inhabited a convent in the South of France and built vast terraced gardens to provide food and remedies to the surrounding community (I have a little joke with a beauty friend due to a mis-hearing that it’s made by monkeys – if only!). During the French revolution, the monks had to leave and it wasn’t until 1909 that a community of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary made the convent their home. Cultivating the land, establishing beehives and farming, they also helped the poor by providing eduction and activies.
Nowadays, Le Couvent des Minimes is a luxury spa (the nuns got too old to be able to continue and there weren’t enough replacements) but the products all reference the surrounding land and natural botanic growth.
The packaging is really stylish – you can see above the Exfoliating Shower Pulp (£7) which is like being caught under a shower of fresh orange juice – the scent is beautiful! Awakening Shower Dew (£6.50, in top picture at the back) is harder to describe – it’s orange, lemon, cedar and basil with not too much of the old basil, thankfully (never did get why the smell of pesto was so alluring) which kind of adds up to something fresh and intriguing. It’s definitely a unisex scent.
Just like L’Occitane, Le Couvent de Minimes is known for its hand-creams – a big smack of hydration that leaves hands silky, not sticky. Hand creams are £9 (75ml). I’d love to make up a basket of these products for a friend – they have everything, from lip balms to soap to body butters – I just can’t find anything not to like about this range of gorgeously presented, well priced products.
Le Couvent de Minimes will be stocked in Boots and you can find it from £3.50 HERE.
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All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.
7 comments
I totally thought this was L’Occitane when I saw the thumbnail – brand awareness on point with this one!
Do you know when this launches online and in store? Thanks!x
it’s already launched – see the link x
Thanks. They all seem to say stock coming soon so I thought maybe they hadn’t yet launched. Will keep checking back 🙂
oh really? They should be live already.. they have their own site http://uk.lecouventdesminimes.com/ where you can buy now x
There has been much discussion recently among the perfumistas about the Eau des Missions eau de cologne and range from Le Couvent des Minimes. According to a number of the perfumisti it is very similar to a super-expensive and hard to find fragrance from Guerlain called Spiriteuse Double Vanille. I haven’t managed to get my paws on the Le Couvent fragrance, but I’m looking out for it because I’m a great fan of the smoky, boozy complex cosiness of the Guerlain fragrance.
I’m intrigued by Le Couvent des Minimes. That shower dew (great name!) sounds glorious.