The Best of French Beauty: shower gel recipes from Provence


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One of my favorite, affordable brands of bath and body care in France is Le Couvent des Minimes. Infused with ingredients from Provence, their products are inspired by traditionnal recipes and come in in pretty retro packaging with vintage labels. 


You won't be surprised to learn that the brand actually belongs to L'Occitane group: they basically have the same concept, L'Occitane being the high end, pricier option with a wider range of products. Le Couvent des Minimes body products come in a few typical scents that L'Occitane addicts will recognize: verbena, lavender, honey and orange blossom. Update: as of mid-2015, these ranges are being phased out and replaced by new scents. You can still find some of the original products described here at drugstore.com or at your local Ulta store (I recently bought 3 large shower gels on sale there).



On the right, Lavender & Acacia Soothing Shower Gel full size
On the left, Honey & Shea travel size bottle


I'm particularly fond of their shower gels. They're such a pleasure to use! The fragrances are strong enough to turn your shower into a scent-therapy session, but never overwhelming or excessively sweet. The gel is gentle to my skin and leaves it feeling clean and healthy, without ever drying it out. 

My favourite out of the 4 is the Lavender & Acacia Soothing Shower Gel: I find it's fresh and clean lavender scent very calming, and I love to use it in the evening or whenever I need to relax. It contains little white spheres that melt on your skin.




The Verbena & Lemon Energizing Shower Gel, with its tart citrusy fragrance is great in the morning, when I need help to wake up and start the day on a positive note. I don't really know why, but I find this scent really optimistic. 


The Honey & Shea Comforting Shower Gel does exactly what it says: it's like comfort food, but it the shower. It covers your body with the sweet scent of natural honey, and I've been tempted many times to taste it... I often go for it on cold days or when I need a little extra pampering. 


The last fragrance in this range of shower gels is the Orange Blossom Skin Softening one. I didn't find it really more softening than the others, but I love its intoxicating flowery scent. The smell of orange blossom reminds me of summery days and places I visited, especially Antalya in the south of Turkey. 


If you're into suffocating synthetic scents and super-thick lather, these gels might not be for you. If you appreciate true natural fragrances and products which actually contain plant extracts, however, I think you might enjoy these shower gels as much as I do! You can find Le Couvent des Minimes on drugstore.com, where the shower gels retail for $15 each (it's pretty fair since they cost €12.5 in France). 


The products featured in this review were purchased by Lulle. This post contains affiliate links. I received no compensation whatsoever for writing this post, which only reflects my personal opinion.



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