Carven L'Eau Intense
Carven (2016)

I'm happy I added this to my collection. It's a very pleasant minty-fresh scent that's perfect for warmer spring and summer months. Performance is very good and prices are reasonable. While in the neighborhood of Cartier's Roadster, Intense is less (not) sweet. Nice bottle, too.

TLDR: Good (3.1/5). Lots of lavender and mint with suprisingly good longevity. Shines in the heat.

Carven L'Eau Intense was great on a tester strip, but during full day use, this scent feels to me like something created for Carven from a scent idea MFK rejected for being too cloying and, at least as presented here, artificial smelling.

Things get underway with an OK citrus opening and a somewhat toothpaste-like mint. These notes lead into a lavender heavy set of mid notes. There is a pretty uninteresting generic amber-woods base underlying it all. Normally, this fragrance would, at best, get a neutral from me.

Instead, after today's wearing, I have to give this one a tepid thumbs up. It does have very good longevity and projection for a fragrance of this type. And I did get a compliment while wearing it today, so I guess it smells better to others than it does to me. Today was unseasonably hot and this is the first time I've worn this fragrance in real heat since I bought it.
This scent comes into its own in these conditions. So hot weather performance raises the rating on this scent above the neutral rating I was going to give it based on a few previous wearings.

This scent displayed more complexity and smelled less cloying in the hot weather today. The mint smells less like something from a dental office in hot weather as well.

I do like the bottle design. I suggest that you try to sample this fragrance on a hot day and see how it works for you rather than committing to it based on how it smells in the store.

On my second sampling of this it hit me, it really reminds me of APOM. So I looked up the info to see if there were any note similarities. Yeah, its a value brand APOM. Made by Kirkdjean himself. I mean, it smells good. Its the sibling of a hugely popular niche fragrance. To me? It just smells like bland clean dryer sheets. Nice ones, and no doubt it smells good. But it lacks passion. It is all white, clean. Its strong, it lasts, inoffensive and work safe. Its got a handsome bottle, though the juice cannot be seen. Affordable from discounters. I cannot go higher than a neutral here. It feels good, but uninspired. I think how one feels about this product is probably just a matter of taste.

L'Eau Intense is a beautiful summer fragrance from Carven. I especially love it because it was created by Francis Kurkdjian. It starts with a fresh minty, citrus blast followed by soft lavender, ginger and woods.
Perfect for the spring/summer months. I get many compliments when I wear this fragrance.

This an absolutely beautiful green minty fougere fragrance created by the famous French perfumer Francis Kurkidjian. It is blended in a similar way to Kurkidjian's niche aqua fragrances, but smells extremely similar to another favourite of mine - Acqua di Parma Colonia Club (Colonia Club goes in the direction of spearmint with lemon in the drydown, preserving Acqua di Parma's traditional colonia base, while Carven L'eau Intense goes in the direction of spearmint with birch tar and lavender, and a hint of cardamom to sweeten it out). I can't believe this was only around $20 online. It opens with a bright and strong dose of spearmint with citrus fruits, and as it dries down the spearmint note persists along with a green smelling natural lavender note. It is green, fresh, minty, and herbal in nature without being too old-school. Projection is moderate while longevity is fairly great at 4 hours of solid projection and many more hours after that as a skin scent (roughly the same though very slightly less longevity than AdP Colonia Club). Overall I am very impressed by this scent.

5/5

This one is slightly soapy, minty and fresh. I get a couple of synthetic notes in this one but it's overall a nice fragrance. Inoffensive, and fresh are two works that briefly describe this fragrance. Can be worn throughout the year and still perform perfectly. 7/10