Review: Yves Rocher L'Eau Comme une Evidence

The product featured in this review was purchased with personal funds.

NOTE: There are two version of Yves Rocher Comme un Evidence. There is the original Comme une Evidence, and there is also a lighter, updated version called L'Eau Comme une Evidence. This review is for the lighter, updated version, which I actually wasn't even aware I had purchased (I just went for the travel size since I had never tried this fragrance before) until I sat down to write this review!

When I was a little girl, my mom wore a perfume called Sweet Honesty by Avon. I know that this perfume is still available through Avon, but I've heard that it's not quite the same as the original version which launched in 1973. Anyway, I haven't sniffed Sweet Honesty in decades, but when I ordered L'Eau Comme une Evidence from Yves Rocher back in December, I had no idea that it would evoke such wonderful childhood memories and take me right back to my mom wearing Sweet Honesty when I was little girl.

I have been searching for a fragrance that's in the same vein as Sweet Honesty, but somehow updated and more modern. And this, my friends, is it:

 Yves Rocher L'Eau Comme une Evidence Purse Spray

(retail: $12.50 on the Yves Rocher website, 0.5 oz)

This fragrance, along with everything on the Yves Rocher website, often goes on sale. It's not on sale now, but I would wait for the next sale to swing around if you want to try it (the 2.5 oz bottle IS on sale right now for 45% off--$30 instead of $55, but I think that's a lot to spend on something you may have never tried before, so that's why I'm suggesting to wait until the purse size bottle goes on sale again). As you can see, I didn't photograph my bottle before I started wearing it, and I'm about halfway through this bottle now (purchased in December).

When I wear this fragrance, sometimes women stop me on the street to ask me what I'm wearing. I've had a waitress in a restaurant beg me to pull up the Yves Rocher website on her smartphone so that she would know exactly how to buy a bottle. It's definitely one of those fragrances that people gravitate toward because it's soft, feminine, and for lack of a better word, addicting. 

Keep reading for my full review...

The notes are simple and beautiful: essential oils of patchouli, bergamot and petitgrain, rose and jasmine absolutes.

If you're not a patchouli person, please don't let that scare you off--these notes all combine into a very soft, sheer, delicate fragrance, so you won't be blasted with patchouli when you wear this (although I do think the patchouli contributes to the stellar staying power of this fragrance).

  Made in France

I'm not quite sure how to explain this, but if you took Sweet Honesty from Avon and gave it a 2013 update, I think it would smell a lot like this. It's fresher and a bit more complex and sophisticated than the Sweet Honesty of my memories, but it still has that comforting feminine sweetness of Sweet Honesty that I remember loving when I would smell it on my mom back in the day.

To my nose, it's hard to pick out particular notes in this fragrance, because they all meld together so beautifully to create a distinctive (and addictive) scent. I do get some rose here, but I wouldn't call this a straight-up rose fragrance, because there's so much more going on. I have to admit, when I first tried this fragrance straight out of the box, I wasn't terribly "wowed" by it. But trust me when I say that the longer you wear it, the more addicted you might become. There's something about this fragrance that just evokes sweetness and femininity, but not in a heavy, cloying or syrupy way. It's soft like a comfy sweater, but it's also bright and uplifting. 

As I mentioned earlier, this one has terrific staying power--I can spritz a bit on my wrists and neck in the morning and still detect it in the late afternoon (thanks, patchouli!). 

FINAL VERDICT: This one can creep up on ya, Nouvettes. You may think, straight out of the bottle, that it's nothing special and it may even smell a bit familiar or boring to you, but you just wait! After an hour on the skin, you may be humming a very different tune. This is such a soft, feminine, comforting fragrance. Part floral, part citrus, part earthy, the notes combine into something I just can't quite put into words, except to say that it embodies femininity in the best possible way. It's not a brash or loud fragrance and I don't see it offending anyone, but it's also not so light that it will go unnoticed. If anything I've said here today intrigues you, I suggest waiting for the next sale on the Yves Rocher website and giving this one a shot yourself. You just might fall hard for this one (I know I did). 

Do you own any Yves Rocher fragrances? What are some of your favorites? If you missed my other recent Yves Rocher fragrance review, you can click right here to give it a peek.