Had a chance to get a good sample of Covet today, and I really enjoy it. It's a very nicely crafted fragrance, and it's full of personality, something I really look for in a fragrance.

The opening notes are bright and spunky, with geranium leaves, green notes, lavender, Sicilian lemon, and I found the top notes fade fairly quickly and the heart notes really start to take control, and that's where it gets interesting. The heart notes have a gorgeous sweet-but-not-too-sweet chocolate note that I absolutely love, plus a blend of honeysuckle, lily of the valley, and magnolia, making the heart sweeter and gentler than the more strident top notes, but, I'm happy to report, it's not very sweet. Regular regular readers will know that I can't tolerate fragrances that are too sweet, mostly because my particular chemistry makes them go even sweeter and it can be really overwhelming. I'm happy to say that there are a few sweet fragrances I can wear, though, and this is one of them. Yay for chocolate!

The heart notes lasted a fairly long time on my skin before they started to very gently give way to the softly sensual base of vetiver, musk, teakwood, amber, and bois de cashmere. I'd like to comment on that last note. I have no idea what that might be. I did look it up, but I can't find any perfumer references to it. I suspect it might be a "made up" fragrance, in the same way that one Donna Karan fragrance has a note of "white t-shirt" and one of the Britney Spears line has a note of "cupcake". I suspect that "bois de cashmere" is meant to be a cross between an exotic wood and a wool type of scent. Whatever it is, I really like it, and the base of this perfume is a real delight to my rather picky olfactory sense.

I'm not the biggest fan of "celebrity" fragrances, I must admit. I'm generally willing to give them a sniff, but far too many of them are really lacking as perfumes, in my opinion, having no real character or style. Covet, however, is a fragrance worth getting to know. It's got personality. And chocolate. Gotta love that.