Diptyque 34 Boulevard St. Germain – Perfume Review

By Steve Johnson Steve Johnson is a writer, actor, DJ and stage producer based in northern New England. His love for perfume began the first time he sampled Guerlain's L'Instant Pour Homme.  Diptyque’s latest, 34 Boulevard St. Germain, isn’t so much of a new fragrance as it is a fragrant blast of romantic, sleepy travel. It is the scent of waking up in a luxe hotel, in fresh sheets, with the promise of the soft drape of a robe from the spa waiting for you. It is light, very citrusy, with a airy spine of powdery brightness which rests on a subtle, grounding hint of spice in the base notes. The kind of spice that would accompany the crepes that room service just wheeled in while you were in bed, rubbing your eyes. The notes are blended in such a way that they weave in an out of each other, with no particular aspect taking too much of a leading role before another takes it’s place. Or, put another way, you can’t identity the citrus without appreciating the powdery aspect which can’t be understood unless you get the spiciness as contrast. Yet the entire scent comes off as very light, approachable, and somehow adult and proper at the same time. This is a fragrance that exudes an upbringing and manners, but not so much so that you’d have to sit up straighter to wear it.  Image source, style.com.

Eau Duelle by Diptyque

By Marina Eau Duelle, named so because of the alleged presence of dueling accords, one of vanilla, the other of frankincense, is Dityque's take on what I like to call a "complicated vanilla" genre. As in- vanilla paired with contrasting/unexpected notes to achieve the yin-yang, unisex-ish, oddly attractive, "not for little girls" effect. Examples? L'Artisan's raw, smoky, immortelle laden Havana Vanille, Montale's resinous, patchouly-heavy Boise Vanille, Patricia de Nicolai's Vanille Tonka (name speaks for itself) and even her newer Vanille Intense, also juxtaposing vanilla with the vegetal, sweet fleshiness of immortelle are just a few that come to mind off the top of my head. All of them had done the "complicated vanilla" better than Eau Duelle. The thing is, when you go for an effect, you have to do it to the full or not at all. ...Put enough frankincense in the composition, so it can successfully challenge such a strong duellist as vanilla... As it is, vanilla kills all opposition right from the get go and emerges victorious, strangely perfumey and cake-like. Cardamom and saffron try to throw a gauntlet, and I can smell their pleasant piquancy for a while, but they disappear all too soon. Black tea? Forget it. Overall, there is just no there there, in Eau Duelle. It is probably too muddled for somebody with a hankering for just a nice, rich, proper vanilla. And not muddled enough for a contrast-seeker like me... It would definitely make a nice, if subtle candle... Available wherever Diptyque is sold, $88.00-$120.00. Image, Duel After The Masked Ball by Jean-Léon Gérôme, is from jeanleongerome.org.

Perfume Review: Diptyque L'Eau de L'Eau

I will start by noting for the record that I came up with the name "L'Eau de L'Eau" in November 2006, when Diptyque's trio may or may not have already been a twinkle in their creators' eyes. I imagined the scent with this name would smell sort of like L'Eau d'Hiver only more aquatic...essentially I thought that "L'Eau de L'Eau" would smell of nothing. Trying Diptyque's creation with that preconceived concept in mind, I was therefore surprised by the substantionality, depth and darkness of their L'Eau de L'Eau. The fragrance is supposed to be a fresher L’Eau, Diptyque's first fragrance, which, to my shame, I don't remember at all and which I now know I should re-visit. The first accord of L'Eau de L'Eau is as I imagined it would be, very fresh and pale, a completely unsweetened, dry citrus blend. However, very soon something interesting begins to come through that minimalistically fresh mist - some spice, some patchouli and even, I swear, some incense. The fragrance "darkens" considerably as it wears and becomes much more robust than the name would lead one to believe. The spicy mix of geranium, cloves and ginger is broodingly delicious. And the balsamic-incensey base makes L'Eau de L'Eau the kind of darkly-melancholic scent I like to wear for comfort on my "wallowing" days. It is an atmospheric fragrance, unexpectedly deep and complex, the most interesting of the three oversized eaux (or rather it is the closests to my personal taste) and definitely worth a try. Available at Barneys, $150.00 for 200ml.

Perfume Review: Diptyque Eau Lente

Diptyque is one of the houses that, for some unforgivable reason, I tend to overlook in my never-ending search for the exotic and the unusual. And I really shouldn't, because the company has created some of the most interesting fragrances, comparable in their uniqueness to some of the weirdest Lutenses or SIPs, and some even surpassing these universally acknowledged masters of the odd. Take Eau Lente, for example. Said to be inspired by the times of Alexander the Great, it is a spicy perfume extraordinaire. The spices, of which cinnamon is one and cumin, I would swear, is another, rest on a pillow-soft, powdery-sweet opoponax base, and the contrast of sharp and fluffy is as disconcerting as it is appealing. It is also a contrast of alluringly exotic and comfortingly familiar, of sensual, even animalic, and cozy. One could wear Eau Lente on a cold day to warm up and in the heat of summer to let the piquancy of the notes refresh the senses. If you love spicy-herbal, slightly dirty, quirky fragrance, don't make my mistake of overlooking Eau Lente. Eau Lente is available at Beauty Habit, $70.00 for 50ml. The painting, Dusk, is by Michael Parkes.

Perfume Review: Diptyque L’Ombre dans L’Eau and Virgilio

Dacha (Russian: дача) is a name for summer home or vacation house in Russia and CIS countries where people spend their summer holidays and grow fruits and vegetables for their own use. Dachas began to appear after WWII owing to the desire of city people, all living in blocks of flats, to spend some time close to nature, and to grow their own produce. Dachas are usually situated on the city outskirts, or near villages located close to a city. The common term for a dacha owner is 'dachnik' (Russian: дачник). From Wikipedia and my own memories. Continuing with the scents that remind me of my childhood, L’Ombre dans L’Eau and Virgilio bring back the memories of my great grandparents and their dacha. Diptyque’s Virgilio, with notes of cedar, basil, thyme, and vetiver, was created by Diptyque to evoke the clear morning of a classical Latin landscape. The landscape it brings to my mind is Russian, not Latin, but it is fresh, green and idyllic nevertheless. Smelling Virgilio is akin to standing in the farthest and the darkest corner of my great-grandparents garden, by the wormwood overgrowth. Virgilio to me is that dark green, earthy and bitter scent of wormwood. This isn’t an easy fragrance for me to wear, as I am not really a fan of herbal and green scents, but I am holding on to my bottle if only for the incredible, heartbreaking evocativeness of this scent. Another “scent of Dacha” is L’Ombre dans L’Eau, described by Diptyque as the scent of a green riverside garden. L’Ombre dans L’Eau (definitely one of the most beautiful perfume names out there) starts as an amazingly real scent of blackcurrant leaves, slowly a rose note develops, and it is a “young” rose, practically a bud, it smells almost “green” to my nose. Both notes are incredibly true to life, smelling just like the real berries, leaves and buds warmed by the sun. L’Ombre dans L’Eau brings back the memories of hot summers, of picking blackcurrants from the bush, of dear people long gone, of the place that doesn't exist anymore, and of absolute happiness. I will leave you with the wonderful poem by my beloved Pablo Neruda, called Lost in the Forest. Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips: maybe it was the voice of the rain crying, a cracked bell, or a torn heart. Something from far off it seemed deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth, a shout muffled by huge autumns, by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves. Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance climbed up through my conscious mind as if suddenly the roots I had left behind cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood--- and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent. Pablo Neruda *The picture of blackcurrants is from the wonderful site http://www.dnagardens.com/ , the picture of wormwood is from http://bob.bob.bofh.org/ .

Farewell Tuberose: Do Son by Diptyque

Do Son, Diptyque’s new eau de toilette, was inspired by one of its founder’s childhood memories of Vietnam, back in the 1930s. Yves Coueslant grew up in Haiphong, where his father had a small pagoda built by the seaside, in Do Son. The sea breeze on the terrace used to blend with his mother’s fragrance (she loved tuberose) and the scents of flowers in the heat. Diptyque is one of my favorite fragrance lines; along with Serge Lutens’s, Diptyque’s are the most evocative scents, the quality that I admire and cherish in perfumes the most. I also must add that I have never been a fan of tuberose note in perfumes. I did admire some tuberose-based scents (the sadly discontinued Mea Culpa by Les Parfums de Rosine comes to mind here, with it warm, languorous, sunny tuberose), however I am mostly unable to wear them. Given my love for all the things Diptyque, I hoped that theirs would finally be a tuberose for me, especially after seeing it being described as a delicate and misty tuberose. Unfortunately, even Diptyque failed to make a tuberose scent wearable for this white -floral-phobic. Do Son is a heady, sweet, warm tuberose one me, a sensuous fragrance of flowers lingering in the hot, humid air of an exotic land. Moreover, there is an aquatic note in Do Son, successfully evoking the Do Son beach of Yves Coueslant’s childhood, and while I admire the way this note transports me to the seaside in Vietnam, I am incapable of wearing a perfume with marine undertones. That being said, Do Son is a beautiful scent, full of wonderful summery and exotic images. It is everything that Diptyque’s official description promises it to be: “The evening breeze still carries all its mysteries along, soft lulling exhalation, when the scents of heavy flowers and the seaside wind gently mingle at the end of the day.” Please don’t let my personal skin chemistry issues prevent you from seeking out this gorgeous fragrance. As for me, I will sadly say farewell to my hope of ever finding a tuberose scent after my own heart and will leave you with this beautiful poem called Images, by a Vietnamese poet Van Cao-Pham Duy: Here our steps falter Her eyes are like boats mirrored in the water ...... Here clouds and mountains extend forever Poplars dry their golden hair in the sun... ...... Mist has covered the blue mountains A brown sail rides the springtime waves A wanderer listens to the birds' trills A swallow glides in the clouds Memories of love past... * The photo of Do Son beach is from accessvietnam.net. The photo of Do Son the fragrance is from Diptyque site