Tempo Diptyque 2018

Bottle Design:
Illustration: Safia Ouares

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7.9 / 10 464 Ratings

A popular perfume by Diptyque for women and men, released in 2018. The scent is earthy-spicy. It is being marketed by Manzanita Capital.

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Main accords

Earthy

Spicy

Woody

Green

Resinous

Fragrance Notes

Indonesian patchouli

Clary sage

Pink pepper

Bergamot

Maté absolute

Violet leaf

Perfumer

Olivier Pescheux

Ratings

Scent

7.9464 Ratings

Longevity

7.6387 Ratings

Sillage

7.1386 Ratings

Bottle

8.3374 Ratings

Value for money

7.2205 Ratings

Submitted by OPomone, last update on 07/23/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

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Benjoin 19

James

Real Patchouly

Reviews

17 in-depth fragrance descriptions

02/23/2018

7
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 6
Scent

StellaDiverF
213 Reviews

StellaDiverF

Helpful Review 6

Baby Patchouli

Tempo is foremost a patchouli fragrance on my skin, albeit an exceptionally gentle one at that. Upon spraying, the spicy, medicinal and woody aspects of patchouli are there, but they feel so soft and tender that I start to imagine a baby patchouli if there ever was one. The creamy and gently powdered cacao nuance also makes an appearance, which further stretches the innocent feeling of this patchouli.

Although I love patchouli in general, I very often gravitate towards those more earthy, darker, bitter chocolate type of interpretations of this fantastically complex note. And when the patchouli is stripped clean and appears bright in mood, I tend to find them too sweet for my taste. Thanks to the overall gentleness of Tempo, I didn't find its sweetness unbearable to me, but not far though.

Thankfully, the sage and maté soon come to rescue, subduing the fruity sweetness of pink pepper with their herbal and slightly bitter aroma. Tempo then remains this occasionally medicinal and woody-cacao, but mostly herbal patchouli skin scent until the end. Although the fragrance is not dense, it projects moderately. The longevity is around 8 hours on me.

I personally don't care much about Tempo because of my own preferences regarding patchouli in perfumery. However, being one of the most mild patchouli fragrances that I smelt, Tempo might be a quite friendly start point to further explore patchouli, or an unobtrusive patchouli for daily routine thanks to it retaining the quiet elegance of modern Diptyque fragrances.

02/13/2024

Mlleghoul
445 Reviews

Mlleghoul

3

whatever walked there, walked alone

Tempo conjures an atmosphere of dolorous elegance, patchouli’s murky woods and dusky loam, with a wraithlike metallic chill and an herbal shiver of something green and strange simmering underneath. It carries a disquieting heaviness, the shape of a feeling impossible to give voice to; like having to climb into bed with someone and tell them they’re dead. It also reminds me of this passage from Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within… and whatever walked there, walked alone." This is a patchouli that has walked the long shadows of Hill House, has become lost in the thick, unspoken secrets of its notorious halls, and suffered its mad face in the growing darkness. This is a twisted, haunted patchouli that has seen some shit, but all the edges of that unnerving terror have been blurred by the creeping of moss, the settling of dust, and the softness of time and memory, of unreality and dream.

11/26/2020

Pepdal
238 Reviews

Pepdal

Helpful Review 2

Introverted Patch

I have come to recognise the house of Diptyque has its own style and level of quality, and their patchouli pillar fits in just perfectly. Thank you for watching as always and I hope you enjoy the review.

12/08/2023

8
Pricing 9
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Mistersiri
7 Reviews

Mistersiri

4

Tempo al tempo

“Tempo” is the Italian word for time. I didn’t know why Diptyque chose to give this name to one of its creations, but after three weeks with it I might see why.
I wanted to buy a Diptyque fragrance for months because I am a sucker for their style and their candles: even though I tried many because their offer is massive, I ended up with Tempo. I wanted something versatile (so not Oud Palao) and a little bit different from what the creamy woodyness I am already used to (Santal Austral by Matiere Premiere has basically been my signature this year and I also have Egoïste by Chanel, so Tam Dao and 34 Bvd. St Germain were off) without breaking the bank (so no Eau Rihla, even though it might be the most beautiful fragrance I’ve smelled from them. Maybe in the future…).
Considering that I love drinking mate I was eyeing Tempo since I became interested in niche perfumery, and when it was time to choose I basically went for the fragrance that thicked as many boxes as possible even though it wasn’t what captured me the most at the time (Eau Rihla) or the one I felt better suited for my personality (34 Bvd St. Germain EDP). However, I was pretty confident that a green-earthy fragrance would have enriched my collection and was happy overall with the purchase.
When I smelled the fragrance more closely, I felt two things. The first was how well blended were all the elements from the citrusy, spicy opening to the earthy but gentle drydown; the second, was that the mate was not the focal point but rather a great enforcer to the patchouli. I wasn’t a big on this ingredient since recently, but I think that Tempo really made me a fan in this iteration: I feel like it’s damp but warm at the same time, and I think that the violet leaves help smoothen it in the drydown.
However, something really unexpected happened like the third day I wore it: something seemed unpleasant once I sprayed it in the morning before going to work, and once I got home I tried to spray it again on my wrist and on a mouillette. I smelled nothing but Martini Extra Dry, and it was a nightmare for me because I have a negative memory associated to it (when I was younger I bought a bottle of it during a summer when I was alone at my parents’ home, but soon I threw it away because its smell became repulsive to me). I think that it might have done with the aromatic profile of the fragrance, but at the time I was upset because it was the most expensive fragrance I’ve ever bought: I even thought about selling it to recover some money and keep buying ambery woody or spicy woody fragrances for the rest of my life.
Luckily, I chose to wait a couple of days, wear my beloved woody fragrances and then try Tempo again on the next week. It worked perfectly, since I don’t smell Martini Extra Dry anymore and I seem to like it every day more.
Tempo, as its name suggests, might have taken some time to truly convince me. But now that it made it, I think that it’s going to be smelled many times on me in the next few years.

03/13/2024

10
Pricing 10
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 9
Scent

Bossowa
20 Reviews

Bossowa

3

Patchouli gem

I will NEVER get rid of this fragrance. I'm crazy of mate and patchouli combination. They work together perfectly. Lime and herbs add a little bit of freshness to this earthy composition. Tempo has a great sillage, I feel it on myself with every move and people feel it too! Every perfume lover should try this.

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