Top Notes 
Coriander seed
Pink pepper
Heart Notes 
Frankincense
Immortelle
Myrrh
Base Notes 
Benzoin
Cistus
Patchouli
Virginia cedar08/17/2025
Intersport
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Détour XIX: L'Eau Trois Two ?!
...and again undergrowth, landscape & heat:
16 years before this 'Nouvelle Interprétation' of L'Être Aimé, Yvon Mouchel released L'Être Aimé Homme and L'Être Aimé Femme (both 2008) - in collaboration with Givaudan perfumer Yann Vasnier, who is also the author of this complete 2024 conversion. I couldn't do anything with L'Être Aimé Femme, I found the Immortelle note mainly sweet, the mandarins a bit sweeping. But it's a pity that L'Être Aimé Homme was one of the most unusual Immortelle releases of its time - a fragrance that probably seemed to rely heavily on the greener Immortelle Essential Oil and developed a very special, celery-like tendency (see my review). Commercially, L'Être Aimé Homme and Femme remained outsiders, which probably made Mouchel's decision to reorient himself easier...
I like Divine - not only because of the discontinued L'Être Aimé Homme, but also because of the no less special L'Homme Sage (2005) and also because the house is one of the few brands that has not just been throwing ounce goods onto the market for three months at 200 euros per 30 ml, but has been doing its own thing for 30 years. Almost all Divine fragrances were created by Yann Vasnier or Richard Ibáñez - I often find continuity like this interesting - and, on top of that, at a sympathetic price policy that seems almost defiantly down-to-earth compared to the current niche scene. A reinterpretation of the Divine Immortelle classics is reason enough to take a closer look.
Looking back: 50 years ago, Diptyque released L'Eau Trois (1975), probably the archetype of all macchia fragrances. The scene? "A refuge at the top of Mount Athos - arrived at after a long hike in the blazing sun." - said Diptyque in the anniversary year 2025, and even earlier references were made to northern Greek cultural landscapes and their vegetation. L'Eau Trois smelled of undergrowth and resins in dry heat - presumably long before the term 'maquis' even circulated in the perfume world. Two years ago, the fragrance, along with the other early Diptyque's designed by Serge Kalouguine, was suddenly available again - unfortunately only briefly - in many of the brand's points of sale. A surprise, as it had been living a reclusive Parisian existence for years. Profumo's review and Mörderbiene's statement portray L'Eau Trois aptly - and this is exactly what the new interpretation of L'Être Aimé in the opening reminds me of strikingly.
It is approximately 2,160 kilometers as the crow flies from the Breton seaside resort of Dinard to Mount Athos in Greece. A world cultural heritage site that has not received any female visitors since the 11th century - is Divine taking a swipe at this purely speculative reference with a unisex fragrance? Since CK One (1994), something like this has also been more contemporary in the mainstream than two-track femme homme products - on the other hand, homme/femme versions were already a curiosity within auteur perfumery in 2008. Curious.
L'Être Aimé starts off resinous and acidic - like the smell of the sticky leaves and stems of the rockrose, which likes to mark entire regions with its resinous green scent in shimmering heat. Pepper and coriander seeds are present, as are coniferous, pine-like aspects and, above all, myrrh, which is responsible for a sacred undertone here - supported by subordinate, acidic frankincense nuances (no incense in a church setting). Again and again, these aspects remind me of L'Eau Trois: overall a somewhat lighter - the age difference is noticeable - but clearer L'Eau Trois vibe.
Even though Immortelle is apparently given a central role in Divine's text on the fragrance - the note is by no means obvious, it remains absent for a long time. And it took me several attempts to perceive it at all - the crossfade from the sour cistus/myrrh constellation to conifers to a slightly dry-fruity, almost classic Immortelle Absolute note takes place slowly, which really only marks a turning point at the very end - after hours in my case. What is indicated here as the base, I perceive at most as a holistic, continuous background noise.
What is nice is that L'Être Aimé has a decidedly light structure and does not follow the rustic, artisanal, coarse trend that has been popular recently and that newer Immortelle fragrances often flirt with. And at no point do I notice any overly artificial fragrances (even if they are certainly there) - a well-executed 'quiet' style. For me, this slow development and Yann Vasnier's careful blending save L'Être Aimé in the Nouvelle Interprétation from passing as mere L'Eau Trois Counterfeit. Compared to L'Être Aimé Homme, this is not a big hit - and also far less perfume than many other Divine releases.
This tendency towards the unperfumed is perhaps where L'Être Aimé stands in its own way at this point. Not because it does this badly - rather, because for a good ten years now, many products in expensive functional perfumery have been aiming in precisely this direction: aromatic, non-citrusy impressions of a fictitious macchia, located somewhere between restaurant toilet, hand-wash rip-off and wellness. Similar to how the success of Green Irish Tweed (1985) and Cool Water (1988) turned the olfactory profile of shower gel upside down at the time, these are ultimately notes that were first celebrated in the early Diptyque releases - and which were later taken up and exploited by numerous 'Apothecary' brands in functional luxury (e.g. Aesop). In other words, there is no shortage of alternatives to the new L'Être Aimé - such as L'Eau Trois.... Apart from that: a pleasantly discreet, contemplative fragrance that needs a little time.
16 years before this 'Nouvelle Interprétation' of L'Être Aimé, Yvon Mouchel released L'Être Aimé Homme and L'Être Aimé Femme (both 2008) - in collaboration with Givaudan perfumer Yann Vasnier, who is also the author of this complete 2024 conversion. I couldn't do anything with L'Être Aimé Femme, I found the Immortelle note mainly sweet, the mandarins a bit sweeping. But it's a pity that L'Être Aimé Homme was one of the most unusual Immortelle releases of its time - a fragrance that probably seemed to rely heavily on the greener Immortelle Essential Oil and developed a very special, celery-like tendency (see my review). Commercially, L'Être Aimé Homme and Femme remained outsiders, which probably made Mouchel's decision to reorient himself easier...
I like Divine - not only because of the discontinued L'Être Aimé Homme, but also because of the no less special L'Homme Sage (2005) and also because the house is one of the few brands that has not just been throwing ounce goods onto the market for three months at 200 euros per 30 ml, but has been doing its own thing for 30 years. Almost all Divine fragrances were created by Yann Vasnier or Richard Ibáñez - I often find continuity like this interesting - and, on top of that, at a sympathetic price policy that seems almost defiantly down-to-earth compared to the current niche scene. A reinterpretation of the Divine Immortelle classics is reason enough to take a closer look.
Looking back: 50 years ago, Diptyque released L'Eau Trois (1975), probably the archetype of all macchia fragrances. The scene? "A refuge at the top of Mount Athos - arrived at after a long hike in the blazing sun." - said Diptyque in the anniversary year 2025, and even earlier references were made to northern Greek cultural landscapes and their vegetation. L'Eau Trois smelled of undergrowth and resins in dry heat - presumably long before the term 'maquis' even circulated in the perfume world. Two years ago, the fragrance, along with the other early Diptyque's designed by Serge Kalouguine, was suddenly available again - unfortunately only briefly - in many of the brand's points of sale. A surprise, as it had been living a reclusive Parisian existence for years. Profumo's review and Mörderbiene's statement portray L'Eau Trois aptly - and this is exactly what the new interpretation of L'Être Aimé in the opening reminds me of strikingly.
It is approximately 2,160 kilometers as the crow flies from the Breton seaside resort of Dinard to Mount Athos in Greece. A world cultural heritage site that has not received any female visitors since the 11th century - is Divine taking a swipe at this purely speculative reference with a unisex fragrance? Since CK One (1994), something like this has also been more contemporary in the mainstream than two-track femme homme products - on the other hand, homme/femme versions were already a curiosity within auteur perfumery in 2008. Curious.
L'Être Aimé starts off resinous and acidic - like the smell of the sticky leaves and stems of the rockrose, which likes to mark entire regions with its resinous green scent in shimmering heat. Pepper and coriander seeds are present, as are coniferous, pine-like aspects and, above all, myrrh, which is responsible for a sacred undertone here - supported by subordinate, acidic frankincense nuances (no incense in a church setting). Again and again, these aspects remind me of L'Eau Trois: overall a somewhat lighter - the age difference is noticeable - but clearer L'Eau Trois vibe.
Even though Immortelle is apparently given a central role in Divine's text on the fragrance - the note is by no means obvious, it remains absent for a long time. And it took me several attempts to perceive it at all - the crossfade from the sour cistus/myrrh constellation to conifers to a slightly dry-fruity, almost classic Immortelle Absolute note takes place slowly, which really only marks a turning point at the very end - after hours in my case. What is indicated here as the base, I perceive at most as a holistic, continuous background noise.
What is nice is that L'Être Aimé has a decidedly light structure and does not follow the rustic, artisanal, coarse trend that has been popular recently and that newer Immortelle fragrances often flirt with. And at no point do I notice any overly artificial fragrances (even if they are certainly there) - a well-executed 'quiet' style. For me, this slow development and Yann Vasnier's careful blending save L'Être Aimé in the Nouvelle Interprétation from passing as mere L'Eau Trois Counterfeit. Compared to L'Être Aimé Homme, this is not a big hit - and also far less perfume than many other Divine releases.
This tendency towards the unperfumed is perhaps where L'Être Aimé stands in its own way at this point. Not because it does this badly - rather, because for a good ten years now, many products in expensive functional perfumery have been aiming in precisely this direction: aromatic, non-citrusy impressions of a fictitious macchia, located somewhere between restaurant toilet, hand-wash rip-off and wellness. Similar to how the success of Green Irish Tweed (1985) and Cool Water (1988) turned the olfactory profile of shower gel upside down at the time, these are ultimately notes that were first celebrated in the early Diptyque releases - and which were later taken up and exploited by numerous 'Apothecary' brands in functional luxury (e.g. Aesop). In other words, there is no shortage of alternatives to the new L'Être Aimé - such as L'Eau Trois.... Apart from that: a pleasantly discreet, contemplative fragrance that needs a little time.
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