More of a musk-based fragrance
This is light, delicate, soft - a clean pale yellow blanket of a fragrance, appropriate for the soaps and other bathroom products that this was originally conceived for. Not a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, but an easy reach - non-demanding, unobtrusive enough to be worn at work.
It's an almost-powdery, almost-soapy musk, rounded and toned down by a hint of yellow florals, vanilla, and spice. For all that it's named after ylang-ylang, the flower itself seems content to remain in the background - I wouldn't have named it without the listed notes. It's reasonably well blended and "abstract", hard to pinpoint any one thing in particular. It hums along but doesn't sing.
It's listed as a chypre but there's no darkness in this. Even the musk itself leans more towards clean-skin than animalic. It's also vaguely nostalgic - like a fading memory of the 90's, like a paired-down "big" fragrance that's been left to bleach in the sun.
Summer garden
Loudly, unapologetically, fresh-vegetal-green. Zero sugar. Almost a photorealistic scent of crushing Delosperma plants underfoot, staining the concrete green as the sun belts down in the high dry afternoon.
This almost isn't a fragrance so much as it is a snapshot of a heated summer garden. Probably not something that I personally want to wear on a regular basis, but I've deeply enjoyed the visit!
Really hoping this is re-released
It's hard to capture this one in words, partially because of how layered it is. I could describe it aspect by aspect, but it's a little like the story of the three blind men and the elephant - I could describe an elephant's leg and compare it to a tree, an ear to a fan, a trunk to a snake - but to say that an elephant is like any one of those things is misleading. It captures parts, sure, but not the whole.
Likewise with this. I could state that the overall impression this fragrance gives me is of a well-made honey apple pie - rich, buttery pastry, stewed apple and spices, recently removed from the oven and still steaming - but that misses the touch of hay and tobacco that runs throughout, and makes this sound more pedestrian than it actually is.
I could state that this reminds me of a warm autumn night on a farm - a fire pit off in the distance giving the tiniest suggestion of smoke, while the warm earth radiates back the day's heat, a hint of animal, vanilla flavoured tobacco - but that misses the smoothness of this, the rich buttery depth.
And I could state that this makes me think of a hug, of being bundled up in blankets outside and laughing with family, of hovering in the kitchen while dessert is cooking - but those are all personal experiences, and don't translate well to actual descriptions.
It's rustic. It's cosy. It's snug. It somehow conjures up both a country kitchen and the country field after a harvest, like tucking in to a homemade pie after a day of baling hay.
I really do like this. It's unfortunate that it's hard to find (especially in my corner of the globe) else I'm sure it'd become a go-to for autumn or winter. I wouldn't wear it at work - this feels more like a personal, casual, intimate fragrance - but it'd be perfect for weekend jaunts. I'll be guarding my 1ml sample verrrrry carefully, down to the last drop!
Very chic, and likely to be a sleeper hit for Diptyque
I love the original Eau Rose so I jumped on this as soon as it was released. Diptyque also stated at the time that it was a limited edition, so there may or may not have been a hint of FOMO in that purchase - I wasn't sure how long they were intending to offer the parfum version, but I certainly wasn't about to find out the hard way.
(Turns out that the limited edition packaging was what they were talking about, not the fragrance itself - phew! Shouldn't have worried!)
The original Eau Rose EDT starts with sweet lychee and rose. It's fresh, dewy, light - a rose after a spring shower, the scent of a rose caught on a breeze, a rose in a garden. It's a little fruity, a little musky, it's somehow clean without ever verging into soapy. It's a delicate, sweet, breezy tea rose.
The EDP is, to be honest, more of a flanker scent than it is a "concentration" of the original EDT. It has the same fingerprint, the same Diptyque elegance, but they're recognisably different fragrances. It's "the mother" to the EDT's "maiden".
It opens up a little denser than the EDT, and with only the lightest touch of the sparkling lychee that so dominates the top notes of the original. It's significantly less sweet and less breezy - a step towards unisex. The rose is still a beautiful, naturalistic rose - but it's a rose near the end of its bloom, a rose that's starting to droop a little. It's denser, thicker, more of the "plant" evident behind it. We're nowhere near L'ombre Dans L'Eau territory - but it's definitely more green than the original, and it has more depth.
It's also a calm, somewhat creamy, musky, green. It might just be the power of suggestion but I honestly get why they've listed chamomile and artichoke as notes. I can picture this as a vase of cut roses next to chamomile tea in a fancy front parlour somewhere - dust motes dancing in the lazy afternoon sun, the window open to the garden beyond, a quiet sleepy heaviness over the scene. If the EDT is "bubbly and fresh", then this is "composed and reserved".
It's not a jammy lipstick rose. It's not a spicy, powdered rose. It's a naturalistic, dense, quiet, artichoke-creamy rose with chamomile running in the background. Very smooth. Very well blended.
It lasts longer than the EDT, though that's not saying much - on me, the EDT flits away like a butterfly as soon as it lands on skin. The EDP does appear to have more lasting power, but it's a power that shows itself through the occasional wafting glimpse of the scent rather than the upfront brashness that some fragrances prefer.
Is it actually worth the price, which keeps increasing each year? Would I have actually caved and bought this if I hadn't idly been dreaming of an EDP version of Eau Rose not a week before I saw the ad? That, I can't answer for you. Go sample and find out.
Nice, but ambroxan heavy
My nose is picking up a significant backbone of ambroxan in this fragrance. I might be wrong, but if I'm right, it'd explain some of the mixed reviews (elsewhere) - many people are anosmic to that note, and it seems to be the main event here.
It otherwise reads as a slightly beachy / slightly coconutty version of "Not a Perfume". Low-key, "blurry" blend of coconut and cedar. It feels smudged, soft, casual - like a comfortable cashmere scarf, wrapped around a neck.
