Perfumers are often tasked with bottling the feeling of fleeting moments or complicated emotions, but it’s not every day they are asked to push their imaginations to the limits of the natural world. Diptyque—the luxury perfume house renowned for its candles and fine fragrances—is breaking boundaries with its new Les Essences de Diptyque collection, out today.
The five new scents were all inspired by elements of the natural world with no scent discernible to humans. “The idea was really to give a fantastic playground to the perfumers, letting their imagination wonder about what would these ingredients, these natural wonders, would smell like,” says Diptyque CEO Laurence Semichon. The inspirations for the new fragrances were coral, mother-of-pearl, bark, water lily, and the crystal formations known as desert roses, and perfumers Fabrice Pellegrin, Alexandra Carlin, Nathalie Gracia-Cetto, and the late Olivier Pescheux, who died in July 2023, captured the spirit of each ingredient through ingenious blends of carefully curated notes.
The Les Essences de Diptyque collection joins more than 50 extant Diptyque fragrances, but fans of the brand will note how different these look—and smell—from the others. “What makes this collection different is that we put [in] more concentration, so the scent and the trail are a little bit stronger,” says Semichon. Every Diptyque product boasts incredible longevity, but these five fragrances go even further. The refillable glass bottles, too, look new for the brand, but were actually inspired by its first perfume bottles, dating back to 1968.
The bottles are truly works of art. Their signature oval serves as a window to illustrations by Irish plastics artist Nigel Peake that tell the story of each scent. The bottles are also engraved with Peake’s designs, for a unique tactile experience and an element of accidental accessibility. With your eyes closed, you can feel the differences between each scent before even smelling them.
Ahead, get to know each Les Essences de Diptyque scent.
Corail Oscuro
This floral fragrance with a mineral heart was inspired by the striking red coral found in Italy’s Venetian Lagoon. “I wanted my work to suggest salinity, and the fiery red color of a coral garden,” says Carlin, “plus the undulations of a stony mineral flower suspended between sunlit skies and the darkness of the sea.”
Perfumer: Alexandra Carlin
Olfactory family: Floral, mineral
Notes: Rose bourbon absolute, mandarin, mineral accord
Lunamaris
Mother-of-pearl is an iridescent material found in the shells of certain mollusks. “I wanted to interpret in a perfume the iridescent nuances of mother-of-pearl. The signature comprises a blend of raw materials selected to render this visual effect in olfactory terms,” says Pellegrin. “In this fragrance, each ingredient has its proper place, creating a radiant signature with silky subtleties.”
Perfumer: Fabrice Pellegrin
Olfactory family: Amber, spicy
Notes: Rockrose, pink peppercorn, incense
Bois Corsé
Woody notes are common in perfumes, but few evoke the feeling of living tree bark in a forest. “For Bois Corsé, I drew inspiration from the beauty of nature at its most unvarnished. I played on the texture of wood, and particularly the roughness of bark, so pleasant to the touch despite its irregularities and randomness,” says Gracie-Cetto.
Perfumers: Nathalie Gracie-Cetto and Olivier Pescheux
Olfactory family: Woody, amber
Notes: Tonka bean, sandalwood essence, black coffee
Lilyphéa
This eau de parfum is inspired by Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series, so it channels the ease of a delicate water-lily leaf coasting across a pond. It is Bazaar editors’ favorite of the five Essences de Diptyque. “In Lilyphéa, I played on the leaf of the water lily. The green of these leaves is at once crisp, lively, and smooth, but also mellow, fleshy, and brimming with sap,” says Gracie-Cetto. “To keep the energy of this green scent while also introducing a relaxing feel, I contrasted the heady aspect of essence of galbanum with the saplike qualities of violet leaf, then blended in the gentle warmth of Madagascan vanilla absolute.”
Perfumers: Nathalie Gracie-Cetto and Olivier Pescheux
Olfactory family: Amber, green
Notes: Cardamom, violet leaves, Madagascan vanilla
Rose Roche
Desert roses are gypsum or barite crystals that form what looks like a flower around grains of sand. Unlike their namesake, they have no scent—but thanks to the magic of Diptyque, one can now imagine how a desert rose smells. “This creation was inspired by the winds that shape the desert sands with surprising precision over the course of time. My aim was to evoke the elemental heat of the desert winds through a perfume crafted to recall the warm, mineral feel of grains of sand,” says Pellegrin. “I sculpted this floral rose fragrance entirely out of contrast between the bright, luminous qualities of citrus fruits and the deep, textured notes of patchouli.”
Perfumer: Fabrice Pellegrin
Olfactory family: Floral, citrus
Notes: Lemon, centifolia rose, patchouli
The new Les Essences des Diptyque fragrances are available today on diptyque.com and at Diptyque stores for $330 each. If you’d prefer to try them all before committing, the Les Essences de Diptyque Discovery Set, with all five scents in 10-milliliter sizes, retails for $200.
