Time is in the essence
1960. Paris, 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain—Desmond Knox-Leet, Christiane Montadre-Gautrot, and Yves Coueslant, three artists who styled themselves as « purveyors of nothing, » open their first Diptyque shop, filling it like a veritable cabinet of curiosities with objects brought back from their travels. A blend of the intimate and the universal permeates this unique space.
In 1968, the team launched its first eau de toilette: L’Eau de Diptyque. Geranium, clove, cinnamon, ginger and wood as star ingredients reshaped the concept of water, Cologne. Some still call it today an avant-garde time machine.
With Orpheon, launched this summer as an Eau de toilette, Time is ‘in’ the essence.
Back in The Seventies, the founders of Diptyque would spend their evenings at L’Orphéon—a renowned late-night bar in the Latin Quarter, right next to their boutique. There, amidst the sounds of jazz, they forged passionate connections and enjoyed spirited nights that stretched on. In 2021, the brand decided to create an eau de parfum to commemorate those memories.
Today, Orphéon—a « black light for a white night »—returns as an eau de toilette crafted by perfumer Natalie Cetto (the talent behind the sublime *Vanille Carbone* for Atelier Materi and *Vanilla Sex* for Tom Ford).
This eau de toilette embodies not only the brand’s history but also the story of a beautiful friendship: Natalie took up the mantle of an original creation by a fellow perfumer and friend, the late Olivier Pescheux who died in 2023. Though he left us too soon, his fragrances remain major successes—starting with the *Orphéon* eau de parfum, one of the brand’s most popular scents.
“Olivier crafted the Orphéon eau de parfum by attempting to capture the atmosphere of that club at night, » Natalie explains. He built the fragrance by selecting notes that evoke cocktails, the wooden bar, smoke, women’s perfume, and their lipstick. In their original boutique at 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain, the team kept a blue-mirrored column that came from the bar itself, she recalls.”
It is nothing new for a brand to create a flanker of its most storied fragrance. What is changing, however, is that customers are beginning to ask for lighter versions of their favorite perfumes and extraits. At Bon Parfumeur, the Iris Cartagena 502 perfume extract has been reimagined as an eau de parfum, enjoying unprecedented success among those seeking a daytime fragrance. Diptyque offers a similar story with Orpheon offering to the Eau de parfum a little sister, an Eau de toilette that evokes the atmosphere of early evenings. As summer is of the essence and the days grow longer, these storytelling fragrances are stepping into the spotlight”.
“It’s a brighter version,” confirms Natalie, “but I kept the fragrance’s key characteristics. Diptyque asked me to envision an Eau de Parfum that would capture the start of the evening—that moment when anything is still possible. I sought to introduce a sense of light and sparkle, while ensuring greater longevity than an Eau de Toilette through the use of new musks and Ambroxan. It is an Eau de Toilette that lasts for several hours on the skin.”
To bring a sense of light to the fragrance, one formula hits the mark: citrus notes. At the top of this eau de toilette lies a cocktail of mandarin (chosen by Natalie for its joyful character) and yuzu. “Mandarin also pairs beautifully with juniper berry, which I selected to evoke gin—the cocktail aspect of the Orphéon story, the bar, and the evenings of yesteryear.” Natalie also reimagined the wood notes, shifting from the smoky woods Olivier favored—meant to evoke the bar counter and smoky atmosphere—to lighter, blonde woods. Here, too, light breaks through.
With this Eau de toilette, time is in the presence. Why not wear it from 6 AM to the end of the day?
Flannie 