“My lips are sealed.” These are the phrases that shot out of my mouth in panic earlier this month when one of many largest names within the perfume trade requested after my fragrance. Whereas usually a praise, this was a worst-case situation enjoying out in actual time on a day during which I had forgotten to douse my neck in one in every of his personal creations. He caught a whiff of me, gasped, declared his adoration for my fragrance and requested these three dreaded phrases: What’s it?!
On this form of state of affairs, I’ve two choices. One, I inform the reality and threat offending him. Or two, the choice I selected, preserve issues elusive. He merely laughed it off and did not dare ask after it once more—a gentlemanly means of saving us each any embarrassment. If, nevertheless, I had been to have informed him the reality about this compliment-winning fragrance, I might have revealed the fragrance that stopped him in his tracks was, in truth, an at-the-time unreleased fragrance—Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette.
Since its launch in 2021, Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Parfum has grow to be not simply part of my life, however part of me. Whereas my unfiltered mouth, clumsy actions and (considerably notorious as a magnificence director) laissez-faire method to self-care usually make me really feel in any other case, Orphéon has been my dependable cloak of cool for the previous 5 years. And now, there’s a new Orphéon Eau de Toilette on the block.
Earlier than we get into this new fragrance, I need to give some background on the unique Orphéon Eau de Parfum for individuals who will not be au fait. It’s, frankly, inconceivable to step into Orphéon’s realm and never grow to be the best particular person within the room. Orphéon is the embodiment of dishevelled Parisian stylish. It’s the brooding French woman you see sitting at a bar with a cigarette in a single hand and a gin martini within the different—the cool woman I lengthy to be. With only one spritz, it transforms me into her, even when only for the day. And that is what an excellent, nay, one of the best fragrance does.
And I will be sincere, a 2026 Diptyque retelling of the Orphéon story within the type of an eau de toilette is not one thing I believed the world wanted. The late, nice perfumer behind Orphéon Eau de Parfum, Olivier Pescheux, created one thing so superbly distinctive that I wasn’t certain how an eau de toilette might exist. Orphéon, as I knew it, is each gentle and intense—it possesses a top quality that lingers like smoke with the freshness of powder. It has each the lightness of an eau de toilette and the facility of an eau de parfum—so what, I might need requested, was the necessity?
However I used to be intrigued, and so I obliged when Diptyque requested me to be the primary editor to assessment it forward of launch. Here is why I am predicting Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette might be on each cool-girl’s neck this 12 months…
Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette, Reviewed
Diptyque
Orphéon Eau de Toilette
Key notes: Inexperienced mandarin, yuzu, juniper berries, pink peppercorn, ginger, rose, magnolia, cedar, musk
If it had been a tune: Quelqu’un m’a dit, Carla Bruni
If it had been a drink: A glowing, citrus-infused gin and tonic
If it had been an individual: Françoise Hardy
If Orphéon Eau de Parfum is the powder room of a smoky Parisian jazz bar within the Sixties (the perfume was impressed by the very bar the founders of Diptyque used to frequent), Orphéon Eau de Toilette is the glowing, citrus-garnished gin cocktail the hostess pours herself as she pulls up the shutters and places out the al fresco seating on a spring night, earlier than the darkness of night time descends. It’s radiant, dazzling, vibrant and filled with promise. And but, that powdered, smoky, grounding core of Orphéon nonetheless teases the nostril, welcoming you in by its doorways.
I usually say that I think about Orphéon Eau de Parfum to be a dancer of the Moulin Rouge touching up her make-up after the night time’s present in her dressing room, earlier than heading out for a nightcap, the place the scent of face powder, cigarette smoke and gin fills the air. Orphéon Eau de Toilette, alternatively, is identical dancer, in that very same dressing room, however this time she is pre-show. A silk gown envelops her freshly showered pores and skin. She moisturises with powdery, floral-scented lotion. She lights a cigarette. She pours herself a gin and tonic, squeezing in some citrus, and he or she relaxes right into a state of nonchalance that solely a Parisian seemingly can.
In the true world, nevertheless, Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette could be described virtually unanimously with only one phrase: cool. Sure, it is glowing, joyous and undoubtedly crowd-pleasing (whereas the great thing about the eau de parfum, for my part, is in its interest-piquing uniqueness), but it surely nonetheless maintains that barely dishevelled, imperfect character. It isn’t solely a citrus scent, neither is it solely a floral scent—it exists in its personal realm of effervescent, laid-back pleasure with a refined sweetness you possibly can’t assist however lean into.
It would not shout out loud as a robust fragrance, but it surely would not drench you in watery freshness, both. True to its Orphéon identify, it lingers—this time not descending like a plume of smoke, however faucet dancing its means over the pores and skin with mild pitter-patters. It’s the fragrance everybody appears to be craving in 2026—the olfactory manifestation of cool-girl nonchalance that does not exclude anybody. It’s the antithesis of a demanding energy scent and as an alternative acts as a every day dose of metamorphosis, remodeling you into the best, carefree, most optimistic model of your self.
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