Somehow This Perfume Smells Like a Blank Sheet of Paper—I Can’t Stop Spraying It

My lengthy love affair with Diptyque can be traced back to the rain-filled spring I spent in Paris, France. It was 2017, and I was spending three months in the City of Love and Light studying three decades of French fashion and the influence of new-wave cinema. The majority of my time was spent learning and living in the city’s historical fifth and sixth arrondissements among a collection of Paris’s most recognizable storefronts. I stood in awe in front of one of them—Diptyque’s original location at 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain—more times than I can count.

Now, as a beauty editor, I’ve had the unique opportunity to experience the brand through a sweetly perfumed version of la vie en rose I’ve yet to depart from since my initial introduction. My admiration for Diptyque was further underscored by one of its newest releases, the L’Eau Papier Eau de Toilette. For those of you who didn’t take French in school, the product’s name translates to “water paper,” in reference to the simple act of artistic expression that is, in itself, creation.

Its unique bottle alone is an expression of this, featuring the abstract and dreamlike works by ink purist Alix Waline. The bottle’s double-paned design is also a tribute to creativity, with both sides decorated with the work of Waline. I was more than delighted to find that the layered and delicately balanced fragrance housed inside echoes the ode to creativity that reached far beyond my expectations.