L'Autre Eau de Toilette

I like the cumin note. It’s the kind of lingering scent I want to smell when I’m out clubbing or just want to feel daring while out and about in the cold, damp nights of San Francisco. Cumin or caraway doesn't smell like terrible body odor to me. I mean, I get it; cumin in certain contexts CAN smell like bad BO, but I don’t think cumin and caraway always smell like acrid, unwashed bodies. In certain situations, cumin smells like sharp, earthy wood. Try rubbing a cumin seed between your thumb and index finger, then smell your skin 15 minutes later—it’s that specific woody smell. Caraway, on the other hand, just smells like fresh chai tea to me (without the milk). The caraway in L'Autre lingers in the dry down—that’s the way it was supposed to be, right? The note is mild and rounded, not sharp at all. Pair that caraway with cardamom and it’s straight-up chai. Maybe it’s just me, but it dries down to something lactonic, like a very faint milky scent. If you dial the lactonic note in Patchouli Magnetik down to a 1, then throw in pandan leaves, pepper, clove(?), cumin, and cardamom, that’s L'Autre on my skin. I’m wearing L'Autre in the humid heat of Manila tonight. Boy, the fragrance dries down fast here. That sucks. I want this scent to last longer, but the combination of tropical humidity and my body heat tames this EDT quickly. The citrus top notes came and went too quickly, but at least the caraway/cardamom spice stayed behind. I’m layering L'Autre on my left forearm with Commodity Moss+ in the crook of the same arm. It's a good combo; I might stick to this. Update: three hours later Warm spices are still there. Caraway and cardamom are still around, fainter, but they are there. But something new showed up: pencil shavings!

L'Autre is a close sibling to Eau d'Hermes. Both with a healthy dose of cumin and spice with a very pronounced "arm pit" vibe. It's hard to define this composition as it is not distinguished by certain types of flowers or woods. Nevertheless, it is a smell - a very distinctive smell. Most stores carrying the Diptyque range tend to exlude this from the lineup. It's easy to understand why. After all, it's not designed to please everyone. Judging by the comments here, opinions are certainly divided - just as intended! I intially ordered a small sample to try and was instantly overwhelmed by the allusion of man sweat and asian (particularly Indian) cooking. It is very audacious to formulate something like this, bottle it and sell it. But that is the whole point of L'Autre. It will never be copied by the likes of Arden, P&G and Coty because it's not necessarily pleasant to the nose. But it got my attention and I simply can't stop sniffing my wrists!! I love it enough to buy a 100ml bottle. So there you have it. Let the stink begin!

Stunning spicy fragrance. It's quite linear, but very well crafted: basically cardamom and a bunch of spices (cant spot them individually), with a dominant caraway. Support of a hint of chocolatey patchouli (and possibly vanilla also) in the base is noticeable (no worries, just a hint). Possibly also a hint of incense. Take Eau d'Hermes, tone done a bit the citruses, amp up the spices at full volume, and swap the leather with a very subtle patch/incense combo. Make it a bit more full bodied/less airy, and here you go! It cannot bypass my beloved Eau d'Hermes, but still, it's beautiful. That said, more than Eau d'Hermes, I would say that it is even closer to Houbigant Cologne Intense. In any cases, not a real discovery in terms of scent profile for me, it is a beautiful variation on Eau d'Hermes, that will probably be loved by any fan of EdH. Mild/warm days, 30+

199) Avant-Avant-Garde The opening is a bouquet of tangy and aromatic verbena, reminiscent of lemongrass by his rosy lemony facet, combining with a spicy mixture of black pepper, cardamom, caraway, cumin and nutmeg with a stinging dry and complex effect. Sandalwood, patchouli and incense come soften and take over from these spices, with a woody accord, hot and creamy. With Diptych we always travel a bit in a imaginary and unreal lands filled with amazing smells, destabilizing and not easy to adopt at the first shot. Only Comme des Garçons today would dare leave such a perfume (and I still even prefer Dyptique's creations), so I bless them for having created, with 30 years in advance, references like this to assert that sometimes it takes time to learn to love.

Oh my, it shouldn't work, but it's incredible. A massive blast of sweaty spices and cleaning product citrus assaults the senses, before rapidly giving way to a creamy blend of citrus and spices. It's soft and tender after the first 5 minutes, like a raging toddler who's suddenly calmed down. There's no base to speak of, so the journey is remarkably short for something so loud at first, but this lends itself to layering, and if it stayed like the opening for too long it would be oppressive. I've just layered this with ample soaky sprays of the heavily discontinued Fate Woman (a moment of behaving like I have the ability to shit out bank notes), and I'm in heaven. Update: it's Jean Marie Farina but maxed up to 1000!