L'Eau Trois Eau de Toilette

This is going to be a long and personal review, so don't read if you just want to hear about the perfume itself. Last summer, i took an interest in incense perfumes. My first olfactive interests started with incense at around 14, albeit cheaper incense sticks that smelled more like smoke than what was advertised on the box. Eventually my taste in incense got refined (if that is possible lol) and i had grown a lot of love for nag champa powder incense. the floral, spicy, slightly indolic and resinous incense. Sadly I never truely experienced things like myrrh or frankincense, because i didnt grow up in a religious household and i never frequented religious sites. this meant i didnt have a real understanding of incense other than nag champa or east asian kinds. When i was in Antwerp and saw a diptyque store, i was thrilled! no stores near me carried l'eau trois and i couldnt order samples anywhere. SO i went inside, all sweaty, and sprayed l'eau trois on a blotter. I was so disappointed in what i got. I only smelled an extemely dry spice cabinet with tons of smoke. At this point, i was convinced i only liked floral or powdery perfumes and hated ambers/resins/anything that wasnt a floral. so i gave up on it and forgot about it for a whole year. In that same year, i discovered multiple ambery/resinous perfumes that have changed my whole outlook on perfumes. It started with l'heure bleue, then angel's dust, then shalimar (and to some extent, marions-nous although its not ambery). All scents that are considered floral oriental. Heavily spiced, deep, yet rounded off and never screechy or overwhelming. I also found out through these that i actually do enjoy intensity perfumes. I used to think i only liked light stuff, because most strong scents on the market smell similar and unrefined, but i was wrong. What i truly hated was just messy perfumery! Then I got relique d'amour by oriza l legrand which came with a reve d'ossian sample. Both incense perfumes that go in complete different directions. i cant wear relique daily because it invokes such profound emotions within me, and reve felt a bit too cinnamon centric for my tastes. Relique smells like the opposite of reve in a way, because relique is incense burning in a damp cold pine forest inside of a broken down ancient stone temple, while reve was mediterannean, dry, warm and less about the environment and more about the incense itself. I thoughtt o myself: i need an incense for daily wear. DIptyque makes the best daily wear scents. I should try l'eau trois again after all this experience... Last weekend I smelled Tempo by diptyque, another scent i used to hate but now love (my mom is buying that one for us to share so im not reviewing it just yet). August is coming to an end, and Tempo made me suddenly develop a deep craving for something autumnal. Then, weirdly, Eloise Scents posted a video about l'eau trois. It was the perfect timing, because it pushed me to buy something i now actually felt ready for. (ACTUAL REVIEW HERE) And yes, i was very much ready! Immediately i catch a whiff of a dry pine forest. The needles arent crushed: you dont get a sharp citrusy piney stinging sensation in your nose, nor does it smell anything like pine scented cleaning product. it smells just like the hinoki incense i used to burn by koh do. quickly it starts smelling like church incense, indeed very mediterannean like it was in reve d'ossian. There is something beautifully medicinal and herbal going on, almost like an ancient apothecary. it is dry, the smokiness is minimal, it is resinous and so calming. i want a steamy bath with this fragrance. And yes, that is all it really is: incense. sure, it is not the exact same as every other incense perfume, and incense comes in all kinds of varieties anyway. but this... this one smells so humble. so true. so religious. it feels like gnosis. Because of its simplicity yet defined character, it is perfect to layer it withe everything. and i usually hate layering! but so many perfumes work well with a realistic and pure incense like l'eau trois, that i cant help myself. it combines well with olene, fleur de peau and eau moheli by the same house. but i also combine it with relique d'amour to amplify their holiness. Basically, this whole experience has taught me how dangerous it is to jail yourself in your own preferences. If i didnt actively try to expand my horizons, i would have never enjoyed this beauty. lets see if i'll ever like an oud !

I don't get the incense as much as others. But this has been a grower! It doesn't smell complex, but it's just the kind of smell I love. I would say, it's the best PINE fragrance out there. The incense, and herbs, spices, accentuate, and enrich the pine. This does not smell old or dated, but it's very raw in a beautiful way, natural, not refined, perfumy. A wonderfull realistic pine forest, with Mediteranian herbs and balsamic richness. A true Diptyque classic. This is 70 % starkly realistic pine. It's like crushing pine needles and sap, raw and realistic. I love it. It's like Tam Dao, in that Tam Dao has the most starkly realistic Cypress note. This also has much stronger Myrrh note than frankincense. It smells somewhat medecinal, in a good piney way. Tam Dao is like a cleaned up, crisper, more modern version of this, with cypress vs pine. The camphoraceous myrtle makes a fine old accord with the pine, giving it a nice aromatic Mediteranian flare. Mediteranian kitchen spices of oregano etc, remind me of Ambre Sultan by Lutens, but this doesn't have Amber, but is rich in resins of Myrrh and Frankincense. I do not think this is linier, as it progresses, I pick up new spices, accords Ebb and flow. I am getting beautiful whiffs of mentholated pine. This is going to grow on me, I can tell. When I first sniffed it, I recoiled a bit, due to the old, gloomy, dated feel. When you get beyond that, you begin to enjoy it more and more, as you see it for what it is, a very fine, high quality, great blended classic. It feels like a very fine antique fragrance, unchanged from the way it was in 1975. There is nothing cloying about this, it smells wonderfull. I liked a reviewers comment, that it smells like a potpourri of raw incense material, before it has been lit. This is a warming fragrance because of the resins, yet it's not heavy because of the fresh herbs and spices. Diptyque is my favorite house, very sophisticated, pure, fragrances. I'm glad I found out how to purchase this from the Diptyque site. They ship express from their warehouse in NYC. This is an oldy but a very goody from 1975, a Diptyque classic. A happy blind buy for me for sure. PS: All the first impressions of it feeling old have faded, and it's become a favorite Winter fragrance, when I want to be transported to a Winter pine forest. This can be enjoyed in any season. The Pine has a fresh volitility. Rating: 9/10 God bless. John 3:16

Many speculations on the name of this fragrance, that means "Water Three" in English. There's no real mystery here, though: it is simply the third fragrance that Diptyque issued. I tried it ~2yrs ago on the skin after a visit in a Diptyque store in Paris, and remained so impressed that I kept it on my wishlist for all that time, even if my precise memory faded out a bit. So, when I spotted a great deal and ordered it recently, it was a half blind buy and I was a bit nervous. Here is my full review: Opens with a blast of spiced aromatic/balsamic notes (an impression of rosemary/oregano given by myrrh and spices I guess). Then the spices tone down a bit to leave the front stage for the myrrh to shine, but are still very present (probably caraway and/or cumin, possibly some cloves and/or allspice), and at that stage, it vaguely reminds me of Goutal Ambre Fetiche. The myrrh will dance during the whole drydown, back and forth, with a very dry dusty (non-smoky) olibanum resinoids note (with a blackpepper facet, but not a sharp blackpepper like in Bois d'Encens) and the ladbanum that will envelop the whole creation with its resinous greeness and a hint of sap sweetness that keeps the juice from leaning too much towards masculine. While I have an issue with SL Ambre Sultan's bay leaf note, I love it in Guerlain Bois Mysterieux. Same for the oregano/rosemary note, that I struggle with in Amouage Interlude, but love in PM Or Black. Here, it's all an interplay, perfectly tailored, and I love it! Performance is nothing exceptional, nor nothing to complain about, as expected for an EDT. Like a previous reviewer stated, the quest for the perfect incense will never end. That said, for me, it might have with this one (and Tauer Incense Extreme). On par with Trudon Mortel in terms of style and quality (but Diptyque has slightly better performance). To note that this one has been issued ~30 years before the trend of incense-centered fragrance was started by CdG... Whaaaat a journey! In a nutshell: a churchy incense, that very probably inspired several other ones, in particular Goutal Encens Flamboyant. Masterpiece by Serge Kalouguine! Highly recommended (but liking aromatics and spices is a must to enjoy this one). Colder days, 25+, unisex

I just sniffed this for the first time. This was a blind buy but I had been eyeing it for a long long time, years. I read the notes and description and was instantly intrigued, I just wasn't ever able to track down a sample of it and then finally just decided what the heck, and took a big risk with purchasing it. ..I absolutely love this perfume, but its not one I would wear for any person but myself. This is a deeply meditative and personal type of fragrance. When I close my eyes and smell this off of my skin, it transports me to some deep memory -perhaps not an actual memory from my mind- but, like a deep memory of my soul somehow. I think it brings up many memories at once that are all loosely interconnected with spirituality for me. It's like I'm sitting outside in a dry forest at night. This forest is plush, but the dirt is dry. The air is balmy and cool upon the skin. The sky is dark but still resonating dim light. It is very quiet and peaceful. Somewhere nearby there is burning frankincense and myrrh. It is perfuming the air and comes to me by gentle breezes. This fragrance is both familiar and incredibly mysterious. Unknowable even. Not for everyone, but definitely for me. I am very happy to have this beautiful scent in my collection. It is quietly stirring, and makes me feel both calm and stimulated at the same time. Not much projection on me, and I can't speak on longevity just yet. I wouldn't necessarily want this to project, though. It's my own little fragrance experience, you know? I'm sure everyone would have a different experience for sure.. I know some people would probably dislike this. Or people might just think you smell of church..Interesting at least, if you get the chance to whiff it its worth a whiff!

It reminds me of beaches in Greece - the shrubs and trees that you usually have to pass before you reach the sand. There are usually thousands of cicadas making noise you'd never forget. In fact, L'Eau Trois seemed so close that I spent maybe a year before actually buying a bottle, thinking: "Why should I buy something so literal?". And when I finally did, of course it grew up on me. Then,my second thought: "It smells so close to pure frankincense oil, why did I buy this?". Yes, get some frankincense oil and you'll be quite close to L'Eau Trois, really. The difference is, it's a fragrance composition after all: it behaves like a fragrance and it has different facets, depending on what you focus on, your skin, the weather. It has a piney brightness, a dry herbal angle, the slight sweetness of mastic between other resins, frankincense from that times when there were still no humans to burn it. Notes you recall not from perfume descriptions but from your own archetypal memory. With all that natural oil vibe that could otherwise make you think of a pharmacy, L'Eau Trois takes you outdoors to a natural landscape with no flowers or leaves, only the thick aromatic secretions of plants - some scorched by the sun and some in the deep shadows. Feels like eternity. You know? Like that beaches in Greece that most likely look the same way they looked 10 000 years ago. Same with L'Eau Trois.