Volutes Eau de Toilette

My best buddy and I went to the Diptyque premier of their new fragrance Volutes at the boutique here in San Francisco. Upon entering Diptyque we found the boutique alight with many of their famous fragrant candles which added to the wonderful unique scent of the store. So unique is the smell that they bottle it as “34” or by its formal name of 34 Boulevard Saint Germain (the address of the original Paris boutique). In the center of the lower level of the boutique was the star of the evening, a beautifully designed table where the new fragrance Volutes stood center stage in its classic clear oval Diptyque bottle. It was surrounded by bowls filled each with a raw sample of the ingredients that go into making the juice. Tobacco leaves, iris, frankincense, pink and black pepper, saffron, hay, immortelle, myrrh, opopanax and some others I am sure I missed. What a clever and great presentation. At the Volutes presentation table where learned the history of Volutes. The fragrance was inspired by the childhood memory of one of the original founders of Diptyque. Who in fact at 95 still lives in an apartment on the third floor above the boutique at 34 Boulevard Saint Germain. The inspiration was a trip he took with his parents by ship from France to Indochine. He was fascinated by the ship with its swirls of smoke from its toweling smokestacks and the glamorous women who came on deck each evening to smoke their exotic Khedive cigarettes, the blue smoke swirling about them like exotic veils. Add to that memory the smells of the spices of the ports of Alexandria, and Bombay, Colombo, Bangkok, and finally Saigon. Decades later the journey became Volutes. It opened like a box of aromatic Egyptian cigarettes and then began to unfold like a Scheherazadian tale of the orient, smoky mystery layered with danger and romance. Volutes means swirls and it does exactly that! Over the evening it bloomed and created a wonderfully rich vale of incense. My friend tried it too. That is when we discovered that it smells different on different skins. At this point we found ourselves huddled over the table in exclamatory delight which caught the ear of two other guests at the event. And so Volutes introduced us to Hillary and her friend from South Africa. The four of us set off on a conversation of what we found delightful and interesting in this new fragrance. We all agreed that Volutes is perhaps the most complex and exotic of the line. As for me, I have to say that I enjoy Diptyque and I am still exploring their line but when I smelled Volutes I flipped! Sold to the tall guy with the red shirt! My friend noticed that on my skin it smelled very masculine yet on Hillary it was wonderfully feminine. This amazing transformative aspect of the scent by this point in the evening did not surprise me. I bought Volutes and the next day tried it out in the real world. As I walked to work I noticed that I was enveloped in a cloud of tobacco and incense. It was wonderful but the thought struck me that I have never smelled my fragrance in the wild outdoors with the wind blowing in my face before. Oh oh... maybe I put on too much. Sure enough I had, one of the guys at work was completely gassed out. He hates any kind of perfume and when he mentioned to me that he was having issues I knew that I most defiantly had over spayed. One or at most two sprays are all you need. It projects out a good five feet and it lasts and lasts. I applied it at 6:30 in the morning and at 5:00 in the evening it was still center stage with a spotlight on it. Volutes is listed here as Aromatic but I would classify it more as an Oriental Aromatic. It is a unisex scent that works well on both men and women. The journey you embark on with Volutes is sure to be a memorable one of exotic adventure and unexpected delights. FIVE PLATIUMS STARS ***** UPDATE: Thanks for the reminder Lobster! I bought the EDT and it really lasts.

~*Review of the Eau de Toilette*~ Volutes is quite amazing. It smoky, sweet, powdery and engaging. I had a feeling that this might turn out to be an immediate love for me seeing that it had tobacco and honey which are some of my favorite notes. This definitely has a strong sweet dose of honey, slightly fresh but has a slightly sticky quality to it. Not as much as you would find in L'occitane Immortelle de Corse. Knowing how the Immortelle de Corse smells helped me pick out the immortelle in Volutes which is definitely lighter but still present giving it a herbal quality. To me the main show in Volutes is the powdery iris which I'm in love with, but once the iris fades the honey becomes the the most prominent. Its supported by a sweet tobacco, which I was hoping would be a little more pronounced in this fragrance. Oh well can't have everything all the time. The benzoin, opoponax, and myrrh give Volutes its smoky quality that it is named after. I thought I was the only one getting some Shalimar vibes from this, until I read Museumgal's review. It has a similar feeling to it though they are not identical maybe 2nd cousin's or something like that. Volutes is definitely younger feeling, sophisticated but edgy. The EDT has great lasting power but does not project that much after the first hour or so. Which I don't mind and makes it easier to wear more often. It blooms in the heat I thought this might be a winter only fragrance for me but it was toasty today and it held up really well, so I'm thinking this might be a great year around fragrance for me. I might have to review this again when the weather gets cold where I live depending on how different my reaction is. I I think this works for most ages early 20s and beyond. Though I think you have to be a fan of honey to actually enjoy it. I'm curious how the EDP smells but for now the EDT will keep me satisfied...Considering how complex it is. I feel like I haven't figured it out completely which keeps my nose entertained.

***Eau De Parfum*** (The all black label and smoke colored bottle) I'm kicking myself. I should have bought this when I found a bottle for super cheap. I have a decant now and here are my thoughts as succinctly as possible. This does not smell like Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille-to me. On my skin it leans toward Tobacco Oud if anything thanks to the resinous notes. It has some spices and LIKE TF's Tobacco Vanille, the tobacco note is very well blended and smooth with the dried fruits and a touch of vanilla in there somewhere but it is a bitter, very realistic vanilla. It does not project much for me, and leaves little sillage so in that regard it is a poor replacement for TVanille or TOud. However the scent is divine and has touches of leather and Irish butter (to my nose) that are mouthwatering. I only get honey in any notable concentration around the 4 hour mark and it has already been a skin scent for an hour by then. I expected better from an EDP. It's warm and inviting and while it feels like a spring/fall evening scent to me, I can see myself wearing it all year when I want a hit of that sweet dark dried fruit and light tobacco goodness. Scent: 7/10 it does not stand up to my favorite tobacco of all time, Tom Ford's Tobacco Oud, but damn it foes a good job of making me look past it's shortcomings. It has character. Projection: 7/10 for the first 30 min, 5/10 past hour 1, and 3/10 by hour two-on my skin. Sillage: 4/10 hour 1, 3/10 hour two, and 1/10 past hour 3.5. Longevity: I am still able to smell it as a very natural skin scent 6 hours in, and at about 8 hours it's totally gone. Worth it for an evening out, otherwise you will have to reapply. Would I buy a full bottle? Hell yes. I am also testing the EDT because they do smell different and I will see once Ive had some time with that, which is better but I'm already leading EDP.

I am enjoying Volutes edt like never before on a cool morning in early April. I have 11 Dyptique fragrances. I would say this and Oud Palao, are two of their fragrances I would call masterpiece. I enjoy Benjoin Bohemme and Tempo equally, but they may not be masterpieces of perfumery composition. I'm over 60 years old, and my taste is mature. I like the realistic severe Dyptiques like Tam Dao, but Volutes is so much fun, and is exciting. I normally don't like sweet frags, nor Iris note, but they are so balanced and we'll blended here. Let me try to describe it. There's the sweet dried fruit and honey accord, the honey brings out the sweetness of the fried fruit. The fruit smells like dried apricots, figs, maybe some rasberry. Then a beautiful tobacco note comes in giving the honeyed fruit a soft tobacco spiciness . The hay and immortelle are soft earthy, herbal notes that balance the sweet dried fruit. A soft pink pepper note, ads just a bit of spiciness, just enough to nicely balance the fruit, and keep it grounded. There is a floral element, not much. The Iris blends with the tobacco for me, and just makes the tobacco have an aromatic floral, powdery nuance; like a tobacco blosom note. It stays slightly masculine leaning. The great balsamic resins of Benzoin and myrrh, are not very strong, just adding some beautiful depth and richness in the base. The fragrance stays somewhat fresh, because of the fresh spices, fruits and floral notes. The immortelle which is like toasted bread, with the fruited honey, gives it a delicious gourmand aspect. I love the hay note, it reminds me of country smells, when the ground begins to warm in the Spring, making this a Spring fragrance for me. The EDP is heavier, with less tobacco, and is best for Fall and Winter perhaps. Rating: 8.75/10 edt. 8.25/10 edp. God loves you. John 3:16

Volutes is defined as "a spiral of twisted formation or object". Yves Coueslant, a founder of Diptyque, was a boy of an impressionable age when he made an oceanic trip from Paris to Asia. While he was on the ship he saw beautiful and elegant women smoking their Khedive cigarettes (oriental tobacco cigarettes). The boy saw the soothing, curling swirls of smoke twirling surrounding the women. The boy was captivated, he could smell the scent of the women's perfumes blending with the strong and distinctive aromas of the cigarettes in the air. This imagery made an everlasting lasting impression on Coueslant because years later as an adult he created Volutes as an tribute to that journey he made as a boy. Volutes is a sweet, sensual smoky vanilla scent that surrounds you. It is a beautiful fragrance. I adore it. The first spray is the lovely blend of sweet honey, iris and tobacco. The tobacco has a tiny hint of cherry scent to it. The tobacco is softened and the honeyed iris comes through more enveloping the tobacco. I recognize the immortable and the soft saffron here, but the blend of the hay, black pepper are so smooth, it is not easy to identify a specific note. The scent is deepened by the exotic sensual base of myrrh, benzoin, strax and opoponax, I sense more of a blend of myrrh/amber base. The drydown is a soft cherried tobacco scent. Volutes is more of a versatile scent, sweet not cloying, it is more approachable (with a strong character) compared to my other tobacco scents in my collection, its not as heavy as Tabac Aurea, Tobacco Vanille, or as powdery as Chergui. The review is based on the EDP, the longevity is about 6 hours and the sillage is medium. If you are a lover of tobacco like me, try this!