Reviews of L'Autre (1973)
by Diptyque

I originally gave this a neutral rating. Simply put, this cumin laden scent was intriguing to me. However, since that time, I now think of L'Autre as cumin run amuck. Just out of control excess. There are much better presentations of this note. Thumbs down. (Revised from 21 July 08).

What in the blazes is this?! This is unadulterated cumin hell!

[Original submission date: 29 December 2007]

This smells like what my college dormitory would smell like during spring break. Hemp. Just add woods. It'll end up like cumin I bet... I wouldn't want to smell like this.

A curry dish, with cardamom (not enough), coriander (too much), cumin (way too much), pepper, cinammon, clove, ?saffron, and probably other spices. It comes out hot and strong and burns my nose a bit if I sniff too hard. Not a problem if it was my chana masala dish, but it's a fragrance, and I want to smell good! This isn't good.

The terribly erotic scent of an armpit in the morning after a spicy dinner... Not quite there with l'Autre, but the erotic touch is there. One of my favourites... but everyone else around me hates it.

This smells exactly like cumin. It's not horrible, but I can't imagine ever wanting to smell like I doused myself with cumin.

Kingdom for men? Maybe, as this has a lot of cumin/curry going on. But, unlike Kingdom, this one isn't confrontational, but is instead a heady, spicy, almost intoxicating mixture that will set you apart from the herd. I agree that this one might be tough to wear in many settings, given its dark spiciness, but it is certainly a unique addition to any man's fragrance collection. Worth a try!

Cumin. Armloads of cumin, with some dry woods and possibly a light touch of musk, or maybe my nose is just so wishing for some musk in this that it smells it whether there is any or not. Cumin and woods. There's also a bit of coriander, but it's no match for the cumin overload. Why is this called "The Other?" My speculations: Because others stare at you as you wear it, wondering why you smell as you do? Because no other would wear it? Or because you really wish some other were wearing it? Not my favorite Diptyque.

I have never been to India, but I`m quite familiar with spices and also some Indian dishes, and...I have never ever smelled any fragrance that would fit some specific country this well... Really, L`Autre (Diptyque) smells like India itself!

I can imagine myself walking through some crowded, hot streets in Delhi: There are tables in bazaars full of spices - Cummin (yes, not cumin), fresh gingers, dried gingers, piles of Garam Masala... Some balsamic vinegars there too,curry spiced vege soups with only restrained pinches of chili`s...

This is L`Autre, and I think it is amazing scent, with great amount of challenge to wear.

'L’Autre’ means ‘the other,’ and I guess I’m making the other judgment of it. I rather like this “horrendous…surrealistically vile…absolute abomination.” (Great description, MMM.) I’ve probably lived a sheltered life or else I have no imagination, but I find L’Autre much more attractive than repulsive. And in response to those reviewers who reference body part odors: I get no armpit or any other bodily emanations from this. I get cumin: cumin and pepper and coriander and cardamom, but mostly cumin. The cumin comes through quite strongly, and it is rich and low registered and a trifle exotic and mellow—as cumin always is. The accords in L’Autre are, as in most Diptyques, quite linear, and I would like a little more variety in this particular one because I don’t find these notes as compelling as many other spicy or herbal notes. I am also not absolutely certain that I want to smell like cumin. To be sure this is about as edgy as a fragrance can get, but I find it in no way repulsive. At the present time I’m not ready to run out and buy this, but I’m putting it at about number twenty-two on my want list.

After dabbing my wrists with a good helping of L'Autre I excitedly took a big whiff and subsequently pondered whether I should vomit first and faint second or the other way around. Either way I knew it would be messy. I suggest a much cheaper alternative to this fragrance: firstly, sprinkle your crotch with a generous helping of cumin. Then, follow this with a vigorous 30-minute regimen of squat thrusts. Voila! Whether you bottle those heady juices and sell for $35 an ounce is up to you.

The Baron de Charlus once told me: 'Diptyque's L'Autre? A rather maligned fragrance, in my estimation. My nose can scarcely detect the odour of armpits of which this scent is so often accused. Rather, it puts me in mind of an old fashioned apothecary's shop with its faintly dusty medicinal aromas, concatenation of sweet and bitter herbs and spices, the whole evoking a statement of the fecundity and mystery of the ingenious earth. To this extent, it reminds me somewhat of scents such as Piper Nigrum and even Lacoste Booster. I do not aspire to wear any of these scents, yet I admire their evocations. And yet ... and yet ...to be fair ... in its final phases L'Autre is surely most wearable and most distinguished.'

Absolutely horrible. Yuck. Cyrry Overload and every other spice in the book too. Enough said
benb

Armpits anyone?

simply glamorous ,irresistible ,magnificent i fell in love with this since the 1st time

I notice this is a controversial scent. It's actually made of 27 spices, so they told me; I notice pepper, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, you name it, they're all there. So ? Well, I like it a lot, I detect absolutely nothing of the sweaty odour found by other reviewers. To me it's just a particularly rich spicy fragrance, indeed the strongest I've tested.

Most certainly the premier atrocity of the fragrance world. This is the most putrid, reeking, sweat-infused brew of nasty BO one could ever imagine. Cumin-overload, words cannot describe the horrors contained in the stylish graphic bottle. This could be used as some kind of chemical weapon for sure. Horrendous. Surrealistically vile. An absolute abomination.

Received a sample with another fragrance purchase. I don't like it for me (woman), not sure that any woman would like it. I gave it to my husband and he tried it, it went on very strong and aggressive but softened up nicely. Still not my favorite though.

Think, "overpacked train from Dehli to Bombay in the heat of the summer"; that's L'Autre (L'Outre?) This is singular and definitely NOT to most tastes but, as this is probably the only fragrance I could safely wear to a leather-bear bar and not be turned away at the door for wearing fragrance, it is now a part of my collection.
And it probably will come in handy for spicing up a so-so madrass curry.

Brewed in the cauldrons of hell this is. Pit-sweat in a jar. I absolutely don't have a clue where they were going with this one. Gross Man.