L'Eau (1968)
by Diptyque

This is a good scent, but I feel it could be better. It definitely is a spicy potpourri, with particular emphasis on cinnamon and cloves. There is a woody tone underneath the spices, and sometimes a deep rose note tentatively appears. Initially the spices overwhelm the floral notes, and unless you really love cloves you might find this problematic. Eventually the scent settles down and it finishes with a lovely light spice chord. If I could redesign this, I'd lessen the spices at the top and augment the rose note. A deep and sustained rose, framed by spices, would be marvelous.

25th November, 2011.

As a lover of cinnamon and spicy scents, this one was always on my radar, even before I bought a full bottle. I remember reading the glowing review it got in Perfumes: The Guide and that was all the prompting I needed to spring for a bottle when I was at the Diptyque store in NYC.

After having worn the scent for almost a year now, I finally understand where this fragrance is coming from. Basically it's a spiced rose scent, evoking the smell of dried flower petals, woods and barks - basically potpourri. Of course, many people find the smell of potpourri a bit 'cheap' or matronly. Not me. To me it perfectly captures a feeling of comfort. A warm room that you step into, from the cold. A cup of hot tea, spiced, warm in your hands. The way your kitchen smells a couple of hours after you've baked a dessert. These sort of images.

It took a while for me to 'get' the rose, but it's definitely there. Subtle, so that when it blends with the clove, it almost becomes a spicy rose scent rather than just a spicy scent. I find it lasts and last when I over apply it just a bit.

Of course there are a ton of other spicy scents, many of which are much more complex and balanced than L'Eau. I hope to explore all of them, but in the meantime L'Eau is more than satisfying.

19th October, 2011.

If you like your fragrance dry and spicy, you should try L'EAU. But do leave your preconceived notions of "l'eau" at the door for this is not your garden variety 'eau'. There's a lot of cloves over cinnamon bark, softened just a touch by a fuzzy non-distinct floral. Smells somewhat potpouri-sh if you ask me. And masculine to boot.

L'Eau is probably best enjoyed from a distance, not up close. Especially if you are sensitive to cloves. But I wouldn't really worry given its modest projection. I didn't quite like it at first but with subsequent wearings I grew to appreciate its rustic charm. Rather like taking a vacation off the beaten track. Nice one, Diptyque!

13rd December, 2010.

Nope. Way too much clove for me—Not that I dislike clove, but it isn’t my idea of a good choice for a long-lasting linear fragrance. A good, strong, aromatic clove note is capable of sucking the breath out of the body, and this note is as powerful as they come. If there are other notes in L’Eau, you can’t prove it by me…OK, I lied. I’ll admit that I smelled cinnamon for about seven seconds immediately upon spraying, but seven seconds doesn’t count. This is a very simple scent for a person to make a purchasing decision about: If you don’t like the first ten seconds, then don’t buy because it is strong and aromatic and it doesn’t change except for getting gradually weaker. If you like it, buy it. As for me…no thanks. It’s a great scent for a potpourri, but it’s not my idea of a desirable EDT. Besides, there’s that Christmas ham smell-alike thing…

Originally submitted 06 April 2007

7th December, 2010.

Diptyque’s first scent has a stupefying opening: it’s a blaring accord of cinnamon Red Hots candies and citrus rind that while blatantly artificial, keeps me sniffing just because it’s so utterly weird. As things progress the citrus settles down, the cinnamon candy mutates into cloves, and a soft rose emerges in the background, all of which results in a much more conventional carnation accord. At a distance L’Eau’s main movement is a pleasant rose/carnation over creamy woods, but smelled up close there’s still something harsh and disturbingly “chemical” about it.

Like so many of the Diptyque scents that have come since, L’Eau remains relatively linear once its core arrangement settles into place. As it wears on I feel that this represents Diptyque’s trial run at personal fragrances – which of course, it was. As such, I can’t say it was a promising first effort. Its oddness soon begins to look like clumsiness, with the clove note in particular being far out of balance. In retrospect it’s both remarkable and gratifying that L’Eau’s successors include such beauties as Virgilio, Eau Lente, and Philosykos. More an item of historical interest, I think, than a viable personal fragrance.

12nd December, 2009.

A "clove bomb", it certainly is ! ... And I'm really not one for heavy cloves. Or even just any cloves for that matter.
But that being said, I was actually very pleasantly surprised, and somewhat confused to finding myself quite enjoying this scent anyway. There is something about the combination and blending of the rest of the notes, which somehow has allowed me to even enjoy something I would have normally recoiled from. (That alone, was quite enough to impress me). For it is the only clove prominent scent that I've actually been able to enjoy so far.
It is though, quite a bold scent. And best suited for the coldest weather. The sort of scent that would be ideal to wear at Christmas time. Whilst sitting in front of a log fire, sipping warm eggnog.
However, unfortunately, many hours later it does eventually dry down to nothing but clove. At which point, for me, it also then looses it's charm.

10th November, 2009.