Reviews of L'Ombre dans L'Eau (1983)
by Diptyque

It's always fun to try these polarizing scents. Here, I'm going to have to side with the haters. A bitter, vegetal opening (crushed tomato leaves?) dies down to a vague middle, from which a rather processed-smelling, almost cooked, rose note emerges. There's nothing here I want to smell like. Pass.

Diptyque certainly makes some unconventional, push-the-envelope type scents. This is another one. Here we have a very sharp and harsh green opening. Eventually a dark rose emerges, but the harsh green doesn’t go away. I like the rose somewhat, but the green ruins it for me.

Bitter, jarring opening, melds into an unappealing, artificial rose scent. The least enjoyable Diptyque I have yet to experience.

The surprising opening smells pink / purple to me: It’s syrupy sweet and surrealistically rosy. I’m more shocked than impressed because I really don’t know what to make of it. Then there’s an acidic sharpness that comes immediately after spraying. It’s green and quite a bit harsh, but I’m not complaining, because I like it better than I like the uberpinkpurple rose note. I get rose, but to my nose it’s quite a cheap, fake rose note – pink… errr… purple – actually one of the most undesirable rose notes I’ve smelled in fragrances – bubble-gummy sweet. This rose note is tenacious and domineering and selfish – it won’t allow me to smell the other notes in the accord. I even lose that sharp green of the opening. My nose is not interpreting the notes of this fragrance very well, I’m afraid. I usually get along with Diptyque fragrances excellently, but this one I have to vote a thumb’s down. (Edit of 09 December 2006 review.)

To me, this smelled like ferns and rose geraniums... tossed in a dumpster and left to rot. Pungent and unpleasant.

At first quite nice a scent, especially the fascinating turn from the starting note, which is a little crispy, almost pine–like, to the perfectly authentic smell of heavy roses after some moments. But all in all it does not last too long and leaves a somehow morbid old lady–like smell at least on my skin. A perfume I would never recommend to a young man, at least if he does not feel like an impersonator of the late Judy Garland.

I just can't seem to hitch a ride on the Diptyque love train, and this widely loved Diptyque scent hammers that home for me. While not unpleasant - as in sour, musty, dusty, dour - like some rose scents can be, L'Ombre dans L'Eau smells so basic and straightforward to my nose that it just leaves me unstirred. Fresh, dewy young rose meets some green notes. Boom, the end. I don't get any black currant, no earthy notes, no nuance whatsoever beyond buds and leaves. I've really made an effort with Diptyque scents but they just don't cut it for me. Recently I happened across a shop that was selling a few Diptyque scents, including this L'Ombre, at dramatically discounted prices. I'm talking around $15 a bottle. And I STILL couldn't get myself to buy any of them; if that's not my subconscious telling me, "Calchic, you really hate these, you won't admit it but you really hate these," then I don't know what is!