Olène (1988)
by Diptyque

Olene is one of my favorite perfumes for summer, I notice in some reviews that people think it's strong and cloying, I don't agree at all it's the best jasmine perfume for me, I think it's very fresh.
I can't stand A la nuit by Serge Lutens and agree with Tania Sanches that it's "death by Jasmine". If you have a chance to compare them you will see what I mean.

7th November, 2011.

This is a gentle, lovely floral scent. I think if I met a lovely woman wearing it I would fall head-over-heels in love!
It is a fairly sweet, spring-like floral with some green notes. The jasmine is accurately conveyed, along with heady wisteria and a spring-bulb note of narcissus. The scent has a youthful vibe.
The dry-down is so gorgeous that it really makes my heat skip a beat. I don't think I'd ever wear it but I'd happily encounter it!

17th October, 2011.

Hmmm...narcissus and wisteria?

According to my nose, white flowers abound iin Diptyque OLENE, to be precise: white flowers of the big, bold, bodacious type, including Tuberose with a capital T. There is also quite a dose of night-blooming jasmine here—and there may be some gardenia as well—but the tuberose note is initially so dominant, in fact, that it's going to determine whether or not you like this composition, it seems to me. If you're a big fan of buttery presentations of tuberose à la CARNAL FLOWER and FRACAS, you will welcome OLENE with flaring nostrils. If, on the other hand, you find such emphatic expressions a bit overwhelming, you'll want to steer clear. I fall into the former category and would love to add a bottle of OLENE to my small collection of haute floral perfumes.

24th July, 2011.

Big Jasmine Here.

It's what it's and it's very good at its job. Olene tries to deliver a quite realistic and indolic jasmine, somewhat green and not very sweet.
You should know that this should be perfect for any jasmine lover. If you are looking for other sort of fragrance, get any other, as this is a pure jasmine soliflore, with serious sillage and longevity. Linear as most diptyques, simple but not simplistic.

For the jasmine love a 10/10.

If you don't like jasmine or want something else...look elsewhere.

9th June, 2011.

Quite feminine. I find it a very strong white flower fragrance—heavy, and I don’t get much of the powder that has been mentioned. I also get a somewhat sharp, quite viscous (think: slimy) green note, which I like at first, but it soon turns on me. Primarily this scent is a strong white flower fragrance, without much more happening. If I try, I can get a hint of the mothball effect that takemyhusbandplz mentioned. As in most of Diptyques’s fragrances, it is very linear. This is a scent that doesn’t hold my interest for long because I feel that these particular accords need to go somewhere—to do something; since they don’t, it brings out a boredom that could easily lead to annoyance. Hence, I find that its linearity is a negative. Olene has excellent longevity. It’s not a terrible scent, but there are more interesting and better white floral fragrances around.

Originally submitted 24 May 2007

7th December, 2010.

very jasmine'y
i urge you to layer it with something oud and/or leather'y

then its perfect

5th October, 2010.