Reviews of Olène (1988)
by Diptyque

Olene is a white-hot white floral that sears itself into your brain like a lightning bolt. Jasmine and muguet, but lacking the smooth, pleasing roundness of the real flowers, being both a simpler and more stripped down accord as well as being ten times louder than nature's version. This is a sharp fragrance, but surprisingly not heavy given the volume of the sillage. It lasts a long time, too, developing a slight mushroomy quality far into the base I've yet to identify.

Bold and shocking but not particularly unique or interesting, this is a floral with amphetamine psychosis.

a big bouquet of white flowers, jasmine, narcissus, just pureness
with last powdery musk ??
and taking uncommom vine/rattan as the heart top as warm green breeze,
feminine with plain sweetness
i have to admit i love it

Quite nice but quite similar to Do Son. I have both samples with me and neither I nor my wife can tell the difference. Could they have placed the same fragrance in two sample vials by mistake?

I found it was too fresh and too watered down for my taste, I prefer sweet fragrances to have a lot of depth and this one does not. I think you can and I have found many easily available perfumes that evoke pretty much the same effect for less than a third of the price.

Olene is a big, heady, indolic jasmine, and whether or not it contains the night-scented species, it creates a profoundly nocturnal ambience. It’s a touch clearer, cooler, and drier that Serge Lutens’s A la Nuit, but it is a similarly weighty fragrance. As it ages on the skin Olene's indoles grow even more potent and prominent, without the honey and spice that season the jasmine in A la Nuit’s floral oriental context. In this regard Olene comes close to being a true soliflore, one of relatively few in modern perfumery.

As so many other Diptyque compositions, Olene is a relatively linear scent, sustaining its bold jasmine accord for hours before drying down to a musky, woody base. Olene is a potent fragrance: it projects well and leaves an ample cloud of sillage behind it. If you’re looking for a straightforward jasmine scent, I recommend you give Olene a try.

Olène is a pretty white floral scent but it’s too feminine for me too pull off, especially during the drydown.

Olene is simply the most indolic frag I've ever experienced! Serge Lutens' A La Nuit is still my favorite, which just happens to be the perfect blend of indolic jasmine and touch of green for my taste, however this Olene is worthy too! Olene reminds me of the opening indolic phase of yet another Luten's - Sarrasins. Ink smell, for sure! (I guess some may think it more 'mothball' smelling, but not me.) Olene possesses a unique sweetness as well, which I personally find better suited to feminine wearers.
If you like 'em bold - fragrant white flowers, heavy on the indoles - this one's not to be missed! Thumbs way up!

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.

This scent was worn by the eccentric, androgynous and manipulative manager of the Polo Ralph Lauren store in NYC 15 years ago. Wherever he went, this red haired fop carried this smell all over the store. To smell it was to smell power, but power exercised to intimidate and belittle.

I agree that this smell is equally as feminine as masculine, but it is also obnoxiously assertive and stays in a room hours after the wearer has left it.

Like a lot of Diptyque scents, if this doesn't work on your skin, it *really* doesn't work. Fortunately, it works on mine!

It's a beautiful, creamy floral - to me it's not subtle - it's quite overt and could be overpowering if overdone, but in the right dose it's a heavenly, true white flower scent. Very pretty.

Very synthetic in my opinion. And, unattractive as well. It continued to worsen with the drydown. Such a shame.

This is patently unwearable by men. Even on women, I don't think it's that great. The white florals are very vibrant and pure, but they're also extremely heavy and not balanced by other notes. As a result, it smells dated.

soft white flowers and delicately soapy ,i didnt find it particularly feminine ,wearable in the early morning at office or in a park while reading a books in springtime

Olene's description on their website: Wisteria and narcissus. The water evokes a deep and mysterious twilight of white, slender and starry flowers.
The description was lovely, but I should of known that this white floral wouldn't go with my chemistry.

This one turns into pure MOTH BALLS on my skin and it lasts forever which isnt a very good thing

Sharp yet soft - if that makes sense. Olene, composed of white florals headlined by wisteria and narcissus, has a whip-crack of some kind of sharpness to it. Whether it comes from the fragrance's alcohol content - all Diptyques I've ever tried have at least a moderate alcohol reek - or some of the spicier aspects of the narcissus or both, I'm not sure. But it's there, as is the honey-plush heat from what has got to be either honeysuckle or jasmine or both. Gardenia and tuberose - I think they may be in Olene as well, particularly the tuberose which adds least a little of its singular clean-dry-butteriness to the mix. Not much, though. Straight white florals are straight white florals to me and Olene's no exception. I hate to say it but *yawn* another non-starter from Diptyque for me, too predictable, too plain. I am giving it a neutral, however, because it's a pretty one in spite of its simple nature.

Olene is powdery white flower petals, soapy, fresh and subtle yet long lasting. It smells like the soapiness of Annick Goutal's Eau du Sud blended with the white flowers of Jessica McClintock (both of which should only we worn by women). The dominant notes in Olene are foremost white flowers with undertones of lemon and wood. Olene is not one bit masculine, and any man who wears this has some MAJOR gender issues.