Diptyque Ofresia

This one is very, very potent. Don't overspray! Only spray once or twice, I learned the hard way. Luckily it was a sunday and I didn't need to meet people.

I have it, and have worn it. It seems to me to be a shared scent. I see no reason you shouldn't wear it if you like it.

I've worn it in springtime with success. I'm not sure ofresia is my kind of flower though, but it is indeed very natural smelling.

Hard question, but the answer is yes, you can wear it.

Ofresia is one of the great scents in an adventurous collection. It says things NO other scent even dreams of saying. It is a total pepper, sunlight, fields, grass, and BAM--fresia, scent. A wonderful, wonderful ride to take that everyone who loves the changes to our olfactory daily experiences should try. If you like the smell, I say you must get a bottle and you must wear it.

To directly answer your question of whether or not it's too girly, I say it is such a good question. The kind of wildness that Ofresia offers is usually allowed to women but not allowed to men. Easy for society to see women getting trippy over flower power, but society thinks men should be in woody things. That's the barrier you're running against. But the scent is so compelling that anyone wearing it will smell amazing and interesting to people who smell around you and realize it's a perfume. They won't think "he smells LIKE a woman smells," they'll think you're taking unusual olfactory rides for a man. The scent thus does go far, but I say far in a very good way that pays rewards. If you were to wear it regularly people you know would get to know it on you and it would be perfect.

It happens I've got the good fortune to enjoy floral scents, so when I say this you can dismiss me by saying Chris just goes for flowers, but I'll say it anyway--the fresia flower smells fantastic. Buy a few of them at the florist for your next gift to someone. Smell them a lot yourself. See how great they are. See how well the drydown of Ofresia absolutely nails that smell. Think how lucky you are to be able to add pepper and grass to it and pull it off for the 12, 18, or sometimes 24 hours that that magnificent and potent Diptyque stuff lasts.

A really great creation. Best is that even now, having smelled it but not having bought it to wear regularly, even reading these words now, you've got a firm memory of what the smell is like. Even though the smell isn't in your nose right now it is firmly in your memory for easy recall. In contrast, think of all the scents that don't lodge in your memory when they're out of your nose. I bet you'll remember Ofresia every time it comes up for decades, even if you don't buy a bottle. That's how good of a command this scent has on us.

What a write up Chris! Excellent! Fresia... I always add the O infront for some mysterious reason

Fragrances of this type are not really famous for their lasting power so it is remarkable this one does last so well.

I'm not hi-jacking the thread, but thought I could take the time to list some other fragrances well worth to seek out if you enjoy Ofresia.

Comme des Garcons - Lily. Lillies and fresia. Works awesome on a guy. I wear it quite a bit and I know lots of others from the male part of Basenotes who does this as well with great enjoyment. I've read numerous comments from females who have trouble wearing it though, simply because of the fresia note.

Editions des Parfums Frederic Malle - En Passant. Green and rain damped lilac. I've only used it from a dab on sample, but have toyed with the thought of a full bottle. There is a cheaper alternative though, which might even surpass this one:

d'Orsay - Tilleul. I looked this one up just to discover the linden blossom note. I didn't really find that one, but still an awesome fragrance very much in the same vein as En Passant. I really want a bottle, but forgot to get it during this summer. Coming spring maybe?

I was thinking about adding Diptyques Philosykos to this thread as well, but it is just as much about it's woody base as the green and musty fig, so I didn't really see it fit. Neither do I see the Hermès offers or any l'Artisans fitting here either. It is not simply green we are looking for.

Once again, great post Chris! I hope you have more to add to this thread.

This is a staple for me and stayed my primary scent for a good long time. I spray them on cards and things I send people, I even made travel sprays for them when I went on trips to the foreign lands.... need I say more?

I think some things are simply natural and beautiful enough one would stop and just appreciate its beauty, without even tapping into the gender classifications.

When I first smelled this on paper, I knew I would need a bottle, and I will wear it regardless of what people might say or think. Art in the olfactory field should be treated with a little more respect by the two genders I must say?

Wow Ofresia (which prior to this thread I had never heard of) sounds great.

Mike, it really is great.

I wore it today because of Shifts' great comments and the list of other scents I've now certainly got to try. It happens I've been interested in D'Orsay's Tilleul too, and for the linden note as well. Now I've got the fresia in it to look forward to.

Shifts, I hope I have more to add to the thread too! I hope something comes to me quickly at that. I wore the stuff, putting it on 11 hours ago now, and it remains very strong. I had dinner with an old friend who promptly complimented the scent when I hugged her on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. She insisted on knowing what the scent was and where she could get it. With names like Diptyque and Ofresia, I had to write them down for her. "Chris was wearing Diptyque's Ofresia" said the page of my notebook I tore out for her. She said she thought it was really great and loved getting wafts of it as we ate so I guess it's pretty strong (still). I put on five sprays, and I guess Ofresia doesn't need that many. Nice to think I might have been killing bugs with it as I walked past shrubery. Now I know about the strength, but now I also know that the scent's strength made my friend very happy too.

Another of the very interesting things about Ofresia and its strength is that its strength is sort of the opposite of the sillage and longevity strengths we usually expect in fragrances. Usually it is the heavy ingredients--patchouli, amber, musk, sandalwood sometimes, vetiver sometimes--that pop into our mind when we think of strength monsters. Those are all deep and smooth low-register sort of smells, but Ofresia has none of them. It is a very high-register, light and airy scent, closer to bergamot's effect in the nose. We don't usually think of these high, green, floral, light register elements being strong, long lived, and sillage heavy. Because they aren't heavy. But Ofresia is mighty--very mighty--and all in spreading high-register herbal "stuff" without being exactly herbal either.

Wow, I'm talking myself into even greater love of this one. It's really phenomenal to me. I'm sure there are members who absolutely can't stand it though. This one is so very different and has all the blue-ribbon qualities we praise in scent-blending genius too.

Happy birthday, Shifts, and Mike, you're going to love Ofresia when you get a chance with it (I hope!).
--Chris

I better warn you before you get dissapointed, but I don't think there is fresia in Tilleul. It is just a fragrance in the same vein as Ofresia.

No problem at all, Shifts. I'll check out Tilleul for sure just for its being in the same vein as Ofresia. Thanks!

Wow, a load of people who like Ofresia - even more than me! I live in Kenya and can't buy it here. Does anyone know where I can buy Ofresia online in the UK? I can then stick it in my next visitors suitcase and hopefully it will get here before i run out. So far have only been able to find US online fragrance shops which would cost a fortune to ship all the way here.
any advice would be much welcomed, thanks!

I'd say Chris is spot-on regarding Ofresia.

It's very wearable for a guy - sure, freesia is a white floral, but the grass and the pepper balances it out.