Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Volutes Collection by Diptyque - Best of 2012



In one of my posts in a series of articles about my last trip to NYC (in Portuguese), I mentioned my visit to the Diptyque store at 377, Bleecker Street. This shop is everything a perfumista can wish for. Besides all the magnificent perfumes and candles, the  attendant is extremely nice and helpful, and the decor is breathtaking. 
I spent more than an hour there, and left the shop with Volutes.
Volutes is the newest launch of the brand (launched last October), and the collection offers both EDP and EDT versions. I also got a solid perfume, but frankly I am not sure now if they sell it or it was just a small gift they give to good clients like me :-)
The concept of the fragrance is rather unusual - a tobacco-honeyed perfume that would develop beautifully on both genders, and perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin constructed an elegant and modern perfume with a bold note of tobacco combined with waxy honeyed notes, spices, iris, immortelle, myhrr, opoponax, storax and benzoin. He is known for his expertise and love for oriental perfumes, and Diptyque has never had one before in its collections. So this is also unusual. It may sound odd when reading about it, but it is really a magnificent perfume.


Volutes EDP  - Perfume sample
Photo Credit: + Q Perfume Blog

The duality of genders in this perfume concept was resolved with iris added for the ladies, evoking femininity, and  a woody leathery- suede facet to express masculinity. This woody accent was elaborated with synthetic creamy notes of sandalwood, cedar and violets. The spicy tons were given with notes pink/black pepper and saffron. It contains energy, piquancy and elegance, and added a vibrant and rich touch to the perfume.
The EDP contains more irises and styrax and it is a more of a flowery sweet perfume. The tobacco was muffled by layers of loud silky powdery iris and gourmet notes.
I think the EDP version is more suitable for women, while the EDT will conquer men easily. Which is also logic as we are used to find these concentrations in the market divided by gender exactly this way


VOLUTES EDT by DIPTYQUE 
Photo credits: + Q Perfume Blog

I sincerely loved the EDT version much more. It developed more beautifully on my skin. Although I am crazy about irises, in this case, I think the EDT is much more unique, while the EDP is average. That happens because in the EDT version the tobacco and saffron really stands out as a whiff of mysterious  fumes of exotic lands. It is more masculine and yet, still very beautiful on women. I was in doubt what to buy, if my beloved Iris Ganache by Guerlain or Volutes, and in the end I decided that Volutes is different, less gourmet, more interesting.
The dry down of the EDP version of Volutes is somehow boring. It lacks surprises. I also take it men will prefer the EDT version because it is more aggressive; while the EDP is more round, more purrr-y.
In the EDP concentration, the tobacco takes a while to come to surface and when it does, it is quite shy. Also 
vanilla takes over at some point, reminding that in this business nowadays, originality is hard to find.


VOLUTES by DIPTYQUE - Solid Perfume 4g
Photo credits: + Q Perfume Blog

The solid perfume is even softer and less spicy than the EDP. It has a waxy iris that feels like a wrap of a silky ribbon, and it feels more naive than the other versions. 


Perfumed booklet
Diptyque gift I got!
Photo credits: + Q Perfume Blog

I will not extend myself here about the inspirations and history behind the concept because other blogs received the same press material I did, and have already published it.
This is just one more opinion about this amazing creation, that in my point of view, it is the best fragrance launched in 2012, till this date.
What can I say, I left the store with postcards, a perfumed booklet that when you turn the pages it makes them move and the air smell nice...I loved this perfume and it took me  more than a month to publish the review because I was having a secret love affair with it. Now I am ready to share...

1 comment:

Undina said...

I'm not used to Diptyque having more than one concentration of their perfumes that if it wasn't for this review I would have probably made a mistake of ordering the EdP version (I like that black trim on the bottle) while what I tested and liked was EdT (I think, since my sample was in a white box - will need to double check). So thank you :)

I thought that Volutes was extremely interesting and I will want to add it to my collection at some point.

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