Seven years ago, around this time of year, in a bar in Madrid with brick walls and velvet sofas, I discovered the perfume that would end up being my signature scent for almost a decade. It was by chance that a friend of a friend came to say hello to the table and introduced himself to me. I don’t remember his name, nor his face, but today I could list from memory the notes of his perfume, which shortly after would also end up being mine: myrrh, myrtle, oregano, rockrose, pine, laurel, thyme and rosemary—cocktailed into Diptyque L’Eau Trois.
At the time, I had to ask him more than a dozen times before he finally divulged its name. “I can’t tell you,” he repeated. “It’s the perfume I’ve been wearing since I turned twenty, and I wouldn’t want to recognize it on someone else. I don’t want it to become fashionable.” I calculated that the man was in his forties and decided that twenty years of uninterrupted fidelity to a single fragrance was a good reason to insist. In the end, after a CIA-like interrogation paired with a Moscow Mule or two, I got it: it was the third perfume created by legendary French fragrance house Diptyque, a unisex formula that the perfumer Serge Kalouguine devised in 1975 with a relaxing, warm, mystical and deeply comforting scent.
The brand sums it up with a very appropriate visual analogy: “At the top of Mount Athos, after a long hike, we sought shelter from the burning sun within the walls of a monastery. When we opened the doors, the scent of resinous shrub mingled with the incense and myrrh burned during the service.” A description that could not be more accurate, nor more apt. That feeling of warmth from candles burning in an empty cathedral, of thick smoke hanging in the air is, in my opinion, what makes it the perfect winter fragrance, the one you would want to find under the tree every Christmas. When you apply it, the cold feel a little less cold.
From the beginning, Diptyque L’Eau Trois was presented to me as a kind of higher power, and so, unsurprisingly perhaps, it’s near-impossible to get hold of a sample. You can buy it on the brand’s website, but it’s only available to test IRL in certain Diptyque stores. Personally, I took the plunge and purchased it direct from the site, but I would recommend tracking down a sample to check if it’s right for you. What I can guarantee, however, is that you will never forget it.