Diptyque
Diptyque
16.2k votes
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A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Cypress arrives with a green, almost gin-like brightness, immediately tempered by coriander's warm spice and a wisp of rose that reads more peppery than floral. The effect is fresh but not sharp, aromatic without veering into cologne territory, setting up the woods with an unexpected lightness.
Here's where the sandalwood and cedar intertwine, the former lending its characteristic creaminess whilst the latter provides structure and that distinctive pencil-shaving dryness. Myrtle adds a subtle aromatic quality—slightly medicinal, faintly honeyed—that prevents the heart from becoming too linear, whilst the powdery accord begins to soften all the edges.
What remains is intimate and skin-like: a musky-woody veil where white woods and sandalwood have blended into something almost monolithic, powdery without sweetness, warm without spice. It's the olfactory equivalent of well-worn wood, smooth and pale, radiating gentle warmth an inch from the skin.
Tam Dao is Diptyque's love letter to the sandalwood forests of Indochina, though it's the way cypress and cedarwood shoulder the composition that gives it such distinctive character. This isn't about draping yourself in Mysore's creamy opulence—it's leaner, more architectural, with that opening cypress providing a green-grey freshness that stops the woods from feeling too earnest. The rose in the top notes never fully blooms; instead, it lends a subtle pepperiness that plays beautifully with coriander's citric spice, creating an almost aldehydic shimmer over the grain of the wood.
What makes Tam Dao compelling is its creamy-powdery texture that emerges without relying on tonka or vanilla. This is wood dust made silky, the musk and sandalwood creating something tactile and soft-focus whilst the cedar keeps things honest with its pencil-shaving dryness. There's a meditative quality here, the kind of scent that smells like afternoon light through workshop windows. It sits close—this is very much an EDT that whispers rather than projects—making it ideal for those who find Santal 33 too brash or Bois d'Argent too polished.
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3.8/5 (12.0k)