Diptyque L'Eau Trois

I've always thought about Diptyque L'Eau Trois as a summer scent because it's so dry and the way it captures the heat of a Mediterranean afternoon. It reminds me of long hot days when the heat rises from the earth, stones and aromatic greenery mixed with dust from the rocks. But recently a reader mentioned L'Eau Trois as a winter staple and that makes perfect sense. The Mediterranean fantasy is perfect for a cold and damp day in January.

Diptyque L'Eau Trois is opaque and linear. You smell the herbal aroma of wild thyme and oregano mixed with raw cistus and myrrh. Cistus, or rock rose grows wild in certain areas of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, its scent part of the local shrubland. That and the chewy myrrh dominate the background of L'Eau Trois. I inhale, breathe deeply and it banishes the windchill.

The colors I see when I smell L'Eau Trois are the green of juniper and the low-growing Mediterranean oak varieties, gray-brown of dry earth, and bright blue sunny sky. Its sound are birds and buzzing insects you hear as you lie down to take a delicious nap on an old blanket after having a picnic under the tree. There are patches of sun and shades moving very slowly as there's little to no breeze. The dry air smells good, you fall asleep and wake up just as the sun begins to set and the bushes send up one last blast of their promising scent.

Notes: Myrrh, Myrtle, Oregano, Cistus, Pine, Laurel, Thyme, Rosemary

L'Eau Trois was released in 1975 and was probably never one of Diptyque's biggest sellers. It was discontinued for a while (together with Virgilio and Eau de Elide) around 2007 but has recently returned as one of Diptyque's boutique exclusives. While you can't buy L'Eau Trois from retailers such as Barneys, Aedes or online, you can visit or call Diptyque stores and get it from them directly.

Photo: Rock forms in Sardinia, Italy by Luigi FDV on Flickr, 2010.