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“My lips are sealed.” These are the words that shot out of my mouth in panic earlier this month when one of the biggest names in the fragrance industry asked after my perfume. While typically a compliment, this was a worst-case scenario playing out in real time on a day in which I had forgotten to douse my neck in one of his own creations. He caught a whiff of me, gasped, declared his adoration for my perfume and asked those three dreaded words: What is it?!
In this sort of situation, I have two options. One, I tell the truth and risk offending him. Or two, the option I chose, keep things elusive. He simply laughed it off and didn’t dare ask after it again—a gentlemanly way of saving us both any embarrassment. If, however, I were to have told him the truth about this compliment-winning perfume, I would have revealed the perfume that stopped him in his tracks was, in fact, an at-the-time unreleased perfume—Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette.
Since its release in 2021, Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Parfum has become not just a part of my life, but a part of me. While my unfiltered mouth, clumsy movements and (somewhat infamous as a beauty director) laissez-faire approach to self-care often make me feel otherwise, Orphéon has been my reliable cloak of cool for the past five years. And now, there is a new Orphéon Eau de Toilette on the block.
Before we get into this new perfume, I want to give some background on the original Orphéon Eau de Parfum for those who are not au fait. It is, frankly, impossible to step into Orphéon’s realm and not become the coolest person in the room. Orphéon is the embodiment of dishevelled Parisian chic. It is the brooding French girl you see sitting at a bar with a cigarette in one hand and a gin martini in the other—the cool girl I long to be. With just one spritz, it transforms me into her, even if just for the day. And that is what a great, nay, the best perfume does.
And I’ll be honest, a 2026 Diptyque retelling of the Orphéon story in the form of an eau de toilette isn’t something I thought the world needed. The late, great perfumer behind Orphéon Eau de Parfum, Olivier Pescheux, created something so beautifully unique that I wasn’t sure how an eau de toilette could exist. Orphéon, as I knew it, is both soft and intense—it possesses a quality that lingers like smoke with the freshness of powder. It has both the lightness of an eau de toilette and the power of an eau de parfum—so what, I might have asked, was the need?
But I was intrigued, and so I obliged when Diptyque asked me to be the first editor to review it ahead of launch. Here’s why I’m predicting Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette will be on every cool-girl’s neck this year…
Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette, Reviewed
Diptyque
Orphéon Eau de Toilette
Key notes: Green mandarin, yuzu, juniper berries, pink peppercorn, ginger, rose, magnolia, cedar, musk
If it were a song: Quelqu’un m’a dit, Carla Bruni
If it were a drink: A sparkling, citrus-infused gin and tonic
If it were a person: Françoise Hardy
If Orphéon Eau de Parfum is the powder room of a smoky Parisian jazz bar in the 1960s (the fragrance was inspired by the very bar the founders of Diptyque used to frequent), Orphéon Eau de Toilette is the sparkling, citrus-garnished gin cocktail the hostess pours herself as she pulls up the shutters and puts out the al fresco seating on a spring evening, before the darkness of night descends. It is radiant, dazzling, bright and full of promise. And yet, that powdered, smoky, grounding core of Orphéon still teases the nose, welcoming you in through its doors.
I often say that I imagine Orphéon Eau de Parfum to be a dancer of the Moulin Rouge touching up her makeup after the night’s show in her dressing room, before heading out for a nightcap, where the smell of face powder, cigarette smoke and gin fills the air. Orphéon Eau de Toilette, on the other hand, is the same dancer, in that same dressing room, but this time she is pre-show. A silk robe envelops her freshly showered skin. She moisturises with powdery, floral-scented lotion. She lights a cigarette. She pours herself a gin and tonic, squeezing in some citrus, and she relaxes into a state of nonchalance that only a Parisian seemingly can.
In the real world, however, Diptyque Orphéon Eau de Toilette can be described almost unanimously with just one word: cool. Yes, it’s sparkling, joyous and undoubtedly crowd-pleasing (whereas the beauty of the eau de parfum, in my opinion, is in its interest-piquing uniqueness), but it still maintains that slightly dishevelled, imperfect character. It is not solely a citrus scent, nor is it solely a floral scent—it exists in its own realm of effervescent, laid-back joy with a subtle sweetness you can’t help but lean into.
It doesn’t shout out loud as a strong perfume, but it doesn’t drench you in watery freshness, either. True to its Orphéon name, it lingers—this time not descending like a plume of smoke, but tap dancing its way over the skin with light pitter-patters. It is the perfume everyone seems to be craving in 2026—the olfactory manifestation of cool-girl nonchalance that doesn’t exclude anyone. It is the antithesis of a demanding power scent and instead acts as a daily dose of metamorphosis, transforming you into the coolest, carefree, most optimistic version of yourself.
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