When I heard, that the new perfume Volutes by Diptyque has been inspired by a childhood memory of founder Yves Coueslant, namely by a passage from Marseille to Saigon, I immediately thought of one of my favorite books – The Lover by Marguerite Duras. I also love the movie and its soundtrack. It’s a blue, bittersweet melancholia amidst the scenery of the fertile landscape of Vietnam.
Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin has created the image of elegant ladies on a steamboat, standing at the rail smoking Egyptian cigarettes and sending smoke rings into the cool sea air. I imagine the famous scene from The Lover, the little French girl wearing a man’s hat and braids, putting her worn down stiletto on the rail while the Chinese man is observing her.
Volutes is a very feminine, soft scent with spicy nuances, yet cool. Sweet-smoky-spicy-cool to be precise. Iris is very dominant in the composition and functions as a metaphor for the silk dresses fluttering in the wind. It is also a very good contrast to the sweetness of honey tobacco. Dried fruits and oriental spices reveal an aroma of an oriental market, maybe a stopover of this journey. Resins represent the ship’s engine room. Volutes is a very round and strong composition, an intense woody oriental perfume. I don’t find it suitable for men. Amber pulls us into the depths of the ocean while the smoke rings fly to heaven. Volutes spreads the word into all cardinal directions.
Category: unisex
Year: 2012
Perfumer: Fabrice Pellegrin
Notes: pink pepper, pepper, saffron, clove, tobacco, honey, suede, hay, strawflower, amber, iris, myrrh, opoponax
