Diptyque: L'eau Papier Review

After wandering into a Diptyque store a long time ago, I was immediately taken with Eau Duelle, although never found it in myself to pick up a full size of it having been so new to perfumes back then. However, revisiting them now again, I find myself fascinated with their blends. At the price point it's being offered (as with all high end/department store perfumes), it's a little daunting, but compared to more high end/mainstream blends, Diptyque offers more of a grounded and approachable scent profile (in my humble opinion). In recent times, there's been a slight uptake in mainstream/niche perfume reviews from me, and I have to say, I've been surprised by the photorealistic nuances of some of the high-end/department friendly perfumes I've tried. While there are always those which still smell like 'perfume' to me, Diptyque has grabbed my attention by having distinct and interesting scent profiles, especially since Eau Duelle has stayed in my mind for literally years (rent free). Anyway, you can look forward to a series of reviews of Diptyque scents now. Let's start with L'eau Papier, which was released in 2023. 

L'eau Papier:  In L'Eau Papier, white musks are delicately complemented by an accord of Rice Steam, evoking the grain of the paper. To these are added luminous notes of Mimosa, while a backdrop of Blonde Wood tones grounds L'Eau Papier in the material itself. 

I've made no secret of my love for nutty/starchy notes, and I definitely found myself interested in trying out this scent purely due to the rice. I have a difficult time with rice blends which tend to dip heavily into musks as I dislike heavy musks (I have a tumultuous affair with Poesie's Soft - I love it but somedays it's an immediate scrubber for me). Based on the notes, I was actually expecting far more of a warm rice nutty note, but the opening is surprisingly sharp floral from the mimosa, a slightly zesty/fruity quality paired with the musk. For me, the opening is almost too heavy on the musk, with a light vanilla quality, and it actually reminded me a lot of Blanket (Poesie), a soft, vanilla musk only with the barest hint of steamed rice. It's also a little damp, and reminds me a bit of Tempo tissues. After giving it more time to settle, the rice note blossoms to the surface, paired with an edge of light blonde wood. The rice note here has a slight sharpness to it, but it's mostly comprised of musky, warm saouvry steamed rice. I sniffed this with a friend, who said it smelt a lot like sake, and I definitely get that from the slightly sharp, sweet aspects there paired with the moorish, starchiness of the scent. While I've seen other people describe this as a translucent, water color paper scent, and also with sesame/cornflake or popcorn nuances, but I don't get any of those, especially not the paper, ink or translucence inspirations that made up this scent. For me, I find this to be a cozy, cashmere, smooth and velvety blend, like sticky, smudged rice. I also think this smells very very similar to Soft (Poesie) but a little softer, with the sake-like accord at the very edges of this scent. For me, while I think this scent is a really lovely rice scent especially in the later stages of the wear, I don't think the performance justifies the price tag. It has a very light, faint sillage and throw, paired with around 5-6 hours of wear. This scent also only comes as a EDT (the less concentrated version), and I found this faded very quickly on me, so I'd be hard pressed to come up with a justifiable reason to pick up a full size of this one.