Diptyque Eau Capitale Eau de Parfum is a lighter, barely-in-bloom rose with leafy greens and light, woody and earthy tones. It was primarily a rose and patchouli scent with a greener, fresher rose being the dominant note until deep into development where the patchouli showed up more noticeably in the drydown. These are the notes:
- top notes: pink pepper, bergamot
- heart notes: rose
- base notes: patchouli
It opened with soft, lightly jammy rose with an effervescent citrus that morphed into an aromatic, fresh rose with tender green leaves in the early morning with damp soil beneath the shrub. The rose was lifted by the peppery and green notes and was fresh rather than jammy, despite that opening moment of sweetness.
The development was more linear, so for the most part, what was experienced after the first 15 minutes was very much the remainder of the fragrance. I found that the green characteristic waxed and waned over time before becoming harder to detect at the fourth hour, which was when the patchouli came forward more and met with the fresh rose.
Application
For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.
I purchased my sample in January 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.
Longevity
It lasted for six hours until it was a skin-scent and about 10 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. It had moderate sillage for the first three hours and projected readily above my wrist for the first four hours.
Personal Thoughts
It’s a fragrance that earns a lot of comparisons to Frederic Malle’s Portrait of a Lady, which I would say is a darker, much more intense and nuanced fragrance–more to it, simply–whereas Eau Capitale is lighter, fresher, and more linear. I personally found Portrait of a Lady to have entirely too much projection and sillage that something like Eau Capitale would suit me better from that perspective, but Eau Capitale lacks the smoky, woody aspects of Portrait of a Lady, so they are definitely not that similar in practice.
Available Sizes
- 75ml for $190
- 0.7ml sample for $6
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