In my own perfume collection, certain houses receive more attention during certain seasons of the year. Diptyque happens to be a summer favorite of mine: I’ve worn L’Ombre dans L’Eau every summer since 2003, and I’m also very fond of Eau Rose and Eau de Lierre. Diptyque’s latest release, Florabellio, puzzled me on paper, and I wasn’t able to guess how much I’d like it or what season it would best fit. Florabellio was developed by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin and features notes of salty sea spray, sea fennel, apple blossom, osmanthus, coffee and toasted sesame.

My sample vial of Florabellio has turned out to be a very suitable fragrance for the earliest days of summer. Diptyque describes Florabellio as “foreign yet familiar…blurring the perspectives between land and sea, flower and fruit, softness and bitterness.” Most of that description makes perfect sense to me…

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