Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Diptyque has introduced a limited edition capsule collection: Rosaviola, a scent packaged in collaboration with designer Olympia Le-Tan. I’m not specially a fan of Le-Tan, whom The New York Times has praised for her “glamorous geek aesthetic” and her clutch purses that reinterpret classic book covers in fabric and embroidery — a “nod to a bygone era when people carried actual books,” the Times tells us.1 I still carry real books, rather than a $2000 clutch, but I’m not one of the well-connected Le-Tan’s celebrity clients and never will be. What I am, however, is someone who can not resist a violet-rose perfume, so here we are.
Rosaviola is composed of notes of violet, violet leaf, raspberry, iris and leather; it’s meant to evoke the scent of a woman’s handbag and the cosmetics tucked inside…