Beauty’s best innovations don’t always chase the next big thing. This issue celebrates enduring icons, thoughtful craftsmanship, and modern classics – from a fragrance created for a queen nearly five centuries ago to design-forward home scents, rose-powered skincare, and even a dog shampoo worthy of your vanity.
The cult Diptyque candle gets a refresh. Can you spot the difference?
When Diptyque released its fi rst scented candle in 1963, the maison wasn’t yet a maison at all – just a bohemian concept store on Boulevard Saint-Germain selling antiques, fabrics, and objects collected from the founders’ travels. The candle, dreamed up by British co-founder Desmond Knox-Leet, turned something quotidian into something decorative. More than 60 years and 50-odd scents later, it remains Diptyque’s signature.
This year, Diptyque has added no fewer than five new scents to its herbarium: Café (coffee), Ortie (nettle), Sésame Noir (black sesame), Rhubarbe (rhubarb), and Shiso. “The scents always encapsulate something, but it’s also kind of atypical, enigmatic, maybe a bit edgy. The founders loved scents that were wrong in some way. That’s the fine line the perfumer is always finding,” says Cecile de Buyer, the house’s international home fragrances and brand animations director.
The candles themselves – which have hardly changed since Knox-Leet created the labels decades ago – have also been tactfully redesigned. The update is subtle, more tactile than it is visual. Franco-Swiss designer Julie Richoz has reworked the glass vessel, adding a ridge that frames the label and sharpens the instantly recognizable black-and-white oval. The black lettering is glossier and slightly raised to the touch, engaging even more of the senses. And for the fi rst time, 10 of the maison’s scents will be available as refills. An old favorite, made to last.
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 7 – HERITAGE, LEGACY, FUTURE – out September 18! Order your copy here.
Photography courtesy of Diptyque
Instagram: @diptyque
