Since Frederic Malle’s Carnal Flower turned out to be so quiet and well behaved for a white floral, I thought I’d try a little shock therapy today. I’m wearing Olène by Diptyque, created by perfumer Serge Kalouguine and released in 1988. The notes are listed, not very helpfully, as wisteria and narcissus.

Olène is probably the sort of fragrance that creates a white-floral-hater. The first 15 minutes are heady, to put it lightly: an explosion of honeysuckle, and not just any old honeysuckle, but a very sweet honeysuckle. On steroids. That calms gradually — you won’t want to spray this on and walk right into an elevator full of innocent bystanders — into a lush blend of florals, with the wisteria and narcissus as promised, along with quite a bit of jasmine and a light musky base…

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