I'm Obsessed With Diptyque Perfumes—Here's How I Built My Collection on a Budget (2024)

Out of all the beauty product categories out there, fragrance is my favourite. Perfume is powerful. It acts as an olfactory vehicle to transport us to a place, a certain person or a treasured memory, or simply to shift our mood on days we want to feel a certain way. This is why I've started collecting fragrances and building a perfume wardrobe. When I'm asked about my favourite scent, I say that I can't commit to a signature perfume because it totally depends on my mood, the season and where I'm going.

However, buying perfume—especially from luxury fragrance houses—can quickly become expensive, so I love perfume discovery sets because they allow me to try lots of different scents without breaking the bank or having buyer's remorse. Unless you live near a good fragrance hall or boutique that stocks niche brands, trying new scents isn't always easy, and blind-buying a fragrance online is risky. Thankfully, many brands now offer discovery sets or travel sets that allow you to test a couple of perfumes without committing to the cost of a full-size bottle.

The first discovery set contains five 7.5ml eau de toilette sprays that come pre-composed so you can experience some of Diptyque's best scents. As I'm indecisive, this is the set I opted for, which contains classics I've tried before like Philoskyos and Do Son, as well as Eau Rose Ombre Dans L'Eau and Eau De Sens.

The scents are housed in a chic box covered in the brand's iconic oval label motifs, which is presented inside a Diptyque pouch, and inside there is also a smaller pouch for you to store your favourite perfume in your bag. The small and nimble vials make them ideal for travelling, easily slotting into your carry-on bag or for top-ups on the go when out and about.

The pre-composed set comprises:

Philoskykos: With its take on the fig tree (which includes the bark, leaves and creamy fruit) this is one of the brand's most iconic scents. It's ideal if you like woody scents with a hint of creamy fruit.

Do Son: If you like white florals, you'll adore this. Inspired by Halong Bay in Vietnam, this floral scent centres around creamy tuberose, orange blossom and jasmine carried by a sea breeze.

Eau Rose: I've seen Rosie Huntington-Whiteley post this perfume on her Instagram, so you know it's a good rose scent. Think voluptuous rose petals with a twist of green, as well as some unexpected notes in the form of artichoke, chamomile and lychee.

Ombre Dans L'Eau: If you love Diptyque's Baies candle, you'll like this fruity-floral a lot. It's inspired by the scent of picking blackberries and roses and smells like a riverside daydream underneath a canopy of willow trees on a summer's day.

Eau De Sens: A celebration of the orange tree, with bitter orange, creamy orange blossom, green leaves and a twist of orange zest combined with angelica root, patchouli and juniper berry.

This discovery set contains Diptyque's best floral and fruity scents, so it's a great option if you want to add these to your collection or are buying for someone who prefers fruity and floral perfumes. If you'd rather have a mix of fragrance families, the To Compose discovery set below is your best bet for choosing your own selection of scents.

This discovery set allows you to build your own wardrobe of fragrances, and you can choose between 10 7.5ml vials to mix and match to your preferences.

In addition to the five classic scents in the composed discovery set, you can also choose between:

L'Eau Papier: This is a must-try if you love musk. Imagine the cleanness of a grained sheet of artisanal paper combined with blonde woods, musk and a sweet vapour of rice steam. It's clean, smooth and slightly sweet, and a compliment-generator for sure.

Tam Dao: This one is based on the velvety, milky scent of sandalwood burned in temples amongst the holy forests of Indochina, and the addition of myrtle and cypress gives it a fresh twist.

34 Boulevard Saint-Germain: One of Diptyque's more niche fragrances, this centres around rose, creamy sandalwood, sweet vanilla, spicy pink peppercorn and warming amber.

Eau Duelle: Perhaps the chicest take on vanilla, this scent is totally delicious. Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar unfurls into woody calamus and smokey cypriol. It's a sugary scent with substance.

Vetyverio: This one is a celebration of Haitian and Java vetiver, a note that has so many facets. It's woody, fresh, smokey and guaranteed to make you smell amazing.

I'd go for this fragrance discovery set if you want to try a few different fragrance families and choose some of Diptyque's lesser-known scents as well as its best sellers.

Scroll ahead for more fragrance discovery sets I love.