L'Ombre dans L'Eau Diptyque (1983) Eau de Toilette

L'Ombre dans L'Eau (Eau de Toilette) by Diptyque

Bottle Design: Servaire&Co

Where to buy

Search on

7.1 / 10 243 Ratings

L'Ombre dans L'Eau (Eau de Toilette) is a perfume by Diptyque for women and men and was released in 1983. The scent is green-floral. It is being marketed by Manzanita Capital.

Search on

Perfumer

Desmond Knox Leet

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Blackcurrant leaf
Heart Notes	Damask rose, Blackcurrant
Base Notes	Musk

Ratings

Scent

7.1 (243 Ratings)

Longevity

7.2 (175 Ratings)

Sillage

6.4 (162 Ratings)

Bottle

7.5 (145 Ratings)

Submitted by Lotte1, last update on 23.08.2019

Rate
Collection
Souk
Classify
Notes

Reviews

08/19/2019

8.0 7.0 8.0 8.5/10

Rajudaph
0 Reviews

Translated automatically Show original

Rajudaph

Greatly helpful Review 9

Olfactory depression...

The summer is coming to an end and, I am tired of my scents and a little tired. The summer in Berlin was hot and extremely dry. It smells dust, ozone, dried grass, dry leaves in the roadside at night. Sometimes a happy smell of a passerby touches me.
I usually have "bam." I used scents to make me even smell myself. Sandalwood, Amber Patschouli, everything the Orientals have to offer.
For a few days now I've been looking for old and proven in my perfume cupboard and find l'ombre dans L'eau. With the aggressive sunshine, shade is just right for me and water sounds easy.
The first sprayer reminds me of the fruit stand at the weekly market where black-blue currants in white cardboard bowls are waiting to be eaten. Next door the flower stall . A breeze of wild rose scents wafts to me. The green, slightly more sour notes are coming through now. Also fruity, mixed with fleshy rose petals, prevails. That way the shadow will stay on my wrist for six hours. It reminds me a little of Malone scents, but l'ombre dans l'eau has a little more "bam", smells fuller. A magnificent all-rounder that lulls you into late summer.
I'm gradually coming out of my scent depression...

4 Replies

07/22/2019

9.0 6.0 5.0 8.0/10

Sorelena
0 Reviews

Translated automatically Show original

Sorelena

Journey back to my childhood garden

After Philosykos and Tam dao , my 2 favourite fragrances of Dyptique, L'ombre dans l'eau surprises me with its beautiful natural smell. I do not know how diptyque always manages to present nature in a fragrance form with so much precision...

The smell of currants I know and love since my childhood, the leaves have a very interesting smell (somehow similar to tomato leaves), the sweet rich smell of rose is also very authentic
For me it smells very feminine and somehow seductive

What I also find interesting is that the fragrance appeared in 1983... But it still smells modern.

04/15/2019

10.0 9.0 10.0 6.5/10

EdithLyri
0 Reviews

Translated automatically Show original

EdithLyri

Helpful Review 9

Protective water

I wrap myself in a coat of bitter leaf green.
I'm poisonous, just stays away from me.
Anybody you want to harm me.
Anybody you want to talk me down.
I'm stronger.
You can yell at me, you can tell me 1000 times "you can't do it, you can't do it, don't try it at all", you can dress in wrong care to 'care' for me, the poor little plant that can't do anything, you can say 1000 times "let me take care of your life for you, as long as you obey me, it'll be okay", with the wrong smile on your face, I don't believe you anymore.
You won't get through my protective aura, which smells like poisonous plants.
I'm more. I'm not yours. I belong to myself. My life belongs to me.
You can't hurt me.
You can't hurt me.
I'm not a poor plant. No weak instinct.
I am the rose in the middle of the Johanisberry hedge.
I am protected by the hedge that has thorns.
You'll cut yourself if you get too close. You'll poison yourself if the thorns prick you.
There's nothing more you can do to me.
Today I am stronger.
I'm no longer the little child who can't fight back That you can do anything for that you can push around with impunity.
I have become more.
There's nothing more you can do to me. No matter how hard you try.
There's the protective aura you can't get through.
I am the rose amidst the hedge of thorns.
There's nothing more you can do to me.
No fragrance twin to "Luna" Penhaligon's, this is a bright rose blossom fragrance with lemon.
L'Ombre Dans L'Eau is a green-herbal, bitter-plant Johanis berry scent.

2 Replies

08/01/2018

8.0 6.0 6.0 8.0/10

DonJuanDeCat
0 Reviews

Translated automatically Show original

DonJuanDeCat

Greatly helpful Review 8

Shadows in waters smell sweet and powdery

Today I am describing a diptyque fragrance, and yes, I have to admit that I first became aware of the brand through the fragrance of Philosyko, as I was still looking for good fig scents at that time. For as you know, I like figs, both as fruit and in fragrance. But the thing is that most fig scents smell a bit too stuffy for me and therefore I think only few of these scents are really good. Philosykos is a masterpiece for me, if you like this fragrance and basically only want to smell this fragrance.

It is surpassed at most by Fico di Amalfi of Acqua di Parma as well as Debaser of D.S. Durga (at least with me). Whatever. Before I bore you with it any longer, in which I talk endlessly about figs (and at some point even tell you such disgusting things as that you can get atomic diarrhea if you eat too many figs! :D), I finally come to this fragrance here.

L'ombre dans L'Eau... that doesn't mean the man in the water, because I was too stupid and confused the French word ombre (shadow) with the Spanish word hombre (man), but it simply means "shadow in the water", which somehow sounds threatening. And so I have to think about a friend, who always got a little panic in the sea on the water mattress, when she thought she saw a big shadow in the water :DD

But now for the scent!

The fragrance:

At the beginning I smell for a (unfortunately) very short time great, tangy green notes, which unfortunately disappear again quickly as I said. Then the rose quickly sets in, and a powdery-sweet currant comes in. Sure, that's how it smells, but I wish you could enjoy the green notes a bit more in the top note.
For a while, the fragrance remains sweet and powdery and smells almost only of roses and currants, although every now and then something harsh seems to shine in the background, which is only noticeable when you sniff very close to the sprayed area.
And so the fragrance actually remains until the end, at least for the most part, because I only smell the currants as the main fragrance and the roses behind them. Musk, which is listed here, is rather small, which one hardly notices in the actual smell cloud, but more, if one goes very near and sniffs.
Altogether a simple, but also very nice smelling fragrance.

The Sillage and the shelf life:

The Sillage is okay for a summer scent. This means that, like most summer fragrances, the fragrance cannot be smelled over long distances, but you don't have to get as close to it to be able to smell it, at least not at first.
The shelf life is also quite okay. I could still smell the scent quite weakly after six hours.

The bottle:

The bottle is oval and you can always see a nice black and white drawing on the front. This time you can see a swan (for whatever reason...). Sure, the fragrance translates as "shadow in the water", but I don't know what the name has to do with a swan. After all, everything in the water could cast a shadow. Anyway, the lid is cylindrical and black. With a lot of imagination the bottle looks like a person wearing a cylinder :D

You know, after Philosykos it was clear that I had to try some diptyque scents because I thought this brand was great. Well, the brand itself is great, but as it always is, not all scents are great :D
But I didn't even try soo many diptyques, which is only because you can't find these scents in every shop and in niche perfumeries, as already described recently, you feel a little too much observed in a somewhat annoyingly annoying way. Anyway... actually it's about time that I started working with this brand again, and a sample of this fragrance from a dear Parfuma reminded me of this brand again, so thank you very much :)

And this fragrance here is really great, smells wonderful and is suitable for daytime as well as for going out, but I find it somehow slightly feminine as unisex. It fits well into spring and summer and can therefore also be worn at holiday resorts. I would definitely have a look at it... or "smell it" :DD

Hmm... do too many currants actually give you diarrhea? Hey he he he

1 Replies

07/13/2018

7.0 8.0 9.0/10

Floramalia
0 Reviews

Translated automatically Show original

Floramalia

Very helpful Review 10

The secret garden

This morning I went to the Diptyque sample of L'ombre dans L'Eau to get my hands on a wonderful package of a very sweet and generous perfume. A headache morning with little desire for the office day.
And behold, suddenly bright joy and a lively way in the morning sun to work. This natural green, slightly bitter and at the same time slightly sweet freshness enchanted me from the very first moment.
The already mentioned comparison with amethyst, which I recently tested, I find understandable due to the individual scent elements, but for me amethyst is much sweeter, heavier and almost madamic compared to the diptyque scent.

The scent reminded me again and again of the Nile garden of Hermes, and that, although there are officially no similarities in the scent pyramid. Maybe it's just a similar style, a similar way of making, but maybe it's a tomato green note in both, something shrubby that I like so much. Goutal's Ninfeo also goes in this direction, which can sometimes seem herbaceous and uncouth, but is incredibly good for me, as nature itself does.
I find the shelf life surprisingly good for this kind of delicately meandering scents with about six hours, the Sillage is probably not so strong, but just right for me. I am happy that I was able to get to know this fragrance and thank the donor!

3 Replies

07/10/2015

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

Nope!

Messy, acrid cheap synthetic cassis, synthetic rose and synthetic blackcurrant all the way. It may have been better some years ago, now it’s this – and nothing else. It smells halfway a drugstore green-rose cologne from the 1980’s and a contemporary fruity-musky scent right out of a suburban Chinese emporium. As hours pass it becomes more tolerable as it focuses on rose and faint leafy echo, but it’s still nothing more than a cheap insult to “selective” perfumery for me.

4/10

05/04/2012

9.0/10

Greysolon
88 Reviews

Greysolon

Helpful Review 4

A summer rose

L'Ombre dans l'Eau is a cool, green, slightly watery rose fragrance that is excellent for hot summer days. The first time I wore it I had the impression of a bouquet of fresh, young roses wrapped in florist's greens and ferns. On my skin the cool, watery rose balances nicely with the green/fern accord and they coexist through the life of the fragrance. Another attribute that makes L'Ombre especially heat resistant is its light base. There are no dark accords or patchouli to weigh it down. Its amber/musk base stays shear and transparent.

Many men might think of L'Ombre as leaning toward the feminine side of unisex. But if you give it a chance, the green/fern accord keeps L'Ombre within the range of what most men would consider unisex. Actually, I think if you're a guy wearing Diptyque's most popular offering, Philosykos, you will find L'Ombre remarkably similar and just as wearable.

01/25/2012

7.5 7.5 4.0/10

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Fernish Rosebush

Diptyque L'OMBRE DANS L'EAU opens with a ferny feeling and then suddenly a rosebush pops up out of nowhere. After a couple of minutes, though, the “fern” note, which I believe is angelica, given its behavior—takes over the composition completely, shrouding the rose in relative obscurity. I've learned through a few niche testings that angelica is really not a note that works well for me. Perhaps I am extra-sensitive to the point of finding even a modest dose excessive. Whatever the case may be, L'OMBRE DANS L'EAU ends up being yet another (quasi-)angelica-focused niche offering that I really cannot see myself wearing much. I own the solid compact of this perfume, which unfortunately offers an even stronger presentation of the fernish angelica (or reasonable facsimile) note and while it does not make me ill, neither is it a perfume that I would reach for before, say, 200+ others.

This was a bad blind buy on my part, a gamble based on the entirely arbitrary fact that Diptyque has chosen to offer only a few of its perfumes in solid form, all of which I decided to acquire as a part of my quest to expand my understanding of that much-neglected medium. Maybe if I wear L'OMBRE DANS L'EAU enough I'll develop a tolerance to this hyper-super-ueber-fernishness. On ne sait jamais. Hope springs eternal, and sundry other hackneyed clichés, not to mention pleonasms and, yes, redundancies!!!!!