Candle Review: Diptyque’s “Paris”

It’s candle time, baby, and you know what that means — it’s time for candles. Yes, it’s fall; that season when our warm-weather loving friends cry and cry as the rest of us collect their tears in an opaque upcycled candle vessel that we hoist in front of the sun every day at 4 p.m., reveling in rude darkness until late the next morning. The scented candle to accompany our surly autumnal reveling this time? Diptyque’s “Paris” candle. Ah, oui oui!

The candle is part of Diptyque’s limited edition 60th anniversary “Grand Tour” collection. (You can nod in silent acceptance that the information you’ve gleaned from that statement is enough, but you may also seek out further “Grand Tour” information if you’d like, at your leisure.) Here is how Diptyque describes this candle:

“We walk along the Seine, its quais lined with weeping willows and chestnut trees, passing antique shops before losing ourselves in the pages of old books found on the booksellers' stands. At the heart of the composition, notes of polished wood, and the spicy vanilla accents of weathered books and paving stones evoke this Parisian atmosphere where art meets history.”

And yes, “weathered books and paving stones” is indeed our favorite flavor of spicy vanilla. But is this walk along the Seine a good candle? Let’s see.

IS THE CANDLE GOOD?

Yes, Diptyque candles are always good. David Sedaris said one time that Diptyque and Cire Trudon were the only kinds of candles “worth having,” and there are some other good ones, but he’s basically right. Remember when he sort of got canceled for doing one of his little bits on CBS Sunday Morning? That was … well, obviously I’m not going to comment on that, but I am making a face, the meaning of which you’d be able to interpret if you were able to see it.

WHAT DOES THE CANDLE SMELL LIKE?

Its listed notes are “Essence of Myrrh, Old books accord, Wood Patina accord, Paris Stone accord.” If you’re wondering what any of that means, I will tell you what I know. “Accord” is a scent term for like, they blended a bunch of scent notes together to try to achieve a new scent. But in my opinion it would be only fair to tell us what notes they blended. This is like me making a drink for someone and saying “It’s a sweater cocktail :).” They would be like, okay but like … what’s in it. And I would be like, “Several ingredients mixed to create the idea of a sweater. :)” Nobody’s gonna be drinking that drink.

Anyway, oh, what does it smell like? It smells like — well, primarily vanilla. Normally I don’t love a vanilla candle, or the scent of vanilla at all, really, but it’s very nice here. Cozy, but with gravitas. It honestly does smell a bit like an old book, and a bit like stone. It is like a very wise vanilla bean reading some old book on the street. I guess we can place the wise bean in Paris, why not.

DOES THE CANDLE COME WITH ITS OWN HAT?

Funny I should ask; yes it does. Makes it look like a little Starbucks cup.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE WALKING ALONG THE SEINE?

Although I “saw the Seine” once, as Ace of Base would say, I don’t remember what it smelled like, so I don’t know. It makes me feel like I’m in a more upscale, vanilla-scented version of my living room, however.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Ha-ha, oh gosh. It costs $105. I’m not exactly sure why it costs so much more than any other Diptyque candle (they usually cost $68), but I guess the glass is green. (The rest of them aren’t green.) And it does come with its own little hat. (The rest of them don’t come with hats.) But yeah, it’s $105.

OH MY GOD, IS IT WORTH $105?

I don’t know. How much money do you have? If you have David Sedaris-level money, then sure. And if you’d like to tell us how much money you have, email Tarpley.

FINAL REVIEW?