Story | Leslie Yip
For most Chinese people, even if they haven’t smelled a tuberose, they would have heard Teresa Teng sing about it: “The south wind cools, nightingales croon, all the flowers are lost in reverie under the moon, except the tuberose, who is releasing her notes.”
The heady scent of the tuberose not only inspires this well-known Chinese ballad, it is also a muse for Yves Coueslant, one of the three founders of French perfume house Diptique, who created a scent in its honour.
Called Do Son, in homage to the city at the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, this scent is meant to capture Coueslant’s childhood memories. As a child, he used to spend summers in the resort town in Halong Bay. He recalls that his mother, a very elegant and fashionable lady, did not like the hot and humid climate in Vietnam, so she mostly stayed in a shaded room at the villa they called home. The only time when she would dress up and venture out was when there was a party in town, or when a new shipment from Paris had arrived at the boutiques.
Diptyque Do Son Eau de Toilette, 50 ml | $169
Every time his mother went out, she would spray on this perfume, which smelled of orange blossoms. Coueslant recalls that the scent would linger around the house as he waited for her to come home, together with jasmines from the garden. When she returned she would often bring a bouquet of freshly picked tuberoses. Her hug would smell of these flowers. “For a lonely child,” reminisced Coueslant, “this was heaven.”
The scent also has an unmistakable marine accord, and that harkens back to the seaside pagoda Coueslant’s father built, where mother and son spent countless evenings enjoying the sea breeze.
Diptyque Do Son Eau de Parfum, 75 ml | $299
This idyllic scene is immortalized in the line drawing that adorns every product in the collection, which includes an eau de perfume, eau de toilette, hair mist, body mist, solid perfume, perfumed soap and hand cream. Dubbed as “gestures”, each complementary product has a specific concentrate of the scent to offer the best olfactory rendering depending on its formulation. With a high concentration, each gesture can be used alone or with other products in the collection, depending on the moment and the mood.
