Time After Time with Diptyque Le Sablier

You can do a lot in an hour: a decent full-body aromatherapy massage session at your favourite parlour, enjoy a candlelit dinner for two with your loved one, watch an episode of award-winning The Crown on Netflix, finish a chapter or two of your favourite book with a cup of tea… And what better companionship could one ask for but that of Diptyque’s second edition of the Le Sablier hourglass cold diffuser?

“Personally, I love reading, so my ‘Diptyque hour’ will be to curl up on the couch next to my growing home library, reading one of my favourite books – about time, as it were: Ben Lerner’s acclaimed novel, 10:04,” Juliette shares during her visit to the Diptyque outlet at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. “All I have to do is reach over to the Le Sablier at the table next to me, and turning it over – like you would do a normal hourglass – for my 60 minutes of magical time alone.”

Following the first Le Sablier launched in 2012, the latest range features a long glass form adorned with a perforated gilded metal sheath that evokes the lightness of lace, taking after the swirls of the incense burner upon Diptyque’s signature oval-shaped branding. Travelling from one glass vessel at the top to the other at the bottom, the scent is dispersed via a cold diffusion process in between, leaving its glass enclosure between frozen seconds and filling the air with its evaporated aura.

“The cold diffusion technique is one of the more advanced olfactory processes that Diptyque is proud to have attained for Le Sablier,” Juliette explains. “The process is able to hold on to all the notes for a scent firmly until it’s time for them to disperse simultaneously into the atmosphere.”

“If you were to burn a scented candle, for example, certain notes of the scent would disappear overtime,” she adds. “But with cold diffusion, you would have the exact rendition of the scent as if you were taking a whiff of the scented oil straight from the bottle.”

The two transparent glass vessels capture subtle variations with a keen sense of detail and proportion that is fit to be a decorative ornament part of your home. The rounded and convex vessels of an inverted teardrop shape are an interplay of shapes and geometry in six variations of coloured glass, encapsulating the six different fragrances the Le Sablier range has to offer.

“Two of the six fragrances we are pleased to include in the range are the Fleur d’oranger (Orange Blossom) and Gingembre (Ginger), as they are delicate notes that previously can’t be translated via normal diffusion, such as scented candles.” Juliette says. “The cold diffusion process is able to preserve the authentic nature of these fragrances, as it slowly releases wafts of the scent into the atmosphere.”

The four remaining Le Sablier fragrances available are Diptyque’s bestsellers: Baies, an irresistible freshness of a bouquet of roses with notes of blackcurrant leaves and berries; Roses, freshly plucked from the garden brimming with natural fragrance; Figuier, with the warmth of its bark, the freshness of its leaves, and the milky sap of its fruit; last but definitely not the least, the household 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain, the signature scent of the flagship store in Paris of crumpled leaves, exotic wood and spices.

The Diptyque Le Sablier can be used to its full potential when placed near a point of natural convection, such as the window, fireplace or fan, so that the wafted scent can breeze through a space of up to 3m or 4m.

The hourglass has a long-lasting lifespan of around three months, at which point, the refill of the same fragrance can be purchased at the new Diptyque outlet at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, as well as KENS Apothecary outlets located at Suria KLCC, Bangsar Village II and Bangsar Shopping Centre.