Diptyque vs Byredo is a core competition within the luxury fragrance (and candle) world.
Diptyque wins, on balance — but Byredo does something Diptyque can’t!
Let’s break it down.
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: The Basics
Diptyque is a French heritage brand, founded in 1961 by three friends: Christiane Gautrot, Yves Coueslant, and Desmond Knox-Leet, the latter of whom inked the first labels. It has been owned by UK investment firm Manzanita Capital since 2005.
Byredo is a Stockholm-based luxury brand, founded in 2006 by Ben Gorham, a basketball player-turned-artist-turned-luxury goods maker. It is now fully owned by the Spanish company Puig, which also owns L’Artisan Parfumeur, Dr. Barbara Sturm, and others. Gorham left three years after the acquisition, in June 2025.
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: Candles
Diptyque’s candles are gorgeous. Feu de Bois is a god-tier smell, as is the core autumn experience of Citrouille, the Paris city candle, and several others. It is expert at evoking seasons or mood — see also Muguet for spring and Citronelle for summer. In the latter category, Ambre is one of the most romantic candles on Earth. Many of them, though, are expert tweaks on familiar scents, like Eucalyptus or Roses. Similar to the fragrances: roses, only better; eucalyptus only better.
Byredo is doing something different, which is crafting scents around place and story. Mojave Ghost is a dry floral that feels like a trip to its namesake desert. Summer Rain smells like childhood. Winter Cabin (sold out online) is Feu de Bois with thorns. Fleur Fantôme officially is “a distinguished green blend from which surges the slightly almondy notes of heliotrope and discrete suede” but it smells like a life: living in New York City and buying bodega bouquets when the flowers come back in the spring.
Diptyque’s best candles are beautiful, but Byredo’s best are like a dagger to the heart. Their hit rate for me is a lot lower than Diptyque: I like most Diptyque candles, and only a fraction of Byredo’s. But I’m obsessed with Fleur Fantôme in a way that no Diptyque can match.
Winner: Byredo
Above: Byredo’s Lost Road ($95) and Diptyque’s Figuier ($90)
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: Perfume
I have to repeat the above decision — in fact, I lean even more heavily toward Byredo here. Note that I’ve always loved Diptyque’s candles but have never been moved by their fragrances, so take this for what it’s worth. I’m working on it!
Byredo’s Bal d’Afrique is light, bright, beautiful, and fresh: sunshine.
Winner: Byredo
Above: Byredo’s Future Memories and Diptyque’s Orphéon eau de parfum ($260)
Further reading: Is Diptyque Cheaper In Paris?
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: Performance
Not all Diptyque’s scents are long lasting and intense, but many are, including Feu de Bois, Ambre, Citrouille for candles, and Eau Papier and Fleur de Peau for fragrances. But even the most fleeting Diptyque fragrance is, at worst, on par with the best Byredo. The half-dozen Byredos that I’ve lived with are beautiful and evocative — but they disappear on my skin, in under four hours. The candles are equally light.
If you like to be enveloped by scent, like I do, Diptyque has to be the victor.
Winner: Diptyque
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: Aesthetics
Byredo is emblematic of Scandinavian minimalism, and there’s something true to the essence of coolness in Gorham’s work, which was to create scents interwoven with his memories. (Chai is meant to evoke the scent-world of his grandmother’s home in India.) But Diptyque’s labels are small wonders of calligraphy, it regularly teams up with artists for special projects, and many of its products are just delightful in a very whimsical way (see: carousels). Byredo feels art market-adjacent cool, Diptyque feel art practice-adjacent cool.
Byredo, though, loses on this because of its new, AI-centric “fragrance finder” tool, which begins when you feed the machine a treasured memory, on which it bases its recommendations. It’s easy to understand why such an opening makes sense of the brand, and when I tried it out, it was uncanny, how much the recommended fragrances seemed to reflect the memory I shared. But it was a weird experience more than a satisfying one — it feels like one thing to experience Gorham’s memories through scent, but another to have mine processed through a robot. I say that even a I thought the recs were good. Something can work well and be creepy at the same time.
Winner: Diptyque
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: Pricing
Let’s look at a basket of a candle and a fragrance from each. Important disclaimer: it’s hard to a direct comparison, because Diptyque’s eau de parfums are sold in 75ml and 200ml, and Byredo’s are sold in 50ml and 100ml. The closest we can get is 75ml (Diptyque) and 100ml (Byredo). Similarly, Diptyque’s standard-sized candles are 190g, while Byredo’s are 240g.
A 75ml Diptyque Orphéon eau de parfum is $260, or $.28 a ml. A Feu de Bois candle (190g) is $90, or $.47 per gram.
A Bal d’Afrique eau de parfum is $330 for 100ml, or $.33 a ml. A 240g Bibliothèque candle from Byredo is $95, or $.39 per gram.
Analysis: Diptyque’s candles are slightly worse value — for $5 more than Diptyque, a Byredo candle gives you an extra 50g, or about 25%. For fragrances, Byredo’s are more per milliliter than Diptyque, even though we’re looking at a greater volume (and could expect a slight discount).
Second important disclaimer: Candle weight isn’t the same thing as fragrance weight. Anecdotally, Diptyque’s candles have a much stronger throw. The math doesn’t reflect that.
Result: Simply on the numebrs, Byredo ekes out a win for candles. Diptyque wins for fragrance.
Overall Winner: Diptyque. Diptyque’s fragrances offer better value and better performance. Byredo’s candles offer better value, but Diptyque beats them on performance — meaning your experience may vary, but for my money they offer the better return on investment.
Diptyque Vs. Byredo: The Future
It’s hard to be bullish on Byredo when the brand seemed so dependent on mood and memory — specifically Ben Gorham’s. For a long time Byredo ruled as a cult fragrance house, but cults are usually cults of personalities — a movement behind a charismatic leader, in this case one who rather magically worked with narrative, master perfumers, and marketing to create something unique and ephemeral…much like his own scents.
Is whoever’s in charge at Puig up to the task?
Winner: TBD
