There will always be a soft spot in every girl’s heart for flow­ers and candy, but flow­ers die and choco­lates don’t last long. While noth­ing is eter­nal, for a dis­tinc­tive and lin­ger­ing gift for Valentine’s Day or any day, I highly rec­om­mend Dip­tyque (pro­nounced dip–TEEK).

Famous for their unmis­tak­able lux­ury can­dles, Dip­tyque also has a new line of uni­sex body prod­ucts that are bomb–perfect for mom or dad, your girl, your guy, your child, grand­par­ents or a cher­ished friend. Dip­tyque has some­thing for every­one, even ele­gant cor­po­rate gifts for the dis­cern­ing employer.

If you’re into aro­mather­apy and the pow­er­ful trans­for­ma­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties of scent, you sim­ply must spoil your Valen­tine with some­thing from Dip­tyque. Trust me, they will love it.

Pure, Paraf­fin, Pleasure…

The diminu­tive Dip­tyque can­dle smells like noth­ing you’ve ever expe­ri­enced, and believe me, you can really smell it. The stan­dard votive boasts a tire­less 60 hours of burn time and will undoubt­edly out­shine its cheaper com­peti­tors. It’s a smart choice.

With a Dip­tyque can­dle, you get what you pay for. Cre­ated using pow­er­ful con­cen­tra­tions of only the finest essen­tial oils steeped in pure paraf­fin, they’re sure to set the mood for a roman­tic evening. Plus, a Dip­tyque can­dle will actu­ally stick around long after Valentine’s Day has ended. Even unlit you can still smell the can­dle in the room.

You can choose from an end­less exquis­ite bou­quet of more than 50, yes fifty scents–that’s an amaz­ing variety–in five cat­e­gories of flow­ers, herbs, fruity, woods and spicy, so there’s some­thing for every­one, no mat­ter your pref­er­ence. It’s a com­plete collection.

One of my favorite mem­o­ries is the night I dined at the open­ing of a Fran­cis Ford Cop­pola restau­rant in Cal­i­for­nia, where a flurry of Baies Dip­tyque can­dles and their intox­i­cat­ing aroma seduced me.

Every celebrity is said to have their favorite Dip­tyque scent, and Coppola’s is Baies. It soon became mine too, and of the many scents to choose from, I still pre­fer Baies to this day.

Baies, pro­nounced, sim­ply, ‘Bay,’ is a French term of endear­ment, mean­ing sweetie, or some such.

It’s com­posed of Bul­gar­ian rose with notes of black­cur­rant leaves–an irre­sistible melange of fruit and floral.

Rem­i­nis­cent of a walk through bloom­ing gar­dens in Europe, it smells absolutely deli­cious, and every time I encounter it, after all these years, I’m imme­di­ately drawn back to the first time I expe­ri­enced it–that beau­ti­ful balmy night at the restau­rant. It’s a pow­er­ful tes­ta­ment to the virtues of aro­mather­apy and mem­ory recall.

The Art of Body Care

Once mis­taken as pri­mar­ily high-end home fra­grance, Dip­tyque recently launched an ambrosial offer­ing of lux­ury body care prod­ucts for men and women, known as The Art of Body Care, to com­ple­ment their lesser-known col­lec­tion of eaux de toi­lette which has in fact existed since 1968.

Pick a sim­ple spray or dip into the many tempt­ing prod­ucts from the line. The Art of Body Care is based on the his­tory of beauty from around the world and includes so many gor­geous things–such as a hand balm from Spain, below, using organic ingre­di­ents from that region.

Or their lus­cious body oil with iris flower from Italy, which can be used wet or dry.

You can put a cap­ful in the tub, or apply it directly on the skin. It’s a very lux­u­ri­ous olive oil and soaks right in so it won’t get on your clothes.

Com­mon Scents That Aren’t So Common

Unlike ordi­nary syn­thetic fra­grances, the Dip­tyque scents are inspired by essences com­monly found in nature, and all the body prod­ucts are uni­sex, so if you buy them for your sweet­heart, there’s always the chance you can share.

A beau­ti­ful body cream from Istan­bul, not Constantinople–lush with myrrh and roses–is a per­sonal favorite of my friend Gre­gory Costanza, for­mer regional sales man­ager of the inti­mate but ele­gant San Fran­cisco Dip­tyque boutique.

It may sur­prise you that a man might enjoy wear­ing a flo­ral such as rose, but that con­ven­tion is worn-out. In Europe peo­ple are much more lib­eral with what con­sti­tutes a ‘fem­i­nine’ fra­grance and gen­der speci­ficity has been replaced by good taste.

The notes of myrrh and roses found in the body cream can be tied over to home fra­grance too, mak­ing a great can­dle com­bi­na­tion if you care to exper­i­ment. Remem­ber, you can cus­tomize the Dip­tyque scents for your home and your­self by choos­ing any of the fra­grance fam­i­lies and com­bin­ing until you dis­cover what suits you. This is the mod­ern approach to aromatherapy.

A lot of cou­ples come in to share fra­grance, which is a great idea if you live near a bou­tique. The Dip­tyque staff is very hands-on with their clients. They really aim to please.

Because fra­grance is highly per­sonal, you can go to a bou­tique with your Valen­tine and iden­tify the scents that you’re attracted to, and then you can coor­di­nate them, together.

But there are only 14 Dip­tyque bou­tiques in the world, so if you can’t make it to Paris, Lon­don, Doha, Qatar or Dubai, you can call one of the three shops in the United States and let their accom­mo­dat­ing, knowl­edge­able staff guide you on your pur­chase and edu­cate you on how to burn a can­dle prop­erly. Believe it or not, there’s an art to that too.

For ulti­mate con­ve­nience, most Dip­tyque prod­ucts can come ele­gantly pre-wrapped, or you can opt to do it yourself.

Fra­grance may be sim­ple and straight­for­ward for some peo­ple, or infi­nitely com­plex and indul­gent. What­ever your approach, Dip­tyque def­i­nitely delivers.