diff --git a/IPython/utils/path.py b/IPython/utils/path.py
index a5e6db2..32b4b13 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/path.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/path.py
@@ -441,8 +441,12 @@ def ensure_dir_exists(path, mode=0o755):
     try:
         path_exists = os.path.exists(path)
     except UnicodeEncodeError:
-        path = path.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding() or "utf8")
-        path_exists = os.path.exists(path)
+        try:
+            path = path.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding() or "utf8")
+            path_exists = os.path.exists(path)
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            path = path.encode("utf8")
+            path_exists = os.path.exists(path)
 
     if not os.path.exists(path):
         try: