Rare Sapphires

Wow. What an interesting scent. It's telling that Avon's fig scent came out some time before the recent fig craze. Despite the company being accused of being "old," they consistently create scents that are ahead of their time. This is one. It is also not an every-day scent, which likely contributed to it's being discontinued. Fig isn't a universally loved note, at least not until the past few years when we started finding it in everything! Prior, the dusty, green, sweet, juicy,near tropical note was less familiar and therefore would have been considered "challenging." On that note, Avon, please bring this back! This is such a fantastic scent. I certainly wasn't expecting this! I tested it yesterday on the back of my hand, and then put it on again this morning. The fig note dominates initially, but the woods and florals come out shortly thereafter, to create a really lovely composition. I'm getting quite a bit of lily, as well as some bright tartness which I assume to be the grapefruit, though I can't quite make it out. The great thing about this is it's not linear at all. Every time I sniff my hand after wearing it a couple of hours, I am met with a different note, and quickly joined by some lovely combination of the others. I do believe I will be purchasing a bottle and adding it to my Rare collection. It is unfortunate that the vintage Rare scents appear to be considerably better than the recent formulation in the cut bottles.

This is one of my favorites from Avon, I have a vintage round bottle with the fan cap. This is a warm woody fig tree fragrance with some sweet fresh fig and sun warmed gardenia. There is no lily or grapefruit on me at all, but mid and base notes always do come out stronger on my skin. This is expertly blended and perfect for all seasons, but I do feel it suits Autumn really well. The cedar and fig tree give it a dry feel (some have said pencil shavings and I can see that a bit, but I like that so I don't mind it), but the fresh juicy fig + gardenia temper it into something almost a hint more tropical. Definitely a favorite---from the notes to the bottle design, to the 5+ hours of wear (not bad for an Avon cheapie). It doesn't hurt that Sapphires are my birthstone, so I had to have this one. :)

I have no idea if this scent was reformulated, because I have the original Rare Sapphires. I bought a brand-new EDP bottle at a tag sale many years ago, for five dollars! Sapphire is my birthstone,and the bottle was gorgeous, so that attracted me even if I hated the scent and did not want to wear it. But I LOVE the delicious fig notes! This is "something different", very rich but not overpowering. It is woodier than Womanity, with a sharp white grapefruit accord towards the drydown.There is a definite "fig leaf" note too. Sillage and longevity are both good.

If you like the smell of unripe figs and fig trees, you will probably like this one very much. I personally find it one of the most interesting perfumes of Avon. Unusual, fresh, summery! Like walking by a fig tree in a hot summer day, heading for the beach... (And actually if you can't afford Philosykos by Diptyque, this one is a good alternative!)

Creamy, figgy, white floral, woody. So beautiful. In my search for finding perfect fig scents, I went for this (snowdrop was a surprising bonus!) Not disappointed at all. In fact, I purchased an additional vintage bottle. Mine have the fan topper instead of the topper in the photo.