Io Capri

Io Capri is a very unique aromatic fragrance. Truly an Italian style fragrance! To my nose it’s mostly leaning on the fig, eucalyptus and mint with some airy florals and marine notes. The tea leaves come along after a few minutes. To me it is a distinctly masculine fragrance beacause of the dominating mint and eucalyptus notes. The base is very weak so don’t expect too much of the seaweed and tobacco blossom. I got an EdP sample a few months ago and now I must have a full bottle. I will probably go with the Extrait version, since it might have better longevity. Don’t blind buy since the scent profile is a bit unusual. Edit: Just recieved a bottle of the extrait. Very, very nice smelling indeed. The difference to the EdP is not huge. The extrait has smoother edges but projects really well. I recieved Montale’s Black Aoud in the same shipment, put three sprays of each on my arms. Io Capri is all I have been smelling for the past 5 hours. That says something. It’s heavier on the fig and tea notes, but the citrus aspect is less pronounced. Something in there also creates a mild soapy effect, but most certainly not in a bad way. Longevity seems to be good. This bottle will unfortunately not last very long.

What a complex confection! It has that dry, fruity aura which (to me) captures the heart of the Mediterranean: dusty, herbal-woody and some dignified sweetness. It reminds me of how the air would smell while sitting on the veranda of a Tuscan villa on a hot afternoon in October. Fragrance, if nothing else, stimulates the imagination. Carthusia creates some magic in this and their other glorious, exceptional fragrances. Update: I wore it today out and about. I love it more than ever, but that's not helpful. Fig is dominant and a lovely, petsistent dry sweetness. I adore this! I'm putting this as a late summer/fall fragrance. I wore it today on a dreary winter Portland (OR) day and felt ... hmmm ... more grounded. It's definitely not a winter, cold season frag, but in that season, it may work to "dehydrate" an otherwise soggy situation. I love dry scents: sweet, nutty, woody, earthy. Io works pleasantly in this palette.

What a lovely Mediterranean illusion this is! An aromatic powerhouse bursting with vivid citrus and a crisp minty hint in the opening and sustained via green and white floral notes until the ozonic seaweedy conclusion carries us away into the Tyrrhenian sea on white crested waves. I’ve been wearing it for years. A great Summer fragrance. I love it.

My go-to fragrance. It is so unique and yet so alluring, it reels you in to ask for more. The fig and citrus notes truly make you feel like in a mediterranean summer day, and I would know :) It is not for everyone, but for lovers of italian perfume styles it is a must try!

Nice and energetic warm scent. Very expressive fig and green leaves. Love it.

Spearmint, milk candy and ripe fig. Warm and delicious.

This cologne-lke scent starts out with a lot of lemony citrus and green herbs, especially tarragon, accompanied by a creamy, almost coconut-like note that apparently is meant to be perceived as fig. The notes say there’s tea in the mix, but it’s not a major player, and is not the standard commercial prickly “green tea” accord, which I dislike. If there is tea, it’s more like a weak, brewed tea that has no real character of its own. To me, that’s preferable to the usual overwhelming “tea” base. Many reviewers report smelling mint, but I do not detect mint. As the scent dries down, I smell some green notes, like freshly cut grass, along with the fresh, green culinary herbs and dried coconut-fig. The scent stays pretty much the same, with moderate sillage, much longer than one would expect of a typical cologne, lasting 6-8 hours on skin. It’s subtle and natural-smelling, a fragrance that would make a good under-the-radar default scent for times when wearing noticeable perfume is not advisable. I like Io Capri a lot more than I expected to, and would enjoy wearing it from time to time.

Dry, fresh, with almost sharp opening. Very sunny afternoon when the salty air above the sea meets fig grove. Not the scent of the fruit- just the wood. Then, there is a bitter sweetness of tea and citronela which is well balanced and lasts for long in gentle tobbacco projection. Io is atypical, inspiring and therefor seems to me restless and vivid. I could smell it all the time just because I am curios about it. Soulful and playful experience in every moment when the fragrance evolve. And that is the problem: maybe it should stay unique. Everyday wearing makes this free-spirited, divine essence subdued. Io is not loud, sillage is moderate. Longevity is tricky: I should say 3-4 hrs top and it depends on circumstances. Elusive goddess, this Ió...

This is rather dry and very herbal in the topnotes. It is on the edge of beeing bitter but to me not unpleasantly so. It then goes into fig and a fig that lasts and lasts, wich I find unique. All the other Figs I have tried lose the fig more or less when topnotes leave. This is dry and fresh and fig throughout and lasts all day whith a discrete sillage. I find no milkiness here and nothing sweet. I really recommend this for fig lovers that miss the fig when it leaves with the topnotes (like I do).

This perfume is marvellous. It is fresh and fruity. This perfume smells almost exactly as Acqua di Parma Blue Fico di Amflia. The figs in here are the most dominant scent. Around it some subtle tones of citrus and tea, eucalyptus and litsea. It gives you that typical clean and uplifting fresh feeling thats so typical for the most Italian perfumes from the master class. Its a great composition and very good to wear on warm days. It has a nice projection and stays for a long time.

I just realized this reminds of the hallways/ carpets/ pool area of hotels. I have a hard time articulating what i smell here other than that. What pops into my head is bay, anise, orange, the ghost of tobacco and a touch of fig. It evokes nostalgia for vacation + hotel pool which actually almost makes me like this. Almost.

I think I would do an injustice to this fragrance if I said it's as simple as fig. It is actually quite sophisticated and difficult to describe really. When I smell it I feel refreshed but it's not at all a soapy-after-shower type of fresh. Also a bit bitter, like grapefruit or kiwi...Worth trying on!

Io is so fresh and lush. Just filled with mushed figs. not very sweet but a green, minty fruitness. It is longlasting too. If you like figs than go for this one. Just perfect for airy summerdays

Very bright minty citrus opening that turns into green fig. The dry down is quite powerful and very floral.

Opens dry and bitter. Fig note is prominent. Not to sweet or fruity. Good for hot summer weather.

To me Io smells like mint flavoured toothpaste, very fresh and cool.

I was curious to try Io Capri: on the one hand I've never tried a fragrance with a prominent mint note that I really loved, and too much aromatics tend to put me off as well - but on the other hand I can never resist something with fig, and Carthusia is undeniably one of the best when it comes to natural, sunny perfumes. In other words, my expectations of this one were ambivalent, and it's not really surprising that my feelings after having spent some time with it are much the same. The opening is really not my thing: so aromatic and especially minty! Very herbal and bracing, which I can take or leave, but there's also this soapy quality that I'm really not sure about. Especially smelled up close it smells almost detergent-like to me, although strangely I don't actually dislike it. I just really don't know what to make of it. Luckily, it gets a lot better as the opening fades into the heart and drydown of the fragrance. The soapy quality stays present for the duration, but it calms down a lot. Also, the initial aromatic mintiness gives way to a warmer, fruitier sweetness in which the fig and the mint seem equally present, and the tea comes out to play as well. That combination works much better for me. This stage I'm sure I could learn to love, but it's a pity the sillage is already much weaker at this point, and it doesn't linger for very long afterwards. I'm sure I'll enjoy using up my decant; it will be especially fitting for spring. I'm just not sure what'll happen afterwards; will I have figured out what to think of the opening and order a full bottle, or will I say goodbye without much regret? Time will tell...

For me the star anise here is the strongest note in the opening -- and star anise, eucalyptus, mint and citrus zest are all I smell for a good 5+ minutes. The result is a somewhat medicinal, nevertheless unique herbal opening. I was hoping for more fig and flowers, but as the perfume developed the opening notes persisted and, although lemongrass and tea definitely featured, seaweed slowly becomes the dominant note as Io Capri turns beachy and borderline aquatic. As seaweed takes over there is a slight sweet undertone, but it could belong to any mild fruit - it's not especially figgy. The drydown is all eucalyptus, mint, and marine notes. There is no green fig sap or leaf in this at all, at least not on my skin. It's an odd perfume. Aromatic, citrus and medicinal, developing into an aquatic/seaweed with a fruity undertone. It's complex and strange, and similar in profile to Aria di Capri and Mediterraneo which also have outdoorsy-citrus-aromatic vibes. Aria is the sweeter one. Mediterraneo is lemony tea and green growing things. This one is your Italian villa overlooking the sea. But it's not my favourite one. I wanted more fig and less seaweed. Still nice.

It sounded so promising, but from the moment I took it out of its package, I knew it was not meant to be. It all started when the decant I purchased leaked through the tape, through the plastic bag it was in, and all over the entire mail packet. The smell that wafted up at me was.. in a word.. awful. I am rarely nauseated by a scent and regularly wear very heavy perfumes. But this one just killed me. I like fig scents, but this is very cloyingly sweet. It's akin to drinking a few too many fruity, sweet drinks, and then throwing up. It's like the smell of that puke. Not quite fruity, not quite gourmand, not fresh. To top it all off, this thing has monstrous lasting power and sillage. I could smell the bag that it had leaked in.. from my bed.. which was a good 10 ft away. I had to wash my hands three times to get it off my fingers. Needless to say, it has been expelled from my house.

Io Capri opens minty, zesty, herbal and somewhat like a cleaning product. The citrus gives way to dry and aromatic fig accord, trailed by an unsweetened bouquet of florals. There is tea here, but not the fragrant sort - more tannic than aromatic. The heart evolves until the fig becomes almost savoury. The flowers become dry, slightly bitter - like old petals. Overall, Io Capri is not my favourite smell. The top is overwhelming and very synthetic to my nose, drying down to a smell that maybe works best as a room spray. Fresh, yes, but not so nice. I hope it works on your skin better than it did on mine.