Fidji Parfum

A very soft, classy and elegant scent! Luckily, I got an unopened bottle of parfum that was still tied up. Based on the information on the box, I'm assuming it's from the 80's. The opening begins with an earthy green galbanum, reminiscent of Chanel No 19. Bouquets are coming soon... powdery roses, jasmines and violets. The clove skillfully keeps them in check and balances them so that they don't become too feminine. Elegant but not sweet floral. As a parfum, I don't think it's very long-lived, but it ends up with a slightly woody, soapy scent. It's not a scent that stands out for anything, but it's a nice scent.

I am a blessed person who owns two vintage bottles of the gorgeous Fidji Parfum, which I inherited from my family. And wow!!! It is a gorgeous perfume. A beautiful strong floral, wood, aldehyde perfume, with lots and lots of complex smells, which I adore!!! Citrus, galbanum, cloves, rose, patchouli.......wonderful wonderful elixir!!! Elegant, mature woman that Fidji is, it is an absolute pleasure to wear her. I feel so classy, luxurious and feminine. So full of life and love and an abundance of good things. A glorious tropical paradise is Fidji!!!!

Exotic , absolutely feminine essence , reminds me my youth.I used to wear it as a girl in high school.Fresh , green , spicy , powdery ,flowery at the same time , giving a clean fresh essence and it's earthy notes , embraced my self-confidence , helps me to flourish my felinity .Galbanum , hyacinth , lemon , cloves, rose, jasmin , violet , musk , patchouli , sandalwood & amber in a perfect combination .Precious memories. It is in my heart.

Fidji is a nice little floral chypre, typical of its era and underrated in my opinion. I have a vintage miniature parfum from the 1980s. Rich yet airy, its blend of notes create a wearable, ladylike scent that is vintage in style, but feels timeless. Created by Josephine Catapano, the nose behind the classic Youth Dew, Fidji is worth a sniff. Fidji opens with a mossy green galbanum note, giving a wonderfully old-fashioned, vintage-style richness to the opening, reminiscent of 1940s Vent Vert. Some Shalimar-esque lemon adds some freshness, and heady hyacinth is also prominent, typically waxy and pungent but balanced beautifully by the other notes. A powdery floral accord emerges as it develops, led by clean jasmine and a lush rose note that rounds out the florals. Sweet and smooth, the powderiness is enhanced by the violet note that emerges after a little while. It becomes pleasantly soapy as it develops further - light and airy on the skin. The cloves as very subtle, adding just a hint of warm spiciness, enhancing the woody notes that come to the fore as it dries down. It runs out of steam at the drydown stage, becoming dark and muddy. Some dirty patchouli emerges before Fidji fades to a generic but pleasant soapy amber-musk skin scent. Sillage and longevity are moderate. Fidji is a pleasant floral chypre overall with some nice points of interest. Imperfect, but nicer than many modern fragrances. 3.5/5.

To my nose, the most prominent notes are hyacinth, cloves, and musk. Soapy and a bit powdery. It's an unique and clean scent which gives a nice vintage vibe. The package and the bottle are beautiful.

Fragrance Review For Fidji Eau De Parfum By Guy Laroche Top Notes Galbanum Hyacinth Lemon Middle Notes Cloves Rose Jasmine Violet Base Notes Patchouli Sandalwood Amber Musk Oak Moss Among my prolific catalog of reviews I wrote one for the current formula of the Eau de Toilette. It's a lighter and easier to wear floral scent which I described as being atmospheric and evocative of the island of Fiji in the South Pacific. The EDT is a calm, toned down scent compared to the Eau de Parfum. If the EDT was a quick trip to Fiji the EDP is Fiji itself in a bottle, and a fragrance of one that has made Fiji their home. The vintage 1966 EDP comes in a glass bottle with an oddly shaped stopper. This is not a spray but a splash bottle. It's definitely outdated and old fashioned, and in the 1960's, florals and chypres were in vogue as they had been since the 30's and 40's. I used to think the 60's was an innovative experimental time in perfumery but the fragrances of this decade looked back 20 years before and honored the aromas of the past. Fidji is one such perfume. At the first whiff of Fiji, a light aldehyde note reached my nose. It's soapy at first, like when you actually put your nose to hand soap. The scent of hyacinth dominates the fragrance, from beginning to end. The purple florals are big players here. Other than that distinctive hyacinth, there's a violet flower that is married to the hyacinth. There is no fruit notes listed but every time I smell this beautiful perfume I smell something a tad fruity. It smells like it could be that lemon but it's not very lemony either. It's like a pomegranate or blood orange. It's only there briefly before the flower scent appear. Violets and hyacinth come and go and before long a rose makes herself at home on this island. It's like a garden you've stumbled into while wandering in a deserted island. For me the rose is like an exotic Caribbean rose, long extinct, but blooming in an island beyond Fiji, an island that has never been discovered or was once in an 18th century map and discovered by seafaring explorers but then vanished. This is a sweet and very feminine rose, a woman's rose. It's like a mother's embrace. The heady florals invite cloves and patchouli, aromatic, earthier scents, which begin the dry down and last part of the fragrance's performance. Because this is a parfum, every note is detectable, and give it a richer more vibrant aroma that is missing in the current formula. The scent of sandalwood brings everything together. It's a woodsy scent typical of a chypre. This is that same woodsy smell I get from other beauties like Crepe de Chine by F. Millot and Coty's Sophia, Sophia Loren's perfume. This is a rose among woods type of scent. Galbanum, the beautiful aromatic green and musky nocturnal herb, is here again. There is nothing I love better than a good galbanum. It begins to dominate the entire scent although there is still enough room for the other notes to play. This feels like you're lazily tanning yourself on the beach of the island, and the afternoon sun begins to set in the horizon. From a distance you get those flowery smells of violets, roses and hyacinths but you also get the scent of cloves, patchouli, galbanum and sandalwood. The fragrance begins to get smaller, as if the whole thing is shrinking. Amber, not resinous but soapy and gooey, begins to envelop the fragrance toward the end. It's not big on musk, it's clearly amber in the end. It's almost like the whole island was destroyed by an active volcano and only parts of it were preserved in amber. The amber has preserved the fragrance of the island's flowers and woods. Something about this perfume makes me feel like it's beyond exotic, it's primordial, it's prehistoric. I might be reading too much into it, but I am! This is a gorgeous floral woodsy scent. If you like how this sounds and you are a fan of galbanum, hyacinth, sandalwood and amber, this is a perfume that has perfectly aligned all these scents together. Highly recommended for late afternoon wear, for Sundays at home, for romantic dates, for vacations and for the pleasure of whomever wears this magic island captured in amber.

Fidji Guy Laroche NOSE JOSEPHINE CATAPANO Year 1966 I have several glass bottles of the splash vintage parfum concentration which sell on eBay. I've sold a couple on there myself but enjoy this fragrance so much I can never be without it. Back in '66 this was my perfume along with the old Bath-Sheba now a long lost Israeli perfume Zen by Shiseido amongst so many others. I have fond memories attached to this fragrance. I wore it to job interviews and to offices, art galleries, museums, and as casual day wear to run errands with. This is classified as an Oriental and some of the reviews here make it out to be a grander Oriental than it really is. A simple soapy musky galbanum earthy scent, this is good to wear in the autumn and winter. It has pleasant unisex/masculine notes and can be worn by both sexes as a fragrance of the ever decreasing green theme. The splash is pretty strong at first. I thought it had aldehydes but it's a rather sharp lemongrass and lemon scent which as soon as it's on your skin turns floral with violet and hyacinth. The violet and lemon give it a barbershop and after shave type of scent. It has a freshness and vibrancy which would have been amazing had they stepped up the dry down of musk but instead it's very woodsy with sandalwood. At times this reminds me of Lady Gaga's 2nd fragrance Eau de Gaga. The citrus fades and the violet goes away and the heart is powdery with rose. The rose scent doesn't come off as too feminine because the soapy-powdery rose, blended with white floral jasmine, also fades and turns to cloves. Cloves are the big player in this scent. It's what gives it that earthy aura. They compare it to the island of Fidji or a jungle. I've never been to Fidji but I have been to the rainforest in South America in the Amazon and on safari in Africa. This is very similar to an African savannah scent, or the central plains. It's native flowers of a warm climate, namely that jasmine. The galbanum is amazing here. It's a green scent that is rare to find in today's fragrances. The galbanum is wedded to patchouli, herbal, leafy, like green leaves. The patchouli is in the heart not the base. As it dries the base notes are of sandalwood and musk. An amber tree is also present. In general, it's a simple very easy to wear soapy powdery green floral chypre. The fragrance lasts a very long time. The Eau de Toilette comes in much the same shape and bottle but the projection is weaker and the longevity/sillage is poor. It's also more powdery. The perfume is stronger with redolent patchouli leaves, glorious galbanum and jasmine. This is meant to be an Oriental but for the life of me it does not smell like a typical Oriental. No nod to Shalimar here. This is a very lovely chypre. There are spicy airs without having spice notes. The cloves, the aromatic patchouli, and slight fruitiness from citrus. Finally the sandalwood is really such a well composed woodsy note. Very easy to wear. A good intro to vintage perfumes. Unisex and casual, good for all ages 18 and up. Brilliant.

I read the entire thread on this page and realized that most of the reviews are either fantasy or written about the eau de toilette. So, let's start with the fact that the EDT and EDP are very vaguely similar to the perfume extract. The perfume opens with slightly sharp green aldehydes and the green of unblown hyacinth. After a few minutes, the scent begins to unfold, and ylang-ylang, clove bud, and lactonic jasmine take center stage. There's no overt rose, just a hint of cosmetic rose and fresh violet powder. The whole composition is refreshed by lily-of-the-valley aldehyde, which makes the scent lighter and more transparent. The base is a very pleasant musk and woody-incense accord. There's no amber as such. It's a combination of vanillin and olibanum with vetiver and cedarwood (Vertofix). Older versions also contained galbanum and hay absolute. But in the final version from 1984, they were no longer there. There's no civet in this perfume. But there is civettone musk—the very essence of civet without the foul notes. And there's para-cresyl phenylacetate, which, in trace amounts, lends the perfume an eroticism, adding a subtle hint of honeyed rose with a hint of urinosity. The perfume is truly very versatile and incredibly feminine. I think it deserves more attention. But that's just my humble opinion. P.S. I have about 20 bottles of Fidji in various sizes, both extract and older EDT and EDP editions. While the EDT and EDP have at least retained the jasmine heart, albeit obviously soured, the extract hasn't retained even a hint of its former aroma. I have gas sprays, splashes in standard bottles, 7, 14, 28 ml, and a pendant - a 5 ml "drop". All are so damaged that the composition is unrecognizable. And don't make up stories like "your grandmother kept it in a dark, cool closet." That's all untrue. After 40 years, even in a sealed bottle in a cool, dark drawer, slow oxidation, hydrolysis, and polymerization reactions will occur inside, so there will be no aroma left! Unfortunately, among modern perfumes, there is not a single one even remotely similar... Alas.

About Vintage Fidji Eau de Toilette This fragrance seduced me in 1968. I was -- years old then and I had become an experienced perfumista. My 2nd husband was always tolerant of my fragrances. My daughter Karen thought this fragrance was too mossy and lush, calling it an exotic Indian perfume. I don't know what she was smelling. I smell a galbanum, green notes, soap, aldehydes, floral notes, sandalwood, amber and fruit of a nondescript kind, possibly citrus and cassis or grapefruit. Though there is fruit notes, this can hardly be classified as a fruity floral. She is a chypre or floral Oriental and amber perfume. She is meant to resemble the tropical island of Fidji but I've never been further than Australia and New Zealand and have no idea what Fidji is supposed to "smell like". The soapiness of this scent appeals to me. It smells like they should have made a matching Fidji hand soap. The amber might be responsible for that soap scent. There is also a rose that smells like hand soap with a rose scent. The Eau de Toilette does not last too long and it's more of a potent skin freshner. That's not bad though and I love to apply this scent to elevate my mood in the mornings. The cloves, violet, jasmine and patchouli, the amber, the light musk, the sandalwood, would have otherwise formed an Oriental body but instead it's more floral and dries down to moss. I don't think it's as complex as other reviewers are making out to be. On me it's a simple floral soap with beautiful amber. This is easy to wear in the day time and if you douse yourself with it, it's not a problem as it develops and disappears quickly. It has enough projection to be detectable by others and I've received many a compliment on it. She is a beautiful fragrance.

I have the original (my mother's vintage parfum) and the new Eau de Toilette. There are differences. Original vintage EDP is harsh at first with aldehydes and they threw in a lot of galbanum cloves and oak moss. It smells more or less like Aliage by Estee Lauder. It's as woodsy as it is floral. The whole thing softens into a little powder and floral. It smells of hyacinth. rose, iris, and violet. It's also soapy like floral scented soap. The EDT is green floral, fresh, with a dominant hyacinth and with less woods. The fragrance evokes an island paradise but not as tropical as other fragrances I've experienced (i.e. Ibiza Hippie, Bath & Body Works Oahu Coconut Sunset, Paris Hilton Siren). The fragrance smells more like a floral scented breeze on an island, or like sailing on a river with the scents of flowers nearby. My mother owned the EDP and it smelled so good on her. The hyacinth is amazing as are the woods. It's a definite chypre. I have never been more intrigued by a fragrance which has simultaneous harshness and softness. If you apply on your clothes the scent stays there for days it's way too strong but if you apply it on your wrists or neck it disappears very fast. It's a strange exotic perfume.

Oooooh !!! Ils ont mis l'extrait de parfum dans la base de données. Je ne l'avais pas vu. Merci le staff de Fragrantica. J'adore ce parfum. Très différent de l'eau de toilette. Il est plus poudré et plus vert que l'eau de toilette qui est plus épicée. Mais j'avais oublié qu'il y avait de l'ambre ! Oui en effet l'ambre y joue un rôle aussi. Rôle qui est beaucoup moins important dans l'eau de toilette. Je me souviens que l'extrait est resté peu de temps sur le marché et c'est vraiment dommage. C'est le parfum iconique de chez Guy Laroche.

A memory of almost thirty years ago. The first perfume I have ever smelled, because it was my grandma's treasured possession. I remember the box and the reverence with which my grandma would open it on those special occasions she would wear it. I wanted to love it but I found it too overpowering and too dense and cloying. That dusty ambery thick sweetness which I now associate with all the retro style perfumes. I loved the idea of it though - it made me want to have my own, "real" "French" "expensive" perfume...

Dear Fragrantica, I urge you to remove the above picture of Fidji perfume, because it depicts a FAKE bottle, one of which I happened to purchase a few months ago. It contains a chip fragrance, the bottle is not like the original, the seal is plastic, not at all like the authentic one and the cardboard box has a bold yellow color, unlike the original which is a pale yellow !!! I decided to write this message in order to help potential buyers. I hope I helped.

Fidji Parfum smells thicker, much more floral than the EDT. While the smelling profile is still similar, the feeling is different when comparing to the EDT, the parfum feel more "vintage" & more feminine leaning. I prefer the EDT more but the longevity on the EDT is pretty bad. The longevity of the Parfum is quite good. I'll try layering the 2 later to see if I can get the sparkling of the EDT & the longevity of the Parfum at once.

ahh Fidji!! Asked my grandma one year what she wanted for Xmas - her reply was Fidji. She did get it- no doubt from Eaton's who carried all the classy perfumes! I have a bottle stashed At home to remind me of her in just a sniff. I have had friends and coworkers say this is their all time fave perfume. It's classy, elegant, and not in your face or overwhelming. Very classy and I think perfect for any occasion.

I quite liked Fidji, a sweet floral (I didn't get any spices on my skin) without civet and aldehydes, which I never liked. Lasted for quite a while with subtle to moderate sillage, but, unfortunately, at the time Lux launched a line of soaps with the same scent (and it was long lasting, for a soap) and that killed Fidji for me.

In the 1960's, the perfumer of Fidji was tasked with creating a fragrance that smelled like a lighter version of (my favorite) L'air du Temp. She did just that! It is missing that certain beauty and joie de vive that only my beloved juice contains but for the nominal cost it's worth a sniff and you might even prefer it. ✨

Floral Chypre. Slightly dusty floral chypre. More of violets, galbanum, jasmines, musk, and hyacinth. More on the soapy side with clean musk. It's interesting to be honest, and that bottle looks amusing.

smells like jagermeister + old fashioned chypre perfume black licorice, galbanum, patchouli, violets, amber a dry boozy woody floriental moderate projection, good longevity

I was amazed to read all the notes in this perfume as the overall effect is fresh and green. In fact, it reminds me of the scent of cut grass.