Fig Tree

Several years ago I studied abroad in the middle of the rainforest in Tropical North Queensland, Australia. I lived there for 5 months. I've smelled many, many green perfumes since that time in my life, but nothing has ever stirred up memories of the rainforest like this before. It opens up beautifully green and fresh, not citrusy and sharp like too many "fresh" perfumes. The moment I inhaled, fragments of memories flashed through my mind at lightening speed. I was finally able to focus my mind on a clear memory that didn't flicker away--Ficus virens, aka the Curtain Fig Tree. There were tons upon tons of monster-sized fig trees all over the rainforest. There were many other Ficus (fig) species as well. It's like I'm right there again with the bright green canopy above me, opalescent waters filled with leeches, and thick, humid tropical air filling my lungs. I am so grateful for the lack of coconut in this fragrance. Coconut ruins fig perfumes for me. If you want to smell like the beach with a few palm trees strewn about, go for coconut. But if you want a dead-ringer for the Garden of Eden, with lush green forests, King parrots, and deadly snakes, Fig Tree is your ticket!!! Nothing is going to stop me from buying a bottle of this.

So sheer and bright! I get the fresh pulp of fig first, sweet but lightly tart, almost like apple juice if it were made from figs. Then the earthy, woody note of the fig trunk comes through. The base stays surprisingly light and airy: fresh fig and fig wood. As it dries, it softens, becomes rounder and more woody. Compared to Philosykos by Diptyque, which is creamy, this feels more sheer, with a slightly sharper fig pulp. Delicious!

After a green fig leaf opening, the scent quickly turns into a smooth, smooth, creamy fig leaf/wood, lactone and tonka smell. To me, there's also a bit of a maple syrup sweetness, maybe coming from the tonka. The extremely milky lactones do smell a bit like coconut at times. It's a very comforting scent, and it lasts and lasts. I could swear I can smell a little sandalwood, but maybe it's just the cedar + lactones.

Such a classy, beautiful fig fragrance. I love fig fragrances but usually they either don't last long or smell too fruity. This one though is my favorite fig fragrance. It smells so natural and rich. If Chanel made a fig fragrance, this would be it. Fig Tree is the Chanel N°5 of fig fragrances. It's intense, green, woody, creamy, herbal and musky. It feels very vintage, nostalgic and different from most fig scents. This is not an edible fig, but the entire tree put into a bottle. The longevity is great and it radiates like a sticky fig tree in the heat of the summer. This scent is surely unisex and would make a wonderful alternative summer scent to all the other generic blue, aquatic male scents out there. I purchased this in full size from Laurie, who is very sweet, generous and truly a genius in the perfume world.

So fascinating! It hits my nose like the sensation of choking on honey and caramel thickened with salted butter. I start out hating it, but I can't take my nose from my arm, and it quickly fills my throat and brain, and I'm won over against my best intentions. On me, from a distance, it's very lactone heavy, musky, it has the sharper, grassier sweetness of tonka before the thicker one of vanilla, and the patchouli and the fig make a sour green nearly leathery contribution. When I shove my face into it, it's all cream, brown sugar, and a bit of dry wood.