What does Fig smell like?
Ripe fig smells of coconut milk, brown sugar and a touch of wood. Split open, the grainy flesh has a quiet scent. Perfumers exaggerate it with creamy lactones and coumarin. The leaf and sap often join in, and then you smell the shade of a fig tree in high summer. On skin the accord stays soft. It lasts longer than citrus and less than amber.
Origin and production
The fig tree (Ficus carica) has been grown around the Mediterranean since antiquity. Its fruit gives no usable oil. Perfumers rebuild fig from molecules: lactones for the milky side, green notes for the skin and soft woods for the base. Fig leaf absolute was used for years but is now banned by IFRA. Synthetic molecules took over.
How perfumers use it
Fig earned its stripes with Diptyque Philosykos, composed by Olivia Giacobetti in 1996. It fits the whole tree in a bottle, from fruit to leaf to wood. Hermès Un Jardin en Méditerranée, by Jean-Claude Ellena in 2003, makes it airier. Mugler Womanity pairs it with a salty marine note, a rare choice. Le Labo Thé Noir 29 lays it over smoky tea and runs darker than the others.
How to wear it
Fig suits June to September on sun-warmed skin. Philosykos can take three sprays. Womanity is stronger and needs only one.