Fig Perfumes, Round 1 (review of 6 scents)

[chomiji]

After reading about Surrender to Chance on the comm, I ordered their Fig Figgety Fig Fig sampler of 10 perfumes containing fig as a note. The order process included the option of having Amazon as an intermediary in the payment, which I did because I order lots of things through Amazon. My sampler arrived 3 days after I ordered, in very good shape. The 10 little vials (the same sort BPAL uses), all clearly labeled, were in a tough little ziplocked plastic bag, inside a small cardboard jewel box, complete with the cotton padding, and then that box, with the invoice papers wrapped around it, was inside a padded mailer.

This review covers: CB I Hate Perfume Revelation | Diptyque Philosykos | Hermes Un Jardin en Mediterranee | Fresh Fig Apricot | L'Artisan Premier Figuier | Parfums Delrae Bois de Paradis

CB I Hate Perfume Revelation Perfume

Top: fig leaf
Middle: honey, spices
Bottom: labdanum, virginia cedar, amber, cypress

In bottle: honey, flowers
On skin: honey, sweet: amber and maybe the labdanum?, Not really smelling anything leafy or woody: just the sweet resins.
Drydown: more sweet resin - very sticky-smelling. Doesn't last very long at all.

Diptyque Philosykos

Top: fig leaf, fig
Middle: coconut, green
Bottom: cedar, woody, fig tree

In bottle: Fresh, crushed foliage over the alcohol note
On skin: very botanical - woody and leafy
Drydown: more of the same, but fainter. Also slightly headache-inducing. Perhaps something in the "green" scent element is doing that? It fades out to a slight woody sweetness fairly quickly. I was disappointed: I'd had a number of recommendations for this one.

Hermes Un Jardin en Mediterranee

Top: mandarin orange, bergamot, lemon
Middle: orange blossom, white nerium oleander
Bottom: cypress, fig leaf, musk, red cedar, juniper

In bottle: Woods, faint floral
On skin: Warm woods, citrus surprisingly faint - mainly as a tangy note over the wood and the sweetness that may be the florals
Drydown: Bergamot more distinct ("Earl Grey!"), warm, sweet, woody; perhaps faint hay fever symptoms (the juniper, if I had to guess). I rather liked this one.

Fresh Fig Apricot

Top: apricot, peach, lychee
Middle: fig leaf, petitgrain, dandelion
Bottom: musk, sea water, green tea

In bottle: generic "perfume" smell
On skin: vague fruity-woody smell (petitgrain?) that develops into a definite apricot after a minute, plus musk. And I started sneezing, so I washed it off. Maybe I'm allergic to the dandelion? I looked up petitgrain, and it comes from citrus, so I don't think it was that.

L'Artisan Premier Figuier

Top: fig tree, asafoetida
Middle: fig, sandalwood, almond milk
Bottom: lime, coconut, dried fruits, sandalwood

In bottle: generic "perfume," wood
On skin: generic "perfume", and … ? And now I am being transported back in time and space to the Bronx in the 1960s, where I am being embraced by various great aunts, and there's a smell like this, and WAAAAAAUGHHHH, get it off of me!

I think maybe that was the asafoetida. Oh God, was this a scrubber. Ugh. I never smelled any of the other nice things that this one supposedly had. And it got into my skin and stayed there, because when I tried something else on that spot the next morning (after a shower plus 24 hours), that ugly, garlic-ish scent came up again.

Parfums Delrae Bois de Paradis

Top: citrus
Middle: rose, blackberry, spices, fig
Bottom: amber, woody, resins, incense

In bottle: sharp citrus-incense
On skin: sweet, incense, wood … faint smokiness?, maybe a little fruit
Drydown: amber coming out, perhaps a little rose, incense, wood. It was mostly gone before half an hour had passed, and almost nothing remained after a shower.

I'm a little sad that so many of these were failures. I guess I'm picky?