Fig Season: A History of Fig in My Wardrobe

The two major perfumes of my high school years that would have a major impact on my fragrance choice's are the original Lolita Lempicka and Demeter's Fig Leaf. Oh there are few others that I remember fondly but those are the two scents that really have influenced my taste and frankly seemed to hint at my adult tastes.

 I still have my original bottle of Lolita Lempicka and come Autumn spritz it happily although these days it becomes an almost a nostalgic practice as I watch the bottle get lower and lower.

As for Demeter's Fig Leaf well I have then had a very long affair with the fig note. As a teenager it made me feel different and unique because no other girl or adult woman wore perfumes that smelled like fig, I would still say that scent of fig has kept its bohemian roots even though it can be found more easily in perfume and home scents these days it is still a note that remains unique.

As a teenager I used up my bottle quickly of Demeter's Fig Leaf, which is easy considering it has no longevity.

I then followed that perfume with Fresh's aqueous Apricot Fig scent, a rather green and 90s hinting fig scent with the use of Calone. I wasn't completely in love with it but still it filled my fig needs.

This was followed by my first indie/niche fig scent and one that I will admit I thought utterly sexy but now admit it is kind of garish, Dream by Fresh Scents by Terri, which really is more like the scent of a fig newton. Which is not a bad scent if you smell them but could easily become overbearing.

At this point I was in my early twenties and having my first major relationship and being the perfume lover of course I was going to get him a perfume to wear. The scent was Marc Jacobs for men, one hell of a delicious creamy spicy fig scent for men, don't know how it is now, but in the early 2000s it was divine. I still think of that purchase fondly considering all the men's scents I sniffed at the time and then smelling that one.

At this point I had a decant of  L'Artisan's Premier Figuier and found it far too green on myself and running into my first of many times where galbanum took over. Call it an arch-nemesis sort of relationship, I eventually swapped the decant. I was then gifted by my boyfriend of then with Victoria Secret's Mood: Ripe, a rather fun vanilla citrus fig scent, nothing innovative but it was fig that I could wear and enjoy, unfortunately the damn thing came with a bulb atomizer and quickly evaporated from the bottle.

This was then followed by Body Time's uber green Green Fig oil which frankly suffered the galbanum problem, I eventually used it up as a bedding spray.

In all of this I had quite a few fig scented candles.

For awhile after this I was using a decant of Miller Harris's Figue Amere, a delightfully bitter woody amaro fig scent. That evokes the Mediterranean coast.

After this came the long slump of not a whole lot of fig. I think I had been rather burned by all the galbanum forward fig perfumes. I eventually though ended up with a bizarrely large batch of samples of Diptyque's Philosykos. That creamy delicious black fig scent. As far as the two classic pillar scents of figs go you know which one is for me. Grand irony these scents were both created by Olivia Giacobetti.

And recently I have been on the fig hunt again. Which began with the acquirement of Olivina's Hand and Body Wash in Fig and their Body Cream in Fig, which is a rather loverly fig scent that clearly takes its heritage from Philosykos. That was followed by South of France's Mediterranean Fig bar soap, a yummy tart take on fig.  I tried Pacifica's Mediterranean Fig which was far too green and harsh on me (although, I have found many of their older perfumes have become this way due to reformulation). I then had high hopes for Atelier Cologne's Figuier Ardent and found it not to work, it was too similar to Marc Jacobs for Men and uses cumin-y cedar base that while works great on others ends up smelling sweaty on me. I then purchased a regret, I Profumi di Firenze Vaniglia e Fichi, an excellent fig opening but then a pure lemon butter cake dry down on me that is far too sweet.  I finally took my cues from another another fig lover Victoria from Eaumg.net and because it was on uber-sale bought a roll-on of Lucy B's Royal Green Fig and Vanilla Wood perfume oil. Oh, this is a green one but thankfully enough smooth vanilla and coconut to keep it in check. Not in the least bit layered but that is okay because this is probably the best fig you can get on the market that won't cost you an arm and a leg.

If you really want to celibrate fig I recommend you make yourself a fig shake.

Fig Shake Recipe:
4-5 figs
ice
milk, at least 1/2 a cup depends on thick you like your shakes.
a splash of vanilla if you like
maybe a date if you have any around.
-Put it all in a blender and blend and get ready for a divine summer drink.

First image is from Eccentricteatime
Second image is from Fragrantica.com
Third image is from Beauty.com