Why fig smells green
The fig in our first scent is mostly leaf and sap. Here is how we built it from almost nothing.
The leaf, not the fruit
Ripe figs barely smell of anything once you cut them. What people remember is the tree: the milky sap that beads where a leaf snaps off, and the leaf itself, which smells like coconut and cut grass at once.
“Scent is the only sense that goes straight to memory.”
Building an accord
There is no fig essential oil worth bottling, so a fig in perfume is always a construction. Ours took eleven months and around ninety trial vials. The final accord uses a green note from violet leaf, a creamy lactone and a little stemone, which smells uncannily like a snapped fig stalk.
Why cedar
We kept the base dry so the green part can stay bright for hours. Atlas cedar does that without turning sweet. It is also the wood of the bench under the tree in the garden where Figuier started.
