Fig Fragrances

Dried and candied figs are still sold throughout the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean as a delicacy that dates back to ancient times. Such was the importance given to them that in classical Athens an important trading center for figs, the term sycophant ��������� literally revealing of figs was coined for those who preyed on poachers of figs. As the practice of stealing the fruit was both illegal and very frowned upon - fig trees being sacred as well as a commercial point of view for the city-state of Athens - the practice quickly took on a more sinister undertone: if anyone one had a vendetta against his neighbor they often resorted to reproach them for poaching figs Thus the word sycophant acquired a negative and more generalized meaning, that of lying snitch, a meaning that it still retains in Greek Centuries later, the word has acquired a different meaning in English that of lowly flatterer, but its etymology reminds us that the natural world around us is not unimportant even in things as prosaic as words. . The recreation of the scent of fig trees in perfumery is possible thanks to two crucial ingredients: stemone and octalactone gamma. Stemone trade name Givaudan imparts a green and fresh tone like mint which, when combined with gamma octalactone like a prune evokes the earthy, sticky green of fig leaves a smell of dry earth, scorched by the sun of 'a warm place with a hint of bitterness and the milky sap of the young fruit. Hedione a note of fresh jasmine, trade name Firmenich and Iso-E Super a dynamic, shape-changing synthetic wood, trade name IFF are often used to give the genre a lift. The coconut note is important, not because it gives a tropical touch figs grow in the temperate zone but because the sap of the young fruits contains a sensitizing milk, a lactonic note. Coconut is also lactonic, that is to say milky in nature, hence the inclusion which more realistically recalls the fig tree loaded with its future succulent load. The milky note is no accident and has not escaped attention through the ages. The classical Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis writes in Deipnosophistae how rural people made cheese from milk by curdling it using twigs and leaves of the fig tree. It is even described in Homer's Iliad It's unclear if Giacobetti was intimate with this little classical knowledge when she added a milky, buttery note to the green woody skeleton. All I know is that in Premier Figuier it was crucial that the tempering of the bitterness naturally present in the fig leaf itself, smelling best when crushed between the fingers with the note sweet milky is perfect The effect is not too different from an apricot another lactonic note in the fragrance passed under fresh water and split open in two halves in a cool yard. While wearing Premier Figuier, I often remember this little fact when I get compliments about the apricot scent on me. The best fig-centric scents balance out warmer and cooler tones and recreate the vibe of sitting under the shady branches while breaking the fruit into a cheeky shape: compared to male genitals when they are full and female when cut in half. The fig is an evocative fruit in more than one sensual way. Premier Figuier, alongside his brother Philosykos, is a masterpiece of modern perfumery: a balancing act and an extremely influential work. May he live another 20 years