Philosykos (1996)
by Diptyque

My family have a farm and in there we have a lot of fruit trees: mango, jabuticaba, guava, Barbados cherry, orange and last but not least, figs! Even now I love to go there during time where these trees are full of fruits and stay the enterely day just eating those fresh fruits without thinking in anything else...

And just after putting Philosykos on my skin, I was immediately transported to the farm! The opening of this fragrance makes me think about walking over the fig trees, smelling a fresh, natural green fig leafs while waiting to eat some of those fig dipped in syrup that my mom usually makes during christmas time (as a matter of fact, while I'm writing this review, I'm eating some! What a delicious smell and taste!) I can easily compare the smell of it to Philosykos and say that this fragrance is all about pure, natural figs.

There's no syrup or powdery aroma attached into it. Very good fragrance for those of you who loves figs and just figs (even though in the drydown this fragrance shows a very nice and somehow unexpected coconut note which I'm a fan). Sadly after 4h this scent disappears on my skin but that's no reason for a thumbs down.

28th December, 2011.

I grew up in southern Europe. We had fig trees in our courtyard. As I moved to the mediterranien coast, I was surrounded with fig trees. I loved the smell of leaves and fruits of them.So I had big expectations as I bought a sample of Philosykos. It was such a dissapointment. It smells just like coconut milk with dill on my skin. No figues, not at all. I don't like coconuts and even if I like dill with some dishes, I can't have the smell on my skin. Sometimes, when I forget some dill in the fridge and they get rotten...this is the reminiscense for me. And not only this, it's even more. It's as if I mixed the rotten dill in coconut milk.

7th October, 2011.

This is by far the most accurate fig based fragrance. It smells like the entire fig tree I had when I was growing up. It is the sweet, dewy, smell of the fig tree just after a heavy rain coupled with the smell of biting into a juicy, and ripe fig. An amazing scent for any season except winter.

12nd August, 2011. (Last Edited: 20th October, 2011.)

As fig scents go, my favorite is still Molinard's Fleur de Figuier. Maybe it's because of the variation in the smell of fig & fig leaf that is registered to our individual memories, but the bitter and milky smell and even the raspy texture of the fig leaf is more evident in Molinard's fig.

Philosykos though, is a very positive, happy fragrance. It reminds me more of white nectarines and white grapes. Crates of fruits which were picked just yesterday, in crates, in the village market with wasps going wild over the aroma they give.

About the coconut thing, I think all fig/coconut smells resemble each other as most of the molecules in fig and coconut accords are the same. It's not a coincidence that

Very pretty.

4th June, 2011.

Philosykos is REALLY simple, and this review is a reflection of that.

It opens green and watery and closes a little drier and sweeter. The fig is prominent throughout, and the coconut lingers in the background.

The longevity is very good for something so light and refreshing.

I will most likely be getting a bottle, but I need to do some more fig scent tests.

18th May, 2011.

Getting to know her work better, I tend to associate Olivia Giacobetti’s fragrances to spheres of various material, consistence, colour. I think they have a sort of “tight “perfection, as if there’s something in the core of the fragrance that pulls the surroundings towards itself evenly, giving it the shape of a sphere, precisely.
Philosykos, in this imagery, is a fragile, airy, wind drifting, transparent silver- white-green sphere, with the milky green notes of fig leaves and sap insisting on an aromatic woody heart. The scent that remains on my skin, after the fresh fruity notes of the opening fade, curiously reminds me of sun drenched marjoram (I haven’t seen that note listed, but I can detect it quite sharply).
A very pleasant, serene and easy to wear fragrance, perfect in hot weather and in open air.

2nd May, 2011. (Last Edited: 9th May, 2011.)