Reviews of Philosykos (1996)
by Diptyque

I would SO love to love this one – and if all these reviews on Basenotes are anything to go by, I should! I tried this one when I was looking for a fig-based alternative to my beloved Premier Figuier by L'Artisan, and Philosykos starts off pleasantly enough – strong, fresh and woody. However, after about half an hour on my skin it turns absolutely SICKENING and sour, very "off". Like when you empty out old water from a vase! Maybe it's just my chemisty... :-(

summer scent. Too light, allmost like green fields.natural.

Regardless of what one thinks of other fragrances from the Diptyque line, EVERYone loves Philosykos, right? Right? Wrong! Argh, what is it with Diptyques that causes me to block on them so badly and miss what so many others seem to be enjoying?! When it comes to figs, I'm a L'Artisan Premier Figieur kind of girl, yet open to other interpretations of this stellar fruit, which I've kind of been in love with since childhood. And Premier, like Philosykos, is green fig, not ripe fig, not the honeyish variety you find in other scents such as Balenciaga Cristobal. So I'm okay with the green fig thing. Philosykos, though, is just TOO green, too thin and - nail in the coffin - weirdly sweet in the drydown, a little powdery-sickly sweet and so not what I think of fig as being. Drat! I had a chance recently to buy a bottle of this at such a good price; a boutique near me was going out of business and selling off a few Diptyque SKUs. Cut-rate Philosykos was right there in front of me and I still couldn't/wouldn't take the bait. I realized from that experience that Diptyques and I will never see eye-to-eye.