Wild Fig and Cassis (2002)
by Jo Malone

Good green fig leaves and wood. Lasts longer than jardin de Kerylos - but without the matters smile inducing delight.

2nd November, 2011.

Jo Malone WILD FIG & CASSIS smells to me rather like a bunch of fig leaves and grass blades thrown in a blender. Very, very green and fairly sharp as well, especially in the opening minutes. Is this composition sweet at all? No. The fig leaf is featured, not the fruit nor the wood.

Here are the notes I found at another site:
Top notes are cassis, cherry and grass; middle notes are hyacinth, cyclamen, jasmine and pine tree; base notes are patchouli, cedar, amber and musk.

To my nose, the grass, fig leaf and hyacinth together conspire to make this a very green experience indeed, although I do not detect the pine as an isolable note—which is probably a good thing in this case... Fig is clearly the focus, especially in the drydown (which is quite a bit less sharp than the opening), but there is a huge amount of greenishness to this cologne from start to finish! In the opening minutes, I am even reminded a bit of the discontinued BELEAF, by The Body Shop—although that composition lacked fig. This composition, too, is fully unisex, even leaning a bit toward the masculine side.

The longevity of WILD FIG AND CASSIS is as to be expected from Jo Malone, but if green fig leaves are what you're really after, then this natural-smelling cologne may serve you well! Not for me.

23rd October, 2011. (Last Edited: 24th October, 2011.)

Love, love, love, love this fragrance. I'm a late bloomer when it comes to this Wild Fig and Cassis cologne from Jo Malone as I've been wearing a countless others from the Jo Malone brand but somehow it grew on me and now I have a small and a large just to have it ready to use anywhere I am travel or at home. It's green with an added earthy mossiness to it and it's best after a hot shower then spray a nice bunch of it on you to smell like a fig garden on a warm afternoon. It's so good I can taste it!

17th April, 2011.

Ok, I love fig. And this is hands down the truest fig I've smelled. Many other perfumes use it as a note of varying dominance, but always surrounded by other narcissistic smells that, to my mind, hide its beauty. And the fig you find in perfumes is so often the overripe, sickly sweet almost baked fig that, frankly, I could take or leave.

This fragrance is an encounter with a fig tree in slow motion. The very top smells extremely strongly of fig leaves and the outer skin of the fig itself, just verging on ripeness. There is no comparison to make with another scent - it's just the smell of the outside of a freshly picked fig. As it evolves, it becomes sweeter (that's you biting into the fig), and the largely subordinate cassis might peek out at you, but this is really all about the fig. To me, this never becomes sickly, but it is true that the greenness that tempers the sweetness dies down somewhat over time.

HOWEVER, this isn't much more than that - if you're looking for a complicated, abstract fig, this is probably not for you. I wear this because I love fig, but unless you're crazy about fig, this is unlikely to be a real winner.

I spent 6 weeks working in Greece and would pick figs from the trees at the side of the road on my way out every morning. Smelling this took me straight back there - incredible.

14th January, 2011.

I am surprised that I do not like this scent. On me, it is a very green, grassy scent... a style I usually appreciate. I'm not crazy about fig but I don't dislike it. And there is lots of fig here. So what's the problem for me?
This seems like a fig soliflore, and a rather shallow and unappealing one. It doesn't have any depth. For me, the grassy (and eventually hay-like) fig notes quickly get tiresome. The fig note is unrelenting and un-ameliorated by anything else. The cassis must be cassis bud (not fruit), since there are no plummy-ness or red berry notes to be found here.
Perhaps this would add a nice figgy-green spark to something rounder -- that is part of the JM design. But, judging this on its own, I can't endorse it.

14th April, 2010.

I adore the figgy-ness of this fragrance - it smells like you've just hugged a fig tree!

When I put it on I can't stop sniffing myself. Which is not such a good idea in the first 20 seconds or so as there is a strong acetone smell if you get too close. Luckily that quickly dies away completely and I'm left with gorgeous pure green fig - green and warm at the same time. Unluckily this too dies away and an hour later I can barely detect the fragrance at all. And where's the cassis? Yes, I get the sugary warmth but it doesn't resemble anything remotely like cassis to my nose. Maybe that's not a bad thing because I can just wallow in the figs without any distractions.

Despite the reservations, full marks for comprehensively capturing the fresh, green succulence of wild figs. If only it hung around I wouldn't be going through my (small) bottle at such an alarming rate.

24th January, 2010.