Fig Tea Eau Fraiche by Parfums de Nicolai

This has been quite a fragrance year for me! I have discovered more intoxicating, must-have scents than in any other year of my life. I have to alternate days wearing them. The latest? Fig Tea Eau Fraiche by Parfums de Nicolai ($40 or $65). New to me, but not a new fragrance, Fig Tea is divine.

With notes of fig, osmanthus, davana, and tea, Fig Tea has a tempered fruity aura - one I find irresistible. This summer, every time I've jumped out of the shower feeling dry, I've slathered my legs and arms with Korres Fig Body Butter. I like figs!

Figs have a heavenly smell - and taste - and their color draws in my eyes as my taste buds anticipate their unique flavor. Fig season is upon us, and I must go to the Farmer's Market Saturday to buy some fresh figs. I love them.

Fig in fragrance is just as enticing. Here is what LuckyScent, the source of my Fig Tea Eau Fraiche has to say about the fragrance.

Finally, here comes a fragrance to delight the fans of non-green, fruity figs. The leaves and the twigs of a fig tree were abandoned in favor of the divine, nectarous, darkly-sweet fruits. The figs in Patricia de Nicolai’s rendition are ripe and marvelously soft, oozing ambrosial juice. The osmanthus, with its slight apricot-like undertone, and the wonderfully boozy davana make the smell of figs not just mouthwatering, but actually intoxicating. To keep the lush sweetness in check, the creator balanced the figs and the flowers with a tea note. Dry and slightly smoky, black tea turns the decadently luscious composition into a blend of utter elegance. A treat for the fig-scent connoisseurs and the lovers of refined and unusual fruity perfumes.

I don't think I can improve that description (although I'm still waiting to whiff "boozy," even if I did call the scent intoxicating)! The top notes of Fig Tea are dried fig enhanced by the rare China osmanthus and India davana oils. The heart notes are tea around maté absolute, coriander oil, and jasmine. At its dry-down, you will detect Gaïac wood with an amber note if your nose is more sophisticated than mine. I get the soft wood, but not the amber. This is a subtle, elegant fragrance; it pleases without screaming "fruit factory" to those in proximity.

The creator of this desirable perfume is Patricia Nicolai, a woman with fragrance in her blood. The grand-daughter of Pierre Guerlain, she was trained by Jean-Paul Guerlain and worked extensively in the corporate fragrance world before realizing her dream: a small, family-owned company where she could express her artistry in her scents, without having to deal with a committee.

Her fragrances, made only with the finest materials, are full of subtlety, nuance, and seamless transitions as they develop on the skin. Delicate and complex, they have earned her unanimous respect in the small world of French perfumery. She was the first woman to be awarded the prize of Best International Perfumer from the French Society of Perfumers. I'm discovering why!

You can find Fig Tea Eau de Fraiche at LuckyScent and Beautyhabit. Intrigued? Order a sample and find out why I'm fragrance-fickle lately.

Photos courtesy of LuckyScent and en.wikivisual.com