For me, Philosykos by Diptyque is a real game changer. I remember the first time I ever smelled this fragrance. It was mid to late 90s and I had never smelled anything like it before. It just kind of blew my mind and changed my ideas of what perfume could do.
The perfumer is Olivia Giacobetti. And as you probably know, she's one of my all-time favorite perfumers. I kind of love everything she ever does. She's pretty remarkable. Shortly before Philosykos, Ms. Giacobetti worked on Premier Figuier for L'Artisan Parfumeur. Very similar. They're almost like two drafts of the same composition, which is, here is the fig tree in all of its glory.
I didn't grow up around fig trees. It wasn't my climate. I didn't smell a fig tree until I was in my 20s and couldn't believe how beautiful the smell was. It's creamy, lactic, and obviously very green. It's so summery and just rich with that coolness because it is a tree and it has those nice green aspects.
I wasn't the only one who fell for this fragrance head over heels because suddenly by the late 90s, the fig tree smell was everywhere. Marc Jacobs came out with Marc Jacobs Man and it's essentially a fig fragrance, except maybe kind of greener than Philosykos. That iconic store in Paris, Colette, just a real fashion groundbreaking store, shows a very green fig smell, not unlike Philosykos to be the interior signature smell of the store. So anywhere you walked around in that store, you could smell fig trees. It's kind of remarkable.
Olivia Giacobetti's style is very poetic, ethereal, very detailed and celebrates nature in this uncanny, gorgeous way. It's not the kind of fragrance that you put on and people notice and say, what is that you're wearing? It's not that kind of a thing. It's not a nightcl
