Les Fleurs de Provance: Fleur de Figuer Molinard for women

I wore this many (many) years ago and had veered back toward other scents. Then I realized that there were reformulations afoot and made haste to get a bottle of the original.

Thank goodness I did. It's hard to understand how I forgot to include this scent in my regular rotation. In fact I am thinking about getting another bottle to keep sealed for a rainy day.

It's creamy and green and soft. I have only worn one other fig fragrance - L'Artisan - and this one is all soft, fresh air whereas that one has some spice in the patchouli and other notes that come forward on my skin.

This opens green and the cedar tempers it - not as a pronounced wood but to create the effect of a fig tree. As opposed to a more expected green of the vetiver-heavy or perhaps Cristalle sort of compositions, this reminds me inescapably of the way the air smelled when I was in Jerusalem during September and October one year. The harvest of fruit-heavy vines and walking through the golden sandstone streets enveloped with the scents of almond and olive trees blended with that of those ripe figs just waiting to be eaten.

On the drydown, the fig remains. Even though the explicit notes of honey and milk aren't there, the feeling of them is and a faint oleander thread seems to connect the notes.

I somehow missed Molinard during my meanders through the streets of Grasse, but having learned that they have been around since 1849, I was anxious to try out their wares and snapped some samples into an online shopping bag at the first available opportunity.

FLEUR DE FIGUIER is a slightly sweet, flour-textured woody fragrance. I am no connoisseur of fig perfumes, but I know what figs taste and smell like, and this composition is not all that figgy to me. I would certainly have identified this edt as an oriental woody and am not sure what the basis of the aromatic green label is supposed to be. Perhaps a simple mistake? (-:

Anyway, this is a very pleasing scent, to be sure, and the quality seems at the level of L'Artisan Parfumeur. As I have come to expect from natural fragrances such as this one, there is nothing earthshattering in the composition, just a very pleasing melange of subtly blended notes.

I won't rush out to add FLEUR DE FIGUIER to my collection, but if I happen to see a bottle on sale, I probably will not abstain...

I'm into fig frags now. I have this one and I love it. It's dry, but in a very pleasant way. Very refreshing, too. Pity it doesn't last very much. Then again, it is EDT.

Molinard Fleur de Figuer is a fresh, cool, crisp fig fragrance that is only slightly on the dry side. At first sniff, I smell fig leaf, galbanum, floral, woodsy, not-too-sharp, somewhat of a bitter-citrus aroma(petit grain?), & cedar all at once. Each note bursts forth and provides an introduction befitting that of its top note status. As it dries down, I get a drier fig leaf aroma, mixed with a little bit of cedar...but naturally sweet (the way a leaf would smell after you rub it between your fingers after a while). This is a very natural "purpley-green" smell...as if you were sniffing an older fig leaf. Though I'm prone to wearing fragrances "out-of-season" just because I delight in it, I can actually picture myself wearing this during the Autumn months. Leaf smells tend to do that to me. On skin, a dabbing does not last that long on me....1.5-2 hours maybe. If you spray it on your clothes, I'm sure it would be delightfully relaxing.

This is a green leafy fig scent, if you are not looking for a "plummy" or "jammy" sweet fig, you will probably enjoy this offering by Molinard.

While many figs are fruity compotes, Molinard has given us the leaves and a hint of blossom surrounded by an arbor of cedar and mosses. It is a crispy cool green scent and by no means a gourmandy fig doused with vanilla and spice.

Molinard Fleurs de Figuer is one of my favorites in the Fleurs de Provence line. I am not sure if this one has been subjected to reformulation to remove the moss. I hope not, but if you find a bottle like the one pictured here on Fragrantica, you are in for a summery treat.