fume: diptyque's philosykos
diptyque philosykos. this write-up's not Anna-fancy (hee), more just rambly personal utilitarian note-taking for future reference, 'cause it's about a perfume type i'm trying to warm to given the climate i live in despite personal indifference (which means it's hard to be rapturous or well informed about, and here i'm not). so i would skip over this if i were you.
so i figured if i just went by what i'm immediately attracted to, all i'd ever try or have would be a vast array of genderqueer night-and-wintertime tobacco-leather-sweet/spicy-oriental scents, ha. i had to push myself to mix it up some...truth is most warm weather daytime profiled scents fail to grab my attention, at least in copy, because they tend to have notes that either i like in general but not with my skin (citrus!, marine, mossy green) or they tend to be girlier, more floral (i will admit to being a rather straightforward, unrefined sort of creature, ha).
anyway, i did grab this to sample though because for god's sake i live in memphis so most months i can't be wearing stuff that's the equivalent of a grandpa cardigan (or worse, the goth teen in a long-sleeve floor-length heavy velvet dress...in july), alas, and because figs still prickle me as a leftover challenge from tea. see i adore fresh figs--they instantly remind me of those 97F early august afternoons down here where you and your partner don't want to do anything because of the heat, including cook, so you just sit around half naked with all the lights off lolling about together and eating fresh fruit for early dinner and the air smells green and hot all the time--but i've yet to find a tea that gets to the wonderful contradiction of a fresh fig, how it can be so jammy, sticky-sweet and intense in a mysterious and voluptuous way and yet so FRESH, almost sour-juicy. in tea it's always either so subtle i can barely taste anything at all, or it's this clobbered-by-a-2-by-4 sweet preserves or leathery dried fruit thing, or worst of all, just a chemical sort of purpleness. even places like american tea room and dammann freres (!) couldn't seem to get it right. so i was afraid of fig in perfume, that it'd be the same way--just jarred jam, dried fruit, or sickly sweet purple.
i am pleased to report this is rather astonishing at being nothing, NOTHING like a sticky sweet disappointment-fig. the opening is so intensely fresh and green it veers into that "too sharply chypre or grapefruit" territory that doesn't agree with my skin. it is quite a lot like some of the extremely fresh green and white teas i've been lucky enough to encounter in the past year (shang's silver needle king with all its banana blossom glory represent!), as well as crushed bright green leaves and the cut grass of a mowed lawn or field. it isn't remotely sugary though it does have a wet sappy quality; if anything it's kind of sour, tangy. i shouldn't love the top so much given my proclivities and part of me wonders if my apprehension it'd be sugary jam is clouding things, that without my relief and surprise about encountering nearly the opposite i'd be like "this is one of those sour-fresh perfumes i can't wear!" hm.
the amped up top also lasts beyond what's usual for me; typically i don't much like most first impression notes but don't care 'cause then they never seem to last intensely past 10 or 20 minutes. but this one stayed bright and vital for at least half an hour without being room-clearingly powerful (or maybe the freshness of it makes it feel lighter?). towards the end of it i get some powder (my skin seems to turn nearly everything to powder), but it's not off-putting because it's a nice counter to the over-the-top greenness, softening it a little (and the greenness keeps the powder from feeling dry or talc-like, more just clean).
then the coconut. i have a complicated attitude about coconut in general--i tend to hate cocktails that combine coconut with any other fruit because my mind automatically translates it into "pina colada plastic fruit bomb" (murky memory associations of the first godawful cheap bottled mixers you encounter in college at parties, i think?), and scents like that make my nose wrinkle for the same reason. and i think the whole beachy "suntan lotion" element that includes it that's found in some cosmetics and fragrances is way overused. on the other hand, i like coconut when it makes me think of canned coconut milk used for weeknight thai curries, that rich sweet sort. and Robert's been loyal to a certain shampoo for about as long as we've been together that smells of sweet milky coconut and only coconut (and other than the shaving soap he started using a couple years ago 'cause i gave it to him as a christmas present, he avoids scent altogether in all of his other toiletries), and it's the same kind as what's in this perfume, the sweet creamy sort. so when i smell it in this perfume, it reminds me of putting my face to his hair, which is obviously a happy thought. it does tend to make one think of a warm seaside when connected to that strong wet green opening, but it's not cheesy beach crowded with bikinis so much as our time in valencia in the off season, early morning just us, the sun, and the mediterranean. i don't mind it at all. the sweet middle part doesn't last terribly long though. the powder keeps dropping in and out, right through to the last note, which is wood.
a couple hours in, i finally get some of the smoky, spicy woodiness people talk about, and i love it. it isn't heady or musty; it's an "outdoors" sort of wood. but not mossy, not deciduous forest--more like warm bark from a tree that gets a ton of sun, or the logs and lightweight driftwood one uses to build a beach bonfire. as it mellows it gets even lovelier.
so far, this is not a very complicated scent--nothing like some of the old-fashioned orientals i've been loving nor the weirder niche things as captivating and dynamic as an excellent stage performance--but that's also what makes it easy to wear. it'd be a decent "don't have to think about it, don't have to worry" option for warm weather mornings before heading out for the day (come to think of it, it's kind of like a counterpoint to amouage's stuff which is appallingly beautiful to experience but hard to wear, better as a painting or a movie). i only wish it lasted longer. i can't expect a fragrance i'm hoping to wear for summer in the daytime to have the staying power of some intense evening winter one, but i do wish this was at least a little more long-lasting and strong. i may have to revise later; sometimes scents disappear and then reappear with surprise encore performances (what we do in paris is secret!). but right now less than 3 hours in it's lovely but very faded.
so! philosykos: surprised me with its none-too-saccharine, bright green opening, then mellowed out into a sweet coconut and driftwood softness. not a ton of muted or dancing, interactive notes, rather straightforward (people keep mentioning everywhere they like to layer this with other perfumes for more interest and i can see why), but on the other hand that makes it easier to just enjoy the small handful for what they are. i'm not dizzy in love, but maybe that's impossible for anything i'm trying as a contender for "mindlessly easy to wear at 9am in july" as unobtrusiveness is key (the only other warm weather scent i've tried that was at all a hit was the old 2002 version of very sexy for her i got as a gift, which is yeah...not really an option if you don't want to be noticed, ha). better than i was expecting, impressive for a fig 'fume given how hard figs are to do right, but i'm not seeing stars.
oh, and trying this one reminds me--i think i might start paying a little more attention to perfume noses. i'm beginning to notice some patterns. i have been floored by every dominique ropion and maurice roucel i've tried so far--within well established favorite categories, of course--and been this weird mix of underwhelmed-by-the-delicacy but nonetheless impressed-at-the-craft-involved with olivia giacobetti and another famous nose too, i forget her name. that said, i've yet to try dzing! which is giacobetti's, so maybe i'll be impressed yet.
so i figured if i just went by what i'm immediately attracted to, all i'd ever try or have would be a vast array of genderqueer night-and-wintertime tobacco-leather-sweet/spicy-oriental scents, ha. i had to push myself to mix it up some...truth is most warm weather daytime profiled scents fail to grab my attention, at least in copy, because they tend to have notes that either i like in general but not with my skin (citrus!, marine, mossy green) or they tend to be girlier, more floral (i will admit to being a rather straightforward, unrefined sort of creature, ha).
anyway, i did grab this to sample though because for god's sake i live in memphis so most months i can't be wearing stuff that's the equivalent of a grandpa cardigan (or worse, the goth teen in a long-sleeve floor-length heavy velvet dress...in july), alas, and because figs still prickle me as a leftover challenge from tea. see i adore fresh figs--they instantly remind me of those 97F early august afternoons down here where you and your partner don't want to do anything because of the heat, including cook, so you just sit around half naked with all the lights off lolling about together and eating fresh fruit for early dinner and the air smells green and hot all the time--but i've yet to find a tea that gets to the wonderful contradiction of a fresh fig, how it can be so jammy, sticky-sweet and intense in a mysterious and voluptuous way and yet so FRESH, almost sour-juicy. in tea it's always either so subtle i can barely taste anything at all, or it's this clobbered-by-a-2-by-4 sweet preserves or leathery dried fruit thing, or worst of all, just a chemical sort of purpleness. even places like american tea room and dammann freres (!) couldn't seem to get it right. so i was afraid of fig in perfume, that it'd be the same way--just jarred jam, dried fruit, or sickly sweet purple.
i am pleased to report this is rather astonishing at being nothing, NOTHING like a sticky sweet disappointment-fig. the opening is so intensely fresh and green it veers into that "too sharply chypre or grapefruit" territory that doesn't agree with my skin. it is quite a lot like some of the extremely fresh green and white teas i've been lucky enough to encounter in the past year (shang's silver needle king with all its banana blossom glory represent!), as well as crushed bright green leaves and the cut grass of a mowed lawn or field. it isn't remotely sugary though it does have a wet sappy quality; if anything it's kind of sour, tangy. i shouldn't love the top so much given my proclivities and part of me wonders if my apprehension it'd be sugary jam is clouding things, that without my relief and surprise about encountering nearly the opposite i'd be like "this is one of those sour-fresh perfumes i can't wear!" hm.
the amped up top also lasts beyond what's usual for me; typically i don't much like most first impression notes but don't care 'cause then they never seem to last intensely past 10 or 20 minutes. but this one stayed bright and vital for at least half an hour without being room-clearingly powerful (or maybe the freshness of it makes it feel lighter?). towards the end of it i get some powder (my skin seems to turn nearly everything to powder), but it's not off-putting because it's a nice counter to the over-the-top greenness, softening it a little (and the greenness keeps the powder from feeling dry or talc-like, more just clean).
then the coconut. i have a complicated attitude about coconut in general--i tend to hate cocktails that combine coconut with any other fruit because my mind automatically translates it into "pina colada plastic fruit bomb" (murky memory associations of the first godawful cheap bottled mixers you encounter in college at parties, i think?), and scents like that make my nose wrinkle for the same reason. and i think the whole beachy "suntan lotion" element that includes it that's found in some cosmetics and fragrances is way overused. on the other hand, i like coconut when it makes me think of canned coconut milk used for weeknight thai curries, that rich sweet sort. and Robert's been loyal to a certain shampoo for about as long as we've been together that smells of sweet milky coconut and only coconut (and other than the shaving soap he started using a couple years ago 'cause i gave it to him as a christmas present, he avoids scent altogether in all of his other toiletries), and it's the same kind as what's in this perfume, the sweet creamy sort. so when i smell it in this perfume, it reminds me of putting my face to his hair, which is obviously a happy thought. it does tend to make one think of a warm seaside when connected to that strong wet green opening, but it's not cheesy beach crowded with bikinis so much as our time in valencia in the off season, early morning just us, the sun, and the mediterranean. i don't mind it at all. the sweet middle part doesn't last terribly long though. the powder keeps dropping in and out, right through to the last note, which is wood.
a couple hours in, i finally get some of the smoky, spicy woodiness people talk about, and i love it. it isn't heady or musty; it's an "outdoors" sort of wood. but not mossy, not deciduous forest--more like warm bark from a tree that gets a ton of sun, or the logs and lightweight driftwood one uses to build a beach bonfire. as it mellows it gets even lovelier.
so far, this is not a very complicated scent--nothing like some of the old-fashioned orientals i've been loving nor the weirder niche things as captivating and dynamic as an excellent stage performance--but that's also what makes it easy to wear. it'd be a decent "don't have to think about it, don't have to worry" option for warm weather mornings before heading out for the day (come to think of it, it's kind of like a counterpoint to amouage's stuff which is appallingly beautiful to experience but hard to wear, better as a painting or a movie). i only wish it lasted longer. i can't expect a fragrance i'm hoping to wear for summer in the daytime to have the staying power of some intense evening winter one, but i do wish this was at least a little more long-lasting and strong. i may have to revise later; sometimes scents disappear and then reappear with surprise encore performances (what we do in paris is secret!). but right now less than 3 hours in it's lovely but very faded.
so! philosykos: surprised me with its none-too-saccharine, bright green opening, then mellowed out into a sweet coconut and driftwood softness. not a ton of muted or dancing, interactive notes, rather straightforward (people keep mentioning everywhere they like to layer this with other perfumes for more interest and i can see why), but on the other hand that makes it easier to just enjoy the small handful for what they are. i'm not dizzy in love, but maybe that's impossible for anything i'm trying as a contender for "mindlessly easy to wear at 9am in july" as unobtrusiveness is key (the only other warm weather scent i've tried that was at all a hit was the old 2002 version of very sexy for her i got as a gift, which is yeah...not really an option if you don't want to be noticed, ha). better than i was expecting, impressive for a fig 'fume given how hard figs are to do right, but i'm not seeing stars.
oh, and trying this one reminds me--i think i might start paying a little more attention to perfume noses. i'm beginning to notice some patterns. i have been floored by every dominique ropion and maurice roucel i've tried so far--within well established favorite categories, of course--and been this weird mix of underwhelmed-by-the-delicacy but nonetheless impressed-at-the-craft-involved with olivia giacobetti and another famous nose too, i forget her name. that said, i've yet to try dzing! which is giacobetti's, so maybe i'll be impressed yet.