Strangler Fig

[Lucchesa]

A glorious parasite! Once the seeds of the Strangler Fig find root in the bark of a tree, snakelike roots erupt and reach graspingly at the sky. The Strangler Fig then sprouts numerous epiphytic vines that strangles and surrounds its unwilling host, and finally snuffs the life from it. Rooty, woody, with deep green tones.

 

In the imp: sweet and fruity (figgy? I love figs!) But when it hit my skin, a resinous note took over, like a snapped tree branch smell - very different from the bottle smell. On drydown I thought for a moment that it had faded away completely after about 30 minutes, but it was just regrouping. It came back with a complex mix of earthy green smells, with the sweetness there in the background. And it lasted longer than most oils do on me, so I could still get hints of it in yoga, and it made me feel flexible and strong. Definitely a keeper.

[lizabelle]

Hm. I love fig scents but this one is a bit odd. There's something kind of soapy in here, which leads me to believe there's some kind of aquatic note clouding things. There is a dark, borderline-chocolatey rootiness that I also smelled in Deadly Nightshade Honey and Oleander Honey. I wouldn't quite call it earthy, but it adds a lot of depth. Overall much sweeter and softer than I expected.

[torikitty]

Finally ordered an imp from the Lab. Part of me is like "Why didn't anyone tell me to order this earlier?", and another part of me is "It smells nice, but you definitely don't need a bottle". I find it interesting that people are matching this up with chocolate or green. I get neither of those. To me, it's sweet, and more like violet powder. This smells like when the sunshine would warm up the freshly-watered violets in my grandmother's window. So, take that smell, mix it with a sweet, fruity bathroom powder. I wouldn't attribute fig to this since I've been making tons of fig jam all week. In a roundabout way, needing to assign a sweet fruit, you could attribute to fig; but I assure you, this is not what green figs smell like.

 

Overall, it's nice. I can see this being too powdery or sweet for some folks. I don't know that the description does it justice. It's definitely worth trying before buying, IMO.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: I don't have a good scent profile for fig IRL since I absolutely hate how they taste, so I'm afraid I can't speak to that. This is a creamy, sweet, fruity scent - I think this may be the same fig as in Nasty Woman, which I adore. There's something I can't quite put my finger on complicating the scent, cutting the sweetness and giving it some gravitas. I can't say whether it's a woody or green scent like the description says, I just know it's there.

 

Wet: It does almost a complete 180 and becomes an incredibly realistic forest scent (I believe I'm getting pine and/or fir) with a faint but distinct darkly fruity-sweet note winding throughout. Somehow, taken all together, it feels unsettling - a haunted forest with poison fruit ready to drop.

 

Dry: More green-woody than woody-green, still with some ineffable creamy sweetness hanging around. I could do with either less sweetness, or just a different kind, but I am and will always be a sucker for green scents, so I'm calling this one a winner!

[doomsday_disco]

This is an old, aged imp.

 

In the imp: Soft fig and a rooty quality that reminds me of Screaming Mandragora.

 

Wet: The fig note is the first to jump out at me, followed by the rooty aspect of the scent. The fig and the roots actually have a bit of a waxy aspect on me, which also happened when I tried Screaming Mandragora. But there's a sweetness present in this that isn't due to the fig. Maybe it's a bit of coconut?

 

Dry: This is a soft, sweet, rooty fig scent. The sweet note is definitely coconut. It's far more prominent than it was before. I still get a somewhat waxy aspect to it on my skin, but it's not as strong as it was before.

 

Verdict: This one is a nice fig and coconut scent, but I don't really think it's for me, due to the waxy quality that I get on my skin.

[torischroeder9]

In the imp: I get more rooty and woody than I do fig. I also smell something that smells... not quite vanilla-y... maybe tonka-y?

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, this is definitely a rooty smell that is by turns vanilla, spice, and mint. (At least, the scent has those qualities, not that it contains those actual ingredients.) Dry, the mint quickly fades, but the round, warm, rooty spice remains. 

 

As it develops on my skin, some of the roundness fades, replaced by a soft green note. It's the soft, deep green of living tree branches rather than the sharper, fresher green of grass or the drier green of herbal notes. 

 

This is definitely more whole fig tree than fig fruit, but it's pretty great in its complexity. It's rounder and spicier than most wood-central perfumes I own. It's not quite the same, but I'd place this scent as closest to the patchouli-plum-vanilla (minus the red musk) I get from the 2006 Madame Moriarty. It also has a similarly strong (but not overwhelmingly strong) throw on me. Definitely putting this imp into regular rotation. Will also keep the idea of a bottle in the back of my mind. 

[puellacaerulea]

Testing an aged imp that I never got around to reviewing. In the imp, I get mostly fig with just a bit of woody undertones. Once on, the rooty, woody notes amp up for a time before the fig takes center stage again. This is primarily a soft, sweet fig scent -- the woody notes are there, but they're pretty subtle. It also has great staying power -- this stayed strong on my skin for a good 12ish hours.

[mymymai]

Light wood, strawberries, chocolate, damp soil, and a touch of green on my skin . Strangler Fig is unusual and complex, but still very much a verdant celebration, which makes it a winner for me in the #tournamentofunderdogs #underdogs.

[hhelix]

Strangler Fig is one of my favorite scents of all time. It's sweet and creamy, but not quite gourmand. Green and sappy, it's at home on a walk in nature. It's my skin but better and just becomes part of my scent when I wear it, not like I'm wearing perfume. Low throw, decent wear length. It gets my vote for the Tournament.

[Zorra]

I only have the imp, but I think I may need more. Strangler Fig is indeed rooty and woody and part of that is a fig note, but it's the fig wood, not the fig fruit. It doesn't smell very green to me, but compared to other scents with a fig note (which mostly feel dark purple to me) Strangler Fig could indeed be described as dark green.

 

One last edit: I put this on in the morning. In the evening the fig note is the only note I can still smell. I am sorry the other notes have left, I miss the woody and rooty part.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Zorra

[niffler]

One of the first scents I tested, but never reviewed. It's warm, green brown and a little fig-sweet in the imp. Beautifully earthy, definitely reminiscent of a living fig tree. The greens disappear immediately when on my skin, leaving warm caramel fig with undertones of wood. Sadly it then goes very powdery on me for a long while. It ends up smelling like a faint powdering of that sweet-spice craft store smell. I hardly ever wear it except to layer occasionally because my skin makes such a mess of it on its own. 

[DizzyGinger]

Sweet, sweet, sweet. Sickly sweet. Nauseatingly sweet. I gambled on a full bottle instead of an imp based on some of the reviews that emphasized the green notes present, but I get absolutely no green from this, just squishy sweet fig. Very disappointing. 

Edited November 13, 2020 by DizzyGinger

[a_bear]

Where Tweedledum is a ripe, juicy fig, this one is much drier. It reminds me of a dried fig dropped in dirt/dust, which is not the most appealing visual, but I like the way it smells!

[skyturtles]

I have an imp of unknown age. Wet, it is syrupy sweet, which I don't necessarily mind. There is a bit of earthiness, warm and wet and woody, like the bottom level of a rainforest. We're nearly in a musk territory. I'm a fan! The figginess comes through without turning into a dessert. I don't think I'll need a bottle but I'll be holding on to this imp.

[Honey]

This is a very sweet and earthy scent. I can even smell some dirt in there.

The sweetness is very figgy, bordering on bubblegum or how a fig handwash or lotion would smell.

The earthiness and dirt don't blend well with the figgy sweetness,

I can smell a bubbly, almost fizzy note underneath that comes from the fruity notes.

The darker and more herbal notes also have a slight pencil shaving quality to them in their dry and spicy woodsiness.

It gets sickly sweet after a while - alas, a bit too one-dimensional.

[ittybitty]

Hmmm, interesting. It starts off as a soft wood, but after a few seconds, a fresh green starts to come out. It's not a sharp, grassy green, but more like a fresh leafy smell. As it dries down, something faintly creamy and sweet starts coming out--coco butter or white chocolate, I think. But there's also something figgy there. This reminds me of a fainter, less sharp version of DS&Durga Debaser. It's nice but I wish it were stronger.
After 15 minutes, the green is completely gone. It's devolved into the sweet powder. I'm really sad, because this was so, so promising. I can still smell it if I huff my wrist two hours later, but it's still just the same powdery sweet smell.

[Exquise-moi]

This take on fig evokes a lush green tree combined with the sweet fruit, a combination that unfortunately clashes with my skin chemistry.

[gentle-twig]

Opens with soft, almost powdery fig, with something brighter and juicier, accompanied by a woody note that is oddly suggesting peanut butter to my nose. That’s what I get in the first phase of this, and it doesn’t really work for me at all. The peanut butter wood slowly goes more chocolatey and I can at least see what it’s going for, but there is still a kind of split quality with a bright juicy note that won’t meld with the rest of the scent for me. The brightness is similar to the wine note in Nosferatu, and indeed the whole smell feels like Nosferatu gone a little awry. 

 

After about 10 minutes I finally see what this is going for, and it is indeed sinister! A fig darkened by earthy notes, with that bright juicy top note now faded to a subtly threatening sheen. I am reminded of the dark plum and bright almost metallic abalone shimmer of the beautiful Koi No Yatsufuji from this year’s lupers, but with an all-in-all more botanical vibe. This phase is wonderfully evocative, but not necessarily something I would choose to wear. In fact, I think I would like Strangler Fig much better as an atmosphere spray. Eventually, the fig itself comes to dominate the scent—surprising, given its gentle nature. Surprised but not upset by the lack of greenness here—not sure if that’s because of my nose or skin or the age of the imp.