Do you know Nez à Nez?
The company was founded in 2005 by Christa Patout and Stéphane Humbert Lucas, they started with ten Eaux de Parfums of which Figues et Garcons is one. The brand has been pretty much under the radar, which is extraordinary. Why, you ask?
Did you ever take a look at the Nez à Nez website?
Well, it is certainly a ride, fasten your seat belts and let us see what they have to say about Figues et Garcons:
A fresh glow whose energy is omnipresent. The leaves rustling in the wind is impressive. Collusion with the buffalo presents a tenable stature to this verdant and fiery explosion. Animated conversations and perpetual motions. This determination is loud. The affluence is striking to an audience who have never heard of indulgence. The tears of almonds re-establish an effervescent character.
Alibis will be needed for silence and rest backstage. Many people request such eruptive thoughts, fun and spontaneity. The path must be risky. It is the challenge that animates and propels. An irresistible need to escape barriers and to bewilder complexities.
These vibrant flames guarantee ample thoughts. The shoots packed in this sacred ground draw from the sediments to grow relentlessly towards the light.
Sensible – Cutting-edge – Epic
Good Lord, Nez à Nez sure have a knack for the dramatic and not just a bit wacky. One almost gets the feeling that was the work of Google Translate. ( I am still not entirely sure it isn’t.)
I tend to be extremely unimpressed with such contrived and super-artistic PR copy. But maybe I just do not understand it. If that is the case, I am sorry, but I ‘ll have to live with that deficit. I do not have to “get” everything. That one sentence though – “The determination is loud.” – I get that, for indeed, it is. 😉
In their origin, the Nez À Nez perfumes were imagined pictorially by Christa Patout and Stéphane Humbert Lucas; they lean onto drawing plans and figurative legends. The perfumes are, to some extent, real “actors”. They are defined by colours, character traits and languages. But they don´t require a body to talk, to express themselves much the same as human beings.
Now that is better. I understand every word in this paragraph, it is actually transmitting information. It gets better still:
Composition: Description
Head: Herbal notes, Grass, Fig Leaves, Petitgrain
Heart: Fig, Kiwi
Base: Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Musk
Notes – now here is something to go on, thank you Nez à Nez.
Figues et Garcons starts with a refreshing top of citrus-y grass and leaves, green and light. Soon the fragrance gets a little sweeter as the fig together with a very naturalistic kiwi rolls in. For a few minutes is is quite fruity, freshly sliced Kiwi sprinkled with lemon juice is presented on a wooden plate while the cook cuts the fig in the kitchen. A little later he brings out the fig, places it on your plate and there you are. You eat the lemony kiwi first and leave the fig for later. Eventually you get hungry again – there goes the fig. All that you are left with is a wooden plate to which the juices of the fruit still cling a little. But then you decide to wash it. So in the end you have a clean, still a little soapy wooden plate and the memory of kiwi and fig.
Perfectly pleasant, nice for spring and summer.
Maybe it is the hyperbole of the accompanying text, maybe I have just smelled too many fig fragrances I like more. Maybe I am having an especially critical day. What ever the reason, Figues et Garcons does not wow me. It does not bother me either. It just leaves me pretty much unaffected.
It is me, not you. Really.
Olfactoria's Travels 
I’m afraid, they have the same PR-texter as Rouge Bunny Rouge…
Anyway, I have a full bottle of that one… No, it’s not really me. But it was a present and I spritz it here&there, when I’m in an especially lighthearted – irresponsible mood. It reminds me the moment, when the man who is my husband today came to see me at home the very first time (quite exacly 8 years ago), he examined my library and CDs in silence and asked : “would you have something funny as well ?” So, there must be at least one funny/dubioius perfume in my collection…
Haha, so true about RBR! 😀
What a lovely story! I am glad you have something funny too now. It belongs in every collection. 🙂
Well, I definitely like your description of the scent better than the company’s PR (“Wortgeklingel” I would say in German ;-))! And I often wonder about foody creations – personally, I don’t like to smell like something to eat or drink if it’s rendered so literally as you describe it. I’d rather make a trip into the kitchen to get the real thing…
Oh, and I liked your apoptosis link, there is so much to learn! 🙂
Thank you Gisela! I pride myself to be slightly less obtuse in my descriptions than this PR copy at all times. 😉
I have a very bad relationship with this brand- I’ve tested several fragrances of theirs and, after a few minutes of development… they turn out to smell exactly the same on my skin! Sweet-sticky-vanilly-ambery- spicy…. Very boring! In this particular one, I sort of remeber having problems to detect the fig notes! You’re right there are so many beautiful fig fragrances on the market, we can skip this one!
I agree with you. I tested several more recently and the only thing I remeber is being bored and unimpressed. Too bad.
Eye roll, eye roll, eye roll is my reaction to basically anything about the line 🙂
I am rolling with you! 🙂
I snorted tea through my nose when I read the PR copy. Oh my! Tooooo funnnyyyy!
So often, after reading your descriptions I feel I have to smell the perfume….I can just skip this one! Thanks 😉
You are welcome, Alice. Now and then it is a relief to be able to say: “Not for me! “
They had me at “Collusion with the buffalo” LOL!
They should hire you B, as their copy writer. I knew exactly what this smells like after reading your great little vignette about the kiwi sprinkled with lemon juice and the fig on the wooden plate. I had heard of Nez a Nez before but never tried any of their stuff and can’t say I feel compelled to now either.
If the perfumes were great I’d forgive the word salad, but mediocre at best perfumes and a collusion with a buffalo does nothing to entice us to this line. 😉
No, I don’t know Nez a Nez… But I had a good laugh at the PR copy. As I was reading it, I had the very same thought as you—was this something out of Google translate??? It’s so ridiculous!
I’m still looking for “my” fig, that perfect, juicy, ripe/plush/sweet (but not overly so) deeply colored fruit… but it sounds like this is not it! 🙂
No, this is not it!
Maybe they really used Google Translate?! Can it be? Because it is truly beyond anything remotely tied to sense and normal language, just as the results Google Translate produces. Or maybe we are just unable to “get” the artistic approach. 😉
I’m sticking with the Google translate explanation 😉
That is kind of you, since it is clearly better this way than assuming intent. 😉
I tried this back in December, and am darned if I can remember what it was like. So a similar reaction, it would seem, as in not very memorable!
It is the hardest fate for a perfume when everybody forgets what it smelled like. I bet Serge Lutens never had that particular problem. 😉
Had the same Feeling about it as you described… Just does not affect… Thought i could like it as it does not have the typical almond/ coconutty thing many figs have ( and what I cannot understand )… My fav fig is the AdP blu mediterraneo one! Very straight fig! It’s a pity that it only lasts shortly 😦
I have not found a fig scent I would desperately want a full bottle of, despite testing many.
I will take a look at The Blue Mediterraneo next time I see it. Thanks. 🙂
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