3/12/24

Infinity Cassis & Fig (Aubusson)

This one is a complete mystery. I happened across it at a rack store and picked it up for next to nothing, and it didn't even have a box. I only bought it because it's by Aubusson, which is actually a pretty good (and very obscure) perfume house, plus blackcurrant and fig are two highly-preferred notes, so that didn't hurt either. 

Adding to the mystery is that there is literally nothing - and I mean nothing - about this perfume online. Google 'Parfums Abusson Cassis & Fig,' and there's zip. What comes up in an image search is perhaps some evidence that this fragrance was bought by Aubusson from another anonymous company that labeled it a little differently (picture below):


Whatever the case may be, this isn't a very good fragrance. I do get blackcurrant and fig from it, and those notes are rendered fairly well, once the pissy-ammonia aspect of cassis steps back. For me, fig tends to dominate in a composition, so that note rapidly overtakes almost everything else, and it's just okay (I've smelled a lot better). I think the two star players would have shined brighter if they'd been allowed to just "be" in this fragrance, but instead there's a chemical green note that sullies everything, smelling at once harsh and hollow. It's almost like a bitter leaf accord, but done on the cheap. 

Credit where it's due; at no point does this stuff devolve into crass sweetness or beige (off-white?) musk, nor does it rely on the overly-familiar lavender/citrus cheap fougère ensemble found in many unimaginative offerings since 1972. It's an attempt at marketing honesty in a profoundly lovely bottle that unfortunately doesn't quite forgive the bare-bones budget. If the green notes had been worked on a little more, and if maybe another three dollars had been pitched into the formula cost, we might've had something worthwhile here. As it stands, I think I'll be gifting my bottle - I could see someone with a different sensitivity to fig finding beauty where I found a headache.