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jvvpfgzdur – :
Floral Chypre.
Slightly dusty floral chypre. More of violets, galbanum, jasmines, musk, and hyacinth. More on the soapy side with clean musk.
It’s interesting to be honest, and that bottle looks amusing.
replikostiansa – :
Dear Fragrantica,
I urge you to remove the above picture of Fidji perfume, because it depicts a FAKE bottle, one of which I happened to purchase a few months ago.
It contains a chip fragrance, the bottle is not like the original, the seal is plastic, not at all like the authentic one and the cardboard box has a bold yellow color, unlike the original which is a pale yellow !!!
I decided to write this message in order to help potential buyers.
I hope I helped.
finsterfrost – :
Oooooh !!! Ils ont mis l’extrait de parfum dans la base de données. Je ne l’avais pas vu. Merci le staff de Fragrantica.
J’adore ce parfum.
Très différent de l’eau de toilette. Il est plus poudré et plus vert que l’eau de toilette qui est plus épicée. Mais j’avais oublié qu’il y avait de l’ambre ! Oui en effet l’ambre y joue un rôle aussi. Rôle qui est beaucoup moins important dans l’eau de toilette.
Je me souviens que l’extrait est resté peu de temps sur le marché et c’est vraiment dommage.
C’est le parfum iconique de chez Guy Laroche.
AvegaTM – :
Exotic , absolutely feminine essence , reminds me my youth.I used to wear it as a girl in high school.Fresh , green , spicy , powdery ,flowery at the same time , giving a clean fresh essence and it’s earthy notes , embraced my self-confidence , helps me to flourish my felinity .Galbanum , hyacinth , lemon , cloves, rose, jasmin , violet , musk , patchouli , sandalwood & amber in a perfect combination .Precious memories.
It is in my heart.
Wyatttk – :
Fidji
Guy Laroche
NOSE
JOSEPHINE CATAPANO
Year
1966
I have several glass bottles of the splash vintage parfum concentration which sell on eBay. I’ve sold a couple on there myself but enjoy this fragrance so much I can never be without it. Back in ’66 this was my perfume along with the old Bath-Sheba now a long lost Israeli perfume Zen by Shiseido amongst so many others. I have fond memories attached to this fragrance. I wore it to job interviews and to offices, art galleries, museums, and as casual day wear to run errands with. This is classified as an Oriental and some of the reviews here make it out to be a grander Oriental than it really is. A simple soapy musky galbanum earthy scent, this is good to wear in the autumn and winter. It has pleasant unisex/masculine notes and can be worn by both sexes as a fragrance of the ever decreasing green theme.
The splash is pretty strong at first. I thought it had aldehydes but it’s a rather sharp lemongrass and lemon scent which as soon as it’s on your skin turns floral with violet and hyacinth. The violet and lemon give it a barbershop and after shave type of scent. It has a freshness and vibrancy which would have been amazing had they stepped up the dry down of musk but instead it’s very woodsy with sandalwood. At times this reminds me of Lady Gaga’s 2nd fragrance Eau de Gaga. The citrus fades and the violet goes away and the heart is powdery with rose. The rose scent doesn’t come off as too feminine because the soapy-powdery rose, blended with white floral jasmine, also fades and turns to cloves. Cloves are the big player in this scent. It’s what gives it that earthy aura. They compare it to the island of Fidji or a jungle. I’ve never been to Fidji but I have been to the rainforest in South America in the Amazon and on safari in Africa. This is very similar to an African savannah scent, or the central plains. It’s native flowers of a warm climate, namely that jasmine. The galbanum is amazing here. It’s a green scent that is rare to find in today’s fragrances. The galbanum is wedded to patchouli, herbal, leafy, like green leaves. The patchouli is in the heart not the base. As it dries the base notes are of sandalwood and musk. An amber tree is also present. In general, it’s a simple very easy to wear soapy powdery green floral chypre.
The fragrance lasts a very long time. The Eau de Toilette comes in much the same shape and bottle but the projection is weaker and the longevity/sillage is poor. It’s also more powdery. The perfume is stronger with redolent patchouli leaves, glorious galbanum and jasmine. This is meant to be an Oriental but for the life of me it does not smell like a typical Oriental. No nod to Shalimar here. This is a very lovely chypre. There are spicy airs without having spice notes. The cloves, the aromatic patchouli, and slight fruitiness from citrus. Finally the sandalwood is really such a well composed woodsy note. Very easy to wear. A good intro to vintage perfumes. Unisex and casual, good for all ages 18 and up. Brilliant.
nikulia5757 – :
I am a blessed person who owns two vintage bottles of the gorgeous Fidji Parfum, which I inherited from my family. And wow!!! It is a gorgeous perfume. A beautiful strong floral, wood, aldehyde perfume, with lots and lots of complex smells, which I adore!!! Citrus, galbanum, cloves, rose, patchouli…….wonderful wonderful elixir!!! Elegant, mature woman that Fidji is, it is an absolute pleasure to wear her. I feel so classy, luxurious and feminine. So full of life and love and an abundance of good things. A glorious tropical paradise is Fidji!!!!
s0213 – :
About Vintage Fidji Eau de Toilette
This fragrance seduced me in 1968.
I was — years old then and I had become an experienced perfumista. My 2nd husband was always tolerant of my fragrances. My daughter Karen thought this fragrance was too mossy and lush, calling it an exotic Indian perfume. I don’t know what she was smelling. I smell a galbanum, green notes, soap, aldehydes, floral notes, sandalwood, amber and fruit of a nondescript kind, possibly citrus and cassis or grapefruit. Though there is fruit notes, this can hardly be classified as a fruity floral. She is a chypre or floral Oriental and amber perfume. She is meant to resemble the tropical island of Fidji but I’ve never been further than Australia and New Zealand and have no idea what Fidji is supposed to “smell like”.
The soapiness of this scent appeals to me. It smells like they should have made a matching Fidji hand soap. The amber might be responsible for that soap scent. There is also a rose that smells like hand soap with a rose scent. The Eau de Toilette does not last too long and it’s more of a potent skin freshner. That’s not bad though and I love to apply this scent to elevate my mood in the mornings.
The cloves, violet, jasmine and patchouli, the amber, the light musk, the sandalwood, would have otherwise formed an Oriental body but instead it’s more floral and dries down to moss. I don’t think it’s as complex as other reviewers are making out to be.
On me it’s a simple floral soap with beautiful amber. This is easy to wear in the day time and if you douse yourself with it, it’s not a problem as it develops and disappears quickly. It has enough projection to be detectable by others and I’ve received many a compliment on it.
She is a beautiful fragrance.
viku – :
I quite liked Fidji, a sweet floral (I didn’t get any spices on my skin) without civet and aldehydes, which I never liked. Lasted for quite a while with subtle to moderate sillage, but, unfortunately, at the time Lux launched a line of soaps with the same scent (and it was long lasting, for a soap) and that killed Fidji for me.
hanna_2509 – :
FIDJI
GUY LAROCHE
GROUP: FLORAL
NOTES: LEMON GALBANUM HYACINTH ROSE JASMINE VIOLET CLOVES PATCHOULI SANDALWOOD MUSK AMBER
SILLAGE: MODERATE RADIATE’S WITHIN ARM’S LENGTH
LONGEVITY: MODERATE 6 HOURS
REMINDS ME OF: CREPE DE CHINE F. MILLOT FEMME ROCHAS FIDJI EAU DE TOILETTE GUY LAROCHE
In 1966, Guy Laroche and his perfumer/nose Josephine Catapano went on a trip to the Fiji island…..
By the mid 1960’s, the South Pacific had long overcome the horrors of World War 2 when Americans fought and died on these islands to save them from the Empire of Japan’s plan for domination. The islands in the South Pacific were now tourist attractions similar to the Hawaiian islands and drew countless of people from all over the world. The exotic islands are filled with green landscapes of moss, grassy hillsides and rocky steep cliffs overlooking dramatic ocean views and peaceful white sandy beaches. This Fiji paradise deeply affected the imaginations of Laroche and Catapano who were taking the opportunity and downtime to come up with a new fragrance. Together in their cottage by the beach, after many setting suns and sunrises over the Pacific, amidst the island’s floral smell of jasmines patchouli shrubs and cloves, they created this scent.
Fidji is a refreshing and sweet floral fragrance for women. One would imagine that it would scream “tropical island perfume” but it does not go there. This is really quite simple. It’s opening is a top note of galbanum, which is very unusual for a fragrance, even for the 60’s. This is a green herbal galbanum and almost immediately it also turns into a green lemon. The lemon scent is not sharp nor sour. In fact one could argue that the lemon is barely there at all. There is a fruit smell in the first few minutes but it would arise out of the citrus which comes and goes. The galbanum is the major accord but this perfume has enough of a life of it’s own and consequently becomes a series of other scents like hyacinth, rose, violet, jasmine, patchouli, cloves, musk, sandalwood and amber.
The flowers that comprise this perfume include silk jasmine, a purle floral hyacinth and violet and a red rose. These are sweet flowers and light in their texture. It smells more like soapy flowers. The hyacinth and violet are the real key players but the rose is also detectable. This smells like the flowers one imagines on a lei. It also has musk and amber which warm up the flowers. The patchouli is herbal and there is also moss. After a while this begins to smell like you’re on an island, you got lost and you have to find your way through a labyrinth of moss, shrubs, exotic plants, flowers, cloves and tall grass.
Fidji never becomes too strong and in fact despite such commanding notes as galbanum, patchouli, cloves, sandalwood and musk, this is a delicate powdery floral scent. It’s very feminine, and delicious. When it dries down it becomes nothing but moss and amber. It would have become a chypre had there been more wood but the sandalwood note is not as strong as the patchouli and amber. The fragrance develops rather quickly and has a moderate life span of about 3 to 6 hours. For me it was not enough of a perfume to enjoy all day long. It smells almost like a fruity floral and feels like I should wear in the afternoon at the beach. It’s something to wear on lazy summer days, at a pool, at a beach or beach resort, or on a cruise ship as you sail away to the Caribbean or Hawaiian islands. There is still that island connection whenever I inhale this fume.
smeteedusep – :
Fragrance Review For Fidji Eau De Parfum
By Guy Laroche
Top Notes
Galbanum Hyacinth Lemon
Middle Notes
Cloves Rose Jasmine Violet
Base Notes
Patchouli Sandalwood Amber Musk Oak Moss
Among my prolific catalog of reviews I wrote one for the current formula of the Eau de Toilette. It’s a lighter and easier to wear floral scent which I described as being atmospheric and evocative of the island of Fiji in the South Pacific. The EDT is a calm, toned down scent compared to the Eau de Parfum. If the EDT was a quick trip to Fiji the EDP is Fiji itself in a bottle, and a fragrance of one that has made Fiji their home. The vintage 1966 EDP comes in a glass bottle with an oddly shaped stopper. This is not a spray but a splash bottle. It’s definitely outdated and old fashioned, and in the 1960’s, florals and chypres were in vogue as they had been since the 30’s and 40’s. I used to think the 60’s was an innovative experimental time in perfumery but the fragrances of this decade looked back 20 years before and honored the aromas of the past. Fidji is one such perfume.
At the first whiff of Fiji, a light aldehyde note reached my nose. It’s soapy at first, like when you actually put your nose to hand soap. The scent of hyacinth dominates the fragrance, from beginning to end. The purple florals are big players here. Other than that distinctive hyacinth, there’s a violet flower that is married to the hyacinth. There is no fruit notes listed but every time I smell this beautiful perfume I smell something a tad fruity. It smells like it could be that lemon but it’s not very lemony either. It’s like a pomegranate or blood orange. It’s only there briefly before the flower scent appear. Violets and hyacinth come and go and before long a rose makes herself at home on this island. It’s like a garden you’ve stumbled into while wandering in a deserted island.
For me the rose is like an exotic Caribbean rose, long extinct, but blooming in an island beyond Fiji, an island that has never been discovered or was once in an 18th century map and discovered by seafaring explorers but then vanished. This is a sweet and very feminine rose, a woman’s rose. It’s like a mother’s embrace. The heady florals invite cloves and patchouli, aromatic, earthier scents, which begin the dry down and last part of the fragrance’s performance.
Because this is a parfum, every note is detectable, and give it a richer more vibrant aroma that is missing in the current formula. The scent of sandalwood brings everything together. It’s a woodsy scent typical of a chypre. This is that same woodsy smell I get from other beauties like Crepe de Chine by F. Millot and Coty’s Sophia, Sophia Loren’s perfume. This is a rose among woods type of scent. Galbanum, the beautiful aromatic green and musky nocturnal herb, is here again. There is nothing I love better than a good galbanum. It begins to dominate the entire scent although there is still enough room for the other notes to play.
This feels like you’re lazily tanning yourself on the beach of the island, and the afternoon sun begins to set in the horizon. From a distance you get those flowery smells of violets, roses and hyacinths but you also get the scent of cloves, patchouli, galbanum and sandalwood. The fragrance begins to get smaller, as if the whole thing is shrinking. Amber, not resinous but soapy and gooey, begins to envelop the fragrance toward the end. It’s not big on musk, it’s clearly amber in the end. It’s almost like the whole island was destroyed by an active volcano and only parts of it were preserved in amber. The amber has preserved the fragrance of the island’s flowers and woods.
Something about this perfume makes me feel like it’s beyond exotic, it’s primordial, it’s prehistoric. I might be reading too much into it, but I am! This is a gorgeous floral woodsy scent. If you like how this sounds and you are a fan of galbanum, hyacinth, sandalwood and amber, this is a perfume that has perfectly aligned all these scents together.
Highly recommended for late afternoon wear, for Sundays at home, for romantic dates, for vacations and for the pleasure of whomever wears this magic island captured in amber.
corolyovvik85 – :
I have the original (my mother’s vintage parfum) and the new Eau de Toilette. There are differences. Original vintage EDP is harsh at first with aldehydes and they threw in a lot of galbanum cloves and oak moss. It smells more or less like Aliage by Estee Lauder. It’s as woodsy as it is floral. The whole thing softens into a little powder and floral. It smells of hyacinth. rose, iris, and violet. It’s also soapy like floral scented soap. The EDT is green floral, fresh, with a dominant hyacinth and with less woods. The fragrance evokes an island paradise but not as tropical as other fragrances I’ve experienced (i.e. Ibiza Hippie, Bath & Body Works Oahu Coconut Sunset, Paris Hilton Siren). The fragrance smells more like a floral scented breeze on an island, or like sailing on a river with the scents of flowers nearby. My mother owned the EDP and it smelled so good on her. The hyacinth is amazing as are the woods. It’s a definite chypre. I have never been more intrigued by a fragrance which has simultaneous harshness and softness. If you apply on your clothes the scent stays there for days it’s way too strong but if you apply it on your wrists or neck it disappears very fast. It’s a strange exotic perfume.
ttm072Negeltzex – :
I was amazed to read all the notes in this perfume as the overall effect is fresh and green. In fact, it reminds me of the scent of cut grass.