Stemone

About this material

With Fig Leaf prohibited by IFRA a quality fig note must be made synthetically. Enter Stemone — intensely green, leafy and ivy-like. It is really the most perfect way to recreate the note of figs and, in the words of one perfume critic in reviewing Fig My Love (2016) by Christophe Laudamiel for The Zoo: “It is often based on stemone, a molecule bearing the unusual oxime -NOH functional group, which always confers a green-camphoraceous feel to molecules. Many perfumers have chosen to bend this aromachemical towards a more natural accord. I think the fig tree smells so chemical in the first place that there’s no point in pretending. Laudamiel agrees[.]” A masterpiece of subtle perfumery, Balad… — Fraterworks

Usage in formulas

The 265th most used material of 1414 in the catalogue, present in 28 of 806 formulas. A signature material: whoever uses it means to.