Fidji is Guy Laroche’s first fragrance, launched in 1966 and composed by Joséphine Catapano. The house classifies it as a green floral chypre: an opening of galbanum, a bouquet of ylang-ylang, jasmine and rose, a spicy heart where carnation shows through, and a base of sandalwood, musk and patchouli. Its slogan, “The woman is an island, Fidji is her perfume,” has endured for decades.
Guy Laroche describes Fidji as a floral and sensual bouquet. Beneath the galbanum and iris of the opening emerge ylang-ylang, jasmine and roses; a spicy heart leads to an amber note, echoing with sandalwood, musk and patchouli.
The brand also specifies the order in which the materials appear. Ylang-ylang holds the top; the heart gathers carnation, Bulgarian rose, clove, jasmine, tuberose, iris and spices; the base, musky and woody, combines musk, patchouli and sandalwood.
The house thus places galbanum and ylang-ylang in the top; carnation, Bulgarian rose, clove, jasmine, tuberose, iris and spices in the heart; and musk, patchouli, sandalwood and amber in the base.
Carnation and clove
The house highlights the spicy note of carnation, at once piquant and creamy, which gives the bouquet its light and breadth. Wikiparfum ranks Fidji among the florals and names tuberose, ylang-ylang, Bulgarian rose, galbanum and clove.
Elena Vosnaki reads in it a clove-tinged salicylate heart inherited from L’Air du Temps, which Catapano reportedly dressed anew with a green opening and a base richer in patchouli and sandalwood.
Earlier formulas
Lists published over the decades name other materials. In 2011 Elena Vosnaki cited lemon, hyacinth, vetiver, oakmoss, a balsam and ambergris; others add bergamot and violet. These lists describe earlier formulas.
What the label declares
The ingredient list of the current eau de toilette has twenty-three entries. After alcohol, water and fragrance, the first ingredient named is benzyl salicylate, followed by linalool, limonene, benzyl alcohol and hexyl cinnamal.
It lists two UV filters, ethylhexyl salicylate and butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, a yellow colorant, CI 19140, and the regulated allergens, including eugenol, isoeugenol, geraniol, citral, farnesol and hydroxycitronellal.
What stays out
Aldehydes, lemon, bergamot, oakmoss and vetiver, often attributed to Fidji, are mentioned here but not listed as notes: no current house text names them. Wikiparfum’s ambergris and balsamic notes, like the hyacinth of older lists, are treated the same way.
Similar perfumes
Similar notes and family, from other houses.
- La Fille Tour de FerSerge Lutens
- 5th Avenue Eau de ParfumElizabeth Arden
- First Eau de ToiletteVan Cleef & Arpels
- Imperial GoldOpal Perfume
- Vitriol d'OeilletSerge Lutens
- YsatisGivenchy
- Bloom Acqua Di FioriGucci
- L'Air du TempsNina Ricci