Fichi e Panna Kyse Perfumes / Perfumes by Terri 2018

This has the particular scent of hot milk to me, as if I were making a custard and the edges had started to scald a little bit. In that sense, it feels more like an impression of the process of making panna cotta, rather than the smell of panna cotta itself.

That's not a bad thing, though. The heat and the vanilla turn this into something you might drink on a cold night to help you get to bed. There's fig too, but a soft stewed-fruit variation of it, one that melds with the vanilla cream rather than contrasting against it.

What I particularly love about Fichi e Panna is that it feels like a gourmand on a diet. Gourmands and vanillas often have a tendency of smelling very sweet, like they've all been painted with the same glossy syrup varnish, which is nice in small doses but can wash out the identifying characteristics, as if you've been eating ice-cream for hours and can no longer enjoy it or tell the difference between flavors. Fichi e Panna is undeniably a gourmand, but it's low on the sugar content, trusting the milk and figs to carry it. Which they do, and the whole thing is like being wrapped in a particularly fluffy blanket.

I love this, and while I wish for Kyse's continued success, I do hope the TikTok hype dies down and they become actually accessible again. Shame about the bottle though.