Most people pick a dog shampoo by reading the label and then, quietly, by smelling it. Scent is the part of bath day you notice first and remember longest. It is also the part most often handled carelessly, with a heavy synthetic perfume that hits hard and fades in an hour.
Fig & Neroli is our freshest scent. This is what goes into it, and why the two notes were paired.
What is fig, as a scent?
Fig is unusual in perfumery because the whole tree smells. The ripe fruit is soft, jammy and faintly milky. The leaves and the green skin are sharper: green, slightly woody, a little like coconut and cut stems. A good fig fragrance borrows from both, so it reads as fresh rather than sweet.
In our shampoo the fig comes from Ficus Carica Fruit Extract, the INCI name for common fig fruit. It gives the scent its soft, rounded middle – the part that stays close to the coat after the bright top notes lift.
What is neroli?
Neroli is the essential oil of the blossom of the bitter orange tree, Citrus aurantium var. amara. It is not the same as orange oil, which is pressed from the peel. Neroli comes from the small white flowers, which are picked by hand and steam-distilled.
Its scent is bright and clean: citrus, but floral rather than juicy, with a honeyed, slightly green edge. It is one of the classic notes of eau de cologne, which tells you how it behaves – fresh, uplifting, never heavy.
On our carton it appears as Citrus Aurantium Amara Flower Oil. If you ever want to check what a “fresh” or “citrus” pet shampoo actually contains, the INCI list is where to look.
Why put fig and neroli together?
Neroli on its own is lovely but fleeting – bright for a few minutes, then gone. Fig on its own can turn sweet. Together they balance each other: neroli lifts the opening, fig gives it somewhere to land.
The result smells like a clean kitchen garden on a cool morning. It is the scent we reach for in summer and the monsoon, when a heavier, woody fragrance can feel like too much in a humid flat.
How it smells on your dog
You notice neroli first, while you are lathering – fresh and citrus-floral. As the coat dries, the fig comes forward: softer, greener, close to the skin. The scent is IFRA-compliant, uses no synthetic fragrance and stays close to the coat for up to 48 hours.
It is deliberately not loud. A dog lives nose-first, and a coat that smells of strong perfume is a coat your dog has to live inside. We wanted something you notice when you bury your face in their neck, not from across the room.
What else is in the bottle
The scent is the only thing that changes across our three Gentle Daily Shampoos. Every bottle is:
- cleansed with amino acid-derived surfactants instead of sulphates
- preserved with probiotics (Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate) instead of parabens or MIT
- pH-balanced and made for sensitive skin, with colloidal oatmeal, aloe vera, neem extract, camellia oil and vitamin E
- 99.5% natural origin (ISO 16128-2), vet consulted, for dogs and cats
Expect less foam than a supermarket shampoo. That is the point: sulphates make lather, and they also strip the coat. Two passes give the best result.
Is Fig & Neroli the right scent for your dog?
Choose Fig & Neroli if you like a fresh, citrus-green scent, bathe more often in hot or humid weather, or simply want the lightest of the three. Prefer something warmer? Santal & White Tea is woody and calm; Violet Leaf & Muslin is soft, green and clean.
Can’t decide? The Bath Ritual Trio has all three. And The Complete Ritual – Fig & Neroli pairs the shampoo with Defense, the Paw Cleaner and Refreshing Mist for the whole routine.
