For me, it started out spicy, sharp, almost sour — and moved quickly into a smooth, buttery peachy richness. Iris seems to be one of those notes that does better when accompanied by other, happier notes to make it legible. It provides a mood, a temperament, some atmosphere, but alone it is a bit much. (I remember smelling a niche perfumer's iris fragrance at Barney's. Seemingly unadorned by other notes, it was so austere, dusty, rooty and dry that I recoiled; it was like smelling mineral-rich dirt.)
Created by Vincent Roubert (of leather legend Knize 10 fame and Coty's L'Aimant), Iris Gris's softness recalls L'Aimant while its sweetness and roundness recalls L'Origan, also an iris fragrance. But where L'Origan is a little darker and more sensual, the peachiness of Iris Gris gives it a girlish lightness. It is oily almost (you don't smell it and think: transparent) and rich, but rich in the way a stone fruit mixed with cream is both bright and rich. It provides the olfactory equivalent of "mouthfeel" (a foodie reference describing the tactile pleasure of having something rich in one's mouth), without the caloric punishment (in a perfume's case, the burden of a too-sensual fragrance).
"[C]lean but not soapy, rich but not old-dusty...The perfume (a
floral woody fruity but in fact an orris soliflore) is constructed
around 2 ideas: orris notes + peach. Because orris and violet molecules
are in general metallic/cold and usually express melancholy, the
perfumer avoided this tendency with a soft peach note (undecalactone)
that evokes a girlish skin complexion. The orris note is composed with
all known orris notes (ionones, irones, methyl ionones, natural orris
more than 35%). The woody note is mainly cedar-vetiver (their acetates
for a light woody note). All other notes (jasmine, lily of the valley,
heliotrope-lilac) are delicately drawn to support the floral-orris note
and not to show their presence. There is an almost hard to detect
chypre note (oakmoss - but I'm still not sure for that) and a light
celery note (tuberose aspect and another trendy note in the 40-50's
used in traces) still to check. There is of course musk and a very
light carnation like that in l'Air du temps.Iris Gris is the breath of angels!"
(From Octavian at 1000Fragrances.)
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