This was one of my earliest sniffs as I started exploring in earnest. I’d added it to my list during feverish web browsing when I caught the scent bug. Then the same day I came across a sample vial rolling around on my in-laws coffee table.
I admired it, but it is not a scent I would choose for myself. (I’ve seen it described as an ‘intellectual’ scent?) I found it cloudy, thick and white, like a smooth frosted glass. An opaque block wall, with an inky trace, a purplish blue stain in it. I found it slightly sad and melancholy. Elegant and ornate, but too frosty and thick for me.
A month later I was listening to a podcast interview with two perfumers describing their training and favourite scents. One of them spoke about iris: the flowers themselves are scentless. The scent comes from ‘orris’; this is the roots, rhizomes and bulbs of the plant. They are stored, dried, powdered and then steam distilled to extract a thick fatty oil called ‘orris butter’ (sounds yummy spread on toast).
She too described iris as smelling white and opaque – so I thought score! I am on the right track in my smelling journey.
Infusion D’Iris was launched in 2007 and the perfumer is Daniela Andrier.
Notes are Mandarin,Orange blossom,Iris,Vetiver,Frankincense,Benzoin,Galbanum,Cedarwood.
It starts at about £60 for 30ml of eau de parfum.
*Apparently Georgia got very annoyed with people constantly interpreting her paintings as sexual, which she found reductive and repetitive. She has my sympathies, but in the case of this one, I think they have a point.
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