Lilac Mist: The Best Winter Iris Scents

2023 Author: Jessica James | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 15:47

Iris cured of the blues by sunbathing in the Hamptons, vintage-style iris, warm amber iris - perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova publishes a list of the most wintry fragrances with notes of this flower.

Bois d'Iris Eau de Toilette, The Different Company

One of the most original irises in perfumery, Bois d'Iris, is leaving Russia - here it is unpopular, as is its overall olfactory profile: cold, damp, with pale roots that have never seen light. Bois d'Iris has practically no top notes in their usual sense - no golden shine of citrus, no hope for an early spring. This iris is wintry: it is stiff in the frozen ground and smells like cedar and water in ground capillaries. What is now on the shelves in stores are leftovers, have time to get acquainted.

Eau de parfum Iris Nobile, Acqua di Parma

Many of those who are interested in perfumes know that in perfumery the aroma of iris is obtained not from a flower, but from the root of a plant, more precisely, from its rhizome. The latter are dug up by hand, cleaned and sent to "ripening": the component acquires its characteristic aroma during the drying process, or rather fermentation, which lasts three years. The “finished” rhizomes are cut into pieces, ground into a powder and steam distilled to form a substance called iris concrete. But already from concrete, washing it with an alkaline solution, the final product is obtained - absolute. Its scent is complex and multifaceted: here there is a violet, and raspberry, and powder, and the fresh, symbolic for iris, the smell of roots just extracted from the cold earth. Many perfumers focus on this “root” aspect, but Iris Nobile is assembled in a different way:thanks to the support of other notes, mainly ylang-ylang and orange blossom, it smells like "tops" - the honey flowers of a country iris from childhood.

Eau de toilette Iris Meadow, Aerin

Erin Lauder, the founder of the brand named after herself, has great respect for flowers: her Manhattan apartment is a triumph of botanical print (check out the shoot in the American Elle Décor), and the brand's portfolio is developing in the same direction. The vast majority of the fragrances in the collection are floral, clear and shadeless, like trees on Erin's beloved Delft porcelain. And the most noonday is Iris Meadow, an iris sunburned in the Hamptons. And expensive recipe smoothies from the Goop website: a handful of blueberries were added to these flowers.

Eau de parfum Creative Inspiration, State of Mind

Those who visited the InterCharm exhibition in the fall may have seen the stand of the new French brand State of Mind and even tasted tea, which was immediately brewed and offered to visitors. The campaign was not unique: State of Mind unites tea and perfumery in one project, where each of the ten scents corresponds to its own variety, created by the master of tea blending Olivier Scala. The teas are all wonderful - "almost more interesting than the aromas themselves," as some perfume journalists said, but State of Mind's compositions are also very worthy - well cut, elegant, understandable in a good sense of the word. For example, Creative Inspiration is a powdery iris in a cloud of sweet sandalwood dust, in which the floral aspects are balanced by woody: not a bouquet, but not a chilled log.

Eau de Parfum 1996 Inez & Vinoodh, Byredo

Dutchmen Ines van Lamsweerde and Vinood Matadin are fashion photography stars, a married couple who enter the houses of Lady Gaga, Stefano Pilati and Lou Doyon. The photographers are also friends with the Swede Ben Gorham, who even dedicated one of the best Byredo fragrances to their family contract - warm amber iris. In the absence of the “correct” antagonist, an amber accord - warm, balsamic, tart - can go into a flat, annoying sweetness, but here it is ideally balanced with juniper bitterness, like the famous caramel of Chef Olivier Rollinger - with salt and black pepper.

Eau de parfum Les Exceptions Oriental Express, Mugler

Here is an iris in vintage style, for those who sympathize with the aesthetics of the famous "Orient Express" - the honey glow of Tiffan lamps, the warm sheen of wood lacquer and subtle aromas of powder in the ladies' room. Iris is introduced to sandalwood under the pretext of their common floral sweetness, but they have much to discuss without it: there aren't many ingredients in perfumery that fit each other so well (other examples of their brilliant collaboration are Sandalo Nobile, Nobile 1942 and Orris & Sandalwood. Jo Malone).