Interlude Black Iris

Wooow BOB wowww this is so good. But strong, veeeryyyy strong, just like its daddy the original Blue Beast, though much smoother and tamer than the original. It is indeed dark, dry, smoky, smoldering, gothic, and mystical, but the "black iris" component softens and smooths it, along with the vanilla. There is a warm core of gold in this heart of darkness. For mental associations I imagine some ancient temple or library in the middle of the desert, full of golden braziers of burning resins and hanging lamps. It's night time, and the desert night is dark as pitch but spangled with scintillating stars, and you see this temple, or library, amidst the dunes, radiant with deep bronze light, and inside it there is great knowledge to be gleaned, some profound mystery. Iram-of-the-Pillars vibes. It is serious and austere but also warm and inviting, like the beckoning call of the temple's secrets. Would definitely not call this sexy though, it is by no means a """"panty-dropper"""" or some casual, date night fragrance. This is how Paul Atreides might have smelled after wandering out of the desert in Dune Messiah. Like a mystic locked in a tower with his manuscripts plumbing the depths of ineffable. Fantasy vibes. Dune, Arrakis, desert planet. If I smelt this on a random passerby I would expect them to have some spell scrolls, summoning stones, and phylactery or two on their person, or to be at the very least marked by the Eyes of Ibad from excess spice consumption. In short - this ain't no Armani Code Elixir. It's esoteric af. It is very impressive, however, extremely high quality, and smells amazing. My gf was enamored with the scent and instantly wanted me to buy it; she's goth, so go figure. I myself, although I love the scent, don't know if I'd buy it, simply because I'm not sure how often I'd wear it and it's almost too strong for my taste. After ONE spray from my sample vial this easily lasted 10 hours, projected through a shower, and was all up in my nose practically the entire time, in an almost annoying way. This is one of those rare scents that I would have to spray underneath my shirt to simply keep it under control. And the Blue Beast is (or was, not sure about recent formulations) even more potent when I tried it, and far more unpleasant to my nose with its harsh incense and that oregano note - crazy to think that THIS is a step-down in performance, when it's absolutely nuclear. I think of this in the same sort of way that I do as LADDM/Au Coeur du Desert (and honestly, they share vibes) - beautiful, evocative, artistic perfumery, but not something that I'd personally like wearing frequently enough to merit a full bottle purchase. I mean god, you could get a 5 ml of this and probably be set for life. I also find that it doesn't evolve as much as I'd like it to, and that, combined with the insane performance, makes it a bit too much of a commitment for me. The drydown is beautiful, with the smoke and resins and herbs being wrapped in a quilt of lush vanilla and creamy orris, which gives it a sort of smoky cacao vibe, I find that it doesn't entice me as much as I'd like it to. For Amouage, I find myself gravitating more towards Journey Man, Beach Hut Man, and Memoir Man. Still, this is an incredible scent, genuinely, absolutely worth a sniff. Just make sure it's cold outside. This in the heat is a weapon of war.

I am a newcomer to the world of niche fragrances. I've started buying fragrances when I was a teenager as soon as I had my own money, however I was only able to discover the world of designer fragrances due to my budget and the stores i found in my area. I have always been fascinated by uniqueness, and my favorite fragrances were dior homme edt for its pure masculinity, gucci intense oud for its dark, elegant and mysterious energy, and gentleman givenchy boisee for its blend of pungent masculinity and feminine sweetness. Recently I was able to discover some creed fragrances and I absolutely fell in love with their royal oud, buying it as soon as I smelled it as to me it was a completely new, unique fragrance, reminding me of the calm and harmony I felt as a kid on sundays at church. However, 4 days into discovering the fragrance I was absolutely disappointed of its performance (lasting around 4-5 hours on my skin with 5 sprays and projecting around 1 metre for about 1-2 hours, before becoming just a skin scent), so I started watching youtube videos on it, where everyone means it's a fragrance for older, mature people, so I've realised that these types of fragraces would please me the most even if I'm in my early 20s. (I am the type of person that wears a fragrance for himself, not the others around, always wearing a scent for personal pleasure even when going to bed after a shower) After doing a bit of research on more mature, this time longer lasting, "beast mode" fragrances, I discovered amouage interlude black iris. I've watched some videos on it, seen its notes on fragrantica and everything seemed superb to me, the only negatives being that it is not for everyone's taste, either hate it or love it and "DO NOT BLIND BUY", so I decided to blindly buy it :). I do not regret a single thing about this purchase, this scent is absolutely stunning to my nose, it begins by smelling of dense smoke, slowly burning pungent rosemary, gradually evolving towards a vanilla-ish amber and finishing off very similar to creed's royal oud, smelling like myrrh and unanimalic oud. This is the best description I can give about this fragrance as to me it is so complex, so beautiful, as I see it as a work of art, not just a perfume. This is a scent that demands respect, maximum 3-4 sprays, it is extremely heavy, dark, gothic, pungent however calm and confidence inducing, extremely masculine (I could only imagine somekind of vampire-woman wearing it if not a man). On me, its longevity is 12h+ (still smelling after 2 days and 2 showers on the wrist's pulse points when smelling very close to the skin) and projection is around 2 metres for the first 3-4 hours, then slowly becoming a small "bubble" scent before becoming a skin scent around hour 10. To conclude, I could only say that I absolutely love this fragrance, it amplifies the man I am and should be, elegant, dark but warm, confident, strong but respectful. I would only recommend it to someone who sees fragrances as a work of art, someone who understands that amouage literally means a wave of emotions, and I would even recommend a blind buy if what I have written resonates with you. As everyone says, this is not for everyone, you either hate it or love it, however if you love it, you will love it towards the deepest point within your heart and soul, this is a true masterpiece.

Amouage has done it again with this third Interlude. My wallet cannot take much more! So, what have we got here compared to the original and 53? Well, it's very obviously Interlude Man but a successful attempt at beautifying it, or, thinking of this trio as a trilogy of movies or books, closing out the story. I liken 53 to an apocalyptic forest fire of resinous trees. It's all smoke, heat, rage, and white-hot sharp edges. Black Iris is after the fire has gone out and the forest begins rebuilding. The smoke and resinous notes are still obviously there, but it lacks the heat and sharp edges. A spring rain has come to quench the charred earth and now we have flowers and trees rising up from the ashes to rebuild the landscape. The violet leaf, orris, and vanilla play critical roles in this flanker, and they are allowed to do a lot of work without taking full center stage most of the time. Since this perfume is called Black Iris, you can correctly assume that the orris is the star, and it is: the cold, starchy, floral orris removes a lot of the heat and "danger" from the original DNA of Interlude. But, the way Black Iris plays out is interesting because at certain moments it's almost indistinguishable from either Interlude or 53, and at other moments those three accords become quite prominent and the difference from the original and 53 becomes very clear. On the final dry down, the vanillic amber, patchouli, and woods are most prominent; the forest has regrown after the fire. This is probably the most disappointing part of the perfume, though these three ingredients are of excellent quality and composition, surely there must be a better and more creative way to convey a feeling of safety and "conclusion". The ending of the story is a bit cliched. Pierre Negrin has done a masterful job of taking his original composition and letting the story evolve in new and different ways. Amouage and Negrin have executed one of the things they do best: create a perfume that has free reign to speak, think, feel, and evolve, just like a person. It's in those moments that I've fallen in love with Black Iris in a different way than the other two Interludes. Black Iris is the calm after the storm, the interlude (if you will) between the chaos and the clean blank slate from which a new landscape forms.

I am utterly obsessed with this scent. Before I rant and rave about it I will list the negatives with it. * Not a crowd pleaser. Seriously, some people might despise this one. * Pungent opening where I need to hide from my Wife for half an hour * Not a year rounder (mostly cool weather and nights) * Dill pickle note in the opening (to me at least) * Expensive - if you count that as a negative. Okay if you’ve made it this far now I’ll explain why it’s a 10/10 to me. This is my Vampire scent. This is the scent that makes me feel mysterious, intelligent, aloof, confident, and... like a Vampire lounging in its’ castle. The opening is very strong, almost salty and pickle like to me, and very smoky. Smoky, spicy, herbal. TO ME it is delicious, very masculine. The complete opposite of a Blue fresh scent. It evokes a lot of masculine descriptors for me: Fireplace, Lounge, Bonfire, Cigars, Aristocratic Vampire brooding in its’ Great Hall - (I’ll stop with that now). Why is it a 10/10? - The Drydown. I am going to avoid being dramatic in this final section because I want to convey how much I love this. The smoky, spicy herbal pickle fades away and what you are left with is in my opinion the #1 drydown of any fragrance ever. For about the last 8+ hours of the scent it becomes a velvety-smooth woody vanilla smell. All I can think of is velvet. I just smelled it on myself again, after spraying 4 hours ago. I get chills up my spine, and my eyes roll back. I cannot get enough of it. Smooth, velvety, dry birch wood sitting near a bonfire. So comfortable, so smooth. I would be okay with smelling like this forever. Seriously. My wife and friends love it during the drydown. I think the drydown is “sexy” where the opening is not. Longevity is not an issue at all. It’s an Amouge. It’ll last an extremely long time. Definitely DO NOT blind buy. I could see many people feeling sick from the first 30 minutes or so. 10/10 scent. My current obsession. 7/10 scent for the general public. You have to wear the right amount in the right setting and be confident with it. In my opinion definitely masculine, probably 30+ year old but if you can rock it, rock it. Total Vampire energy. It’s kind of scary.

I'm a lover of the Iris note in fragrances, I find it comforting it takes me back to my childhood rummaging around my mums hand bag for chewing gum or some change for buying sweets, she was/ is a heavy user of red lipstick. Im a fan of Dior homme and a few other fragrances containing iris and stumbled across reviews of black iris on tiktok and you tube, id also found bottles of black iris heavily discounted (£160) and really wanted to sample it, rather than risking a blind buy, for such a seemingly divisive fragrance. Yesterday I ventured into the fragrance hall in selfridges to sample it along with reflection man. I went straight on skin with both. Initially I was hit with a scent I could only describe as purple, then came the smoke, fecal oud, which I found over powering and a touch challenging to be honest. During the first half an hour I was pretty relieved I never pulled the trigger on the blind buy, and almost reached for some baby wipes to remove the overpowering smoke and horse dung from my wrist. Well I'm glad I didnt. As the day wore on the scent kept getting more appealing as it transitioned through the dry down. What a dry down ! For my nose, it settled into a wonderful buttery iris, with hints of woods and vanilla that lasted for and eternity. This was my first encounter with amouage, im not a big fan of Oud, im an aventus DNA junky. Aventus is like catnip to me, despite me becoming nose blind to it pretty quickly. What can I say I went on a journey with black iris, from initial repulsion, to what in the end was a lingering, comforting iris dry down. It starts off a bold, dark, domineering incense scent, fit for the streets of Gotham city but transitions into a warm comforting iris hug. You could wear this to go out fighting crime and by the time you're done you could come home and envelope your women in the warm ambery iris hug. I pulled the trigger on a bottle later that night. I will definitely be trying more amouage scents going forward and hopefully they are as interesting as this. I was really taken a back by the journey interlude black iris took me on.