Irisia

I will admit that for a long time, unintentionally, I was being a bit of a perfume snob. I didn't buy in to the whole Creed thing, I saw the hype all over the place, online, IRL, but I just saw it as something not for me. I certainly don't believe all this nonsense about Creed supposedly making all these historic fragrances for the historical aristocracy, that stuff doesn't add up at all. And I am not a fan of watery ozonic and aquatic scents. So based on the combination of those factors, plus the very limited and totally underwhelming sampling of the brand I had undertaken some time ago in a local dept store (Love in Black, SMW, VIW, Spring Flowers), I thought I could safely say Creed were not the brand for me. I am, however, happy to admit when I am wrong, and in this case I really was wrong. I may not like the majority of their offerings (further sampling had proven this) but amongst the aquatics and the overpriced pretensions there reside some truly wonderful fragrances. Though sadly it seems their very best scents are discontinued, including Irisia, AFAIK. But, oh this Irisia is truly beautiful. I don't recall exactly what brought it to my attention, I think it was around the time I came across vintage Balenciaga Cialenga and fell in love, that I started researching other fragrances that might have a similar feel. The particular combination of Iris, Oakmoss, Patchouli and Sandalwood sends me into raptures so when browsing through "search by notes" and Irisia appeared as a hitherto unknown possibility, I popped it into my test list. Reading through reviews about this scent piqued my interest so when I saw a used bottle on ebay, around 20mls left and no bids, it seemed rude not to buy it. I am so glad that I did because Irisia is everything I had hoped for. This is seriously good stuff. The oakmoss here is beautiful, the iris cool and aloof, the oakmoss-iris-sandalwood-patch combo was working it's magic, the distinctive sweep of bergamot present through until late drydown, the oh so subtle warmth of peach, this was an amazing experience. Although there are some similarities to the scents that brought me to Irisia, it remains quite unlike anything else I have smelled to date. There is a green quality to this but not strong, not sharp or biting or bracing; where other "green" notes can be cold and bold, a bright vivid and intense green, instead Irisia is a sweep of pea-green paint across a clean white canvas. The notes sweep and tangle around you like tendrils of smoke, or the twisting ripple of colour that spreads into clear water. Irisia is not a sweet scent in any way, and yet it is neither cold, nor aloof, there is no bitterness here. This is warm in it's own way, earthy and mossy, as opposed to resins and spice, cool rather than fiery yet welcoming and enveloping. I realise this sounds somewhat contradictory! I can try to explain it thus: There is warmth in this like the warmth of a flagstone path through the English countryside, worn smooth over the passage of time, sitting in the bluish light of dusk on a summer evening; to the eye it may appear cold and harsh, rough and univiting, but step onto it with bare feet and you will feel instead the warmth it retains from the day's sun and heat, the silkiness of it's worn surface, the wonderful scent of the earth in summer. That is the kind of warmth that Irisia exudes. Irisia is not loud, but nor is she a wallflower, you will have an aura of scent and a gentle tail, but will not fill a room with a fog of scent. Longevity is around the 7 hour mark for me, give or take. But the beauty within this bottle, so different to many of the other offerings from this house, is one I highly recommend to those who love earthy mossy chypres and green florals, those who pursue vintage scents and anyone looking for sanctuary from sweets and pink things and caramel and oud. I believe that this has sadly been discontinued but it can still be found online - try it while you still can because it is gorgeous.

We cope with this pandemic in different ways. I have really dig myself down in the perfume swamp and bought a lot (a lot for being me and my economy) of perfume from private sellers. My motive for most of my purchases is curiosity and that I've read about them here on Fragrantica. So I bought Irisia. At first I thought it had gone bad, (smelled like stored cheese) but after a couple of sprays it has gotten better and better. I guess some perfume may have got stuck in the spray nozzle and been exposed to too much air? I don't now how that works. The color of the liquid looks fine! Anyway, at first I was sure I wanted to sell Arisia as soon as possible. Such a different smell! And also, I'm not sure the perfume works with my skin. I smell much more of the flowers when I spray on textile. On me, I guess the oakmoss is more prominent. Now, after a couple of days I think I might hold on to it a little bit longer. Its not so much the scent that fascinates me, its the experience of the texture of the scent! I cant stop sniffing my arm. It's the thickness and a creaminess of the scent that I really enjoy! I might sell it later though...

IRISIA is an elegant and exquisitely balanced perfume. Just smelling this fragrance from the bottle or enjoying it on the skin, it is clear that the finest materials were used to produce it. The top notes on my skin are all present and masterfully blended. For a few minutes, I enjoy the mimosa, bergamot, peach and orange. The combination is neither acidic nor sweet, rather it is fresh and citrusy. Eventually, the middle notes replace the citrus with a strong tuberose and faint whiffs of violet and iris. On me, the flowers do not linger long before I am left with a much warmer and darker perfume composed of oak moss, amber, cedar and patchouli that lasts for close to 7+ hours and radiates within arm's length. This is definitely a strong, mature perfume that requires a confident woman who doesn't allow a perfume to wear her. This fragrance commands presence and will devour little girls who are none the wiser . . .

Amazing Chypre and easily the best Oakmoss scent I have ever smelled. The Oakmoss adds such a darkness that helps this become a unisex scent.

Everyone is right about the "senior" scent. It is a classic chypre and rather heady, but if that's what you're looking for as a wonderful Iris this is it. I feel very Billie Holliday putting this on. Gorgeous, old-fashioned and not drugstore-y. Expensive but worth it.

To me, this smells like old English ladies ... A little like moist fallen leaves on an alley in autumn ... Cannot find something expensive or luxurious about it. Disappointing. Nothing special.

this again is such unbelievably powerful chypre. the perfume shall have seasoned in the sense that I bought it around 2000, and in the sense that it ripened, macerated further in vitro, in the meanwhile also as legendary known artefect of a 'Creed's Woman Perfume', in such ladylike bottle which they were keen now to all replace them with a singular model. I do not have special feelings with that. even if it is more economical and less ideosyncratic and feminine as the unique and elegant flacon. I am still able to enjoy the strong Irisia perfume and strong it is. what I keep wondering is what it is I smell in the sense that I smell a development of notes or I smell this Monolith Wall of Chypric, Mossy, Ambergris and Patchouli or, and, the sheer violence of the used Iris, Violet, Mimosa and Tuberose. if you spray this perfume it immediately hits you in the face much as the (in)famous heavy and heady 1980s perfumes did. I remember smelling it in the late 1990s when Creed suddenly bursted on the scene in (sparse) Niche Perfumeries with already then 'wilthed boxes', so, older as that they were just delivered new. I was totally aghast, even if my favorite perfume decade is the 1980s, I remember where and when in the Hague, I smelled (and bought) first Irisia and Fleur de Bulgarie, then Jasmal and Jasmin d'Impératrice Eugénie and later on still Vanisia, Tuberose Indiana, etc. from Irisia and Fleur de Bulgarie I bought them in, luckily. this perfume had me stopped in my tracks and I also remember looking at the fascinating and very posh packagings, also those of the Men's perfumes. with Irisia you smell suddenly all, all at once. it was that way also in the (late) 1990s. and it befell me hugely. I guess it is a Woody, Flowery, Mossy and Patchouli, but especially rounded with the Ambergris uniquely sophisticated and present perfume. I immediately feel me like myself and then, more. it is as with those other chypres that stand like skyscrapers: Y, No19, Knowing, Estée, Ivoire, Cabochard, Eau du Soir, Soir de Lune, Eau de Campagne (Sisley, all), Mitsouko, Caléche, etcetera etcetera. they possess a coldness as well as an inimpenetrability and this last quality is perhaps best incorporated within this very perfume Irisia. Peach as one of the few fruits I can detect in perfumes, plus the Amber (next to Ambergris), the Patchouli, Sandelwood and Cedar lend both austerity as a heavenly Clôche of perfume so dense and asphyxiating I revel every microsecond in it. (this posted earlier that same year, as dissociated as intensely. thus there are now two reviews [in fragrantica] standing following one other, lovely crazy.) this is a fantastic perfume. it possesses all the traits of a great Chypre, an Iris and a somptuous Bouquet of Flowers perfume. at first you get hit as with a Freight train with the very present oakmoss in copious amounts. and also immediately the cold and superelegant dosage of Iris which gives the perfume austerity, subtraction but not in the least an Under Appreciation while already these notes torsion with each other to throw up these metallic and yet supernatural impressions of a dreamscape that just has begun. slowly some more flowers appear as the mimosa and violet, the tuberose in deftly diluted shyness. yet it becomes apparent the initial upbeaming of an enormous Wall of Moss, Ambergris, Iris and I guess the peach and bergamot are here to billow out and not easily nor soon are going to stay in the flacon. the soul of Irisia has escaped from the bottle and isn't anywhere anytime going away soon. and this is lovely. at least for 1980s Hooker Perfume lovers. and as such am I. Irisia sits with Fleur de Bulgarie, Jasmin d'Impératrice Eugénie, Jasmal and then other sisters Nahéma and Gem, also No.5 and Coco in the edge of very presentist yet chic and oh so sophisticated perfumes. while there ain't no roses in this Creation it certainly shares the Utmost arresting presence with her sister Fleur de Bulgarie. then if 'the Wall' somewhat resides (hours and hours in) the most delicate and lingering traces of powderiness and layeredness come forward. this is a somewhat older perfume for sure. yet for me this is the Actuality and stills my thirst for super alarmist Flowering and towering Lady perfumes as they make sure you exist.

Irisia is a fantastic perfume and as said before, Creed is committing marketlogistical suicide or, perhaps it is very clever what they're doing but than not anymore within the realm of a memorable perfumial legacy. Irisia has to go I think because it is so heavy for the allergic nasal sensors of the Millennials. But not for me, I love devastatingly heady scents. Poison, Giorgio, Knowing, Coco, Oudh Infini of Dusita and their Melodie d'Amour, Vero Kerns Rubj, Onda, Naja, Mito and Rozy. Red Beverly Hills and simply, Gale Haymans Beverly Hills, Bob Mackie and of Guerlain Nahema, Mahora, Mitsouko, Guet Apins. I always see Guerlain as a twin to Creed and from Creed I love Fleurs de Bulgarie, Tuberose Indiana, Royal Oud, Vanisia, Bois du Portugal, Royal Delight, Jasmal, Jasmine d'Empératrice Eugénie. Creed is all letting it go for Aventus, Viking, Himalayan fantasies and Loves in Black and White where you just smell....nothing. Even the Fleur de Gardénia is aqua. No then Irisia and Fleurs de Bulgarie. With those you still get people coughing, just like with Giorgio and Poison. Irisia is simply beautiful. The Oakmoss shall be the main playa and so it is an IFRA-icide. Furtheron it hosts an as well delicate as not to be missed presence in its earthy, flowery persistance. Like in Calèche d'Hermès, Chanel no.5 and Jean Patous' Joy. Then of the accompanying notes I guess bergamot, ambergris, patchouli and sandelwood play good supportive roles. It is at once a fairly complex perfume as also a predecessor to the unavoidable devils of the 80s. It shares also great similarity with Balmains Ivoire and, as said, Knowing and Cristalle come to mind also. I am not stuck in the past however and like good rose-oudh combos also (Montale, Ex Idolo Thirty Three, Histoires de Parfums Pétroléam, Mona di Orios' Osmanthus Oud). It has to be a presence and a perfume, not some ozonic aqua scent. I loathe those. Give me the full-bodied perfumes of now and yesterday anytime. Via ebay I always stock up on Irisia and Gale Haymans Beverly Hills. Fuck the IFRA and perfumial corporatism.

Contrary to what its name might seem to imply, Creed IRISIA is, except for a five-second floral opening, a dark chypre perfume. Based now on a few cases, I have come to the tentative conclusion that the Creed family delights in anagrammatic names for their perfumes. So, IRISIA = chypre; VANISIA = amber; TUBEREUSE INDIANA = not a lot of tubereuse; and NEROLI SAUVAGE = neither nerolic nor wild. It may take me a while to crack the code, but this seems to be a good start. Perhaps I'll have to do some research in the Creed family archives to discover the solution to this cabalistic conundrum. Back to the review: IRISIA bears similarities to both Estee Lauder KNOWING and Chanel CRISTALLE edp (not edt!). Dark, brooding, heavy, soil-rich, brown mossy chypre is what it's all about. Not my favorite subgenre of the chypre family, but on occasion it has its appeal. I can recommend IRISIA, which has excellent staying power, to anyone who likes KNOWING and CRISTALLE edp. On the other hand, if you dislike either or both of those compositions, you're unlikely to find much of interest in this barely floral, iris-challenged, oak-moss heavy chypre.

Iris? Huh? This is a lovely classic, earthy chypre. I could liken it to many other chypres of its time (1968), and as I am a fan of the genre and era it would be a compliment, but let’s just consider it on its own. Classic opening with bitter bergamot and oakmoss. Not floral, not powdery. It really moves in a small range of grassy, woody, earthy and leather tones. What I mean by simple here is that it focuses smartly and cleanly on the bergamot, oakmoss and amber triad (with a lot of galbanum and patchouli) that makes a chypre a chypre. Irisia doesn’t stray off course and remains focused on fine-tuning rather than frill. It demonstrates textbook, classic progression over time and captures the unfolding of tones that defines the chypre. If I had to characterize Irisia, I’d call it whip-smart.

Irisia. They called it that because it would be weird to call it by it's proper name Iridaceae is a gorgeous iris. This is all iris on me. It honors the scent of the iris as only a Creed perfume could do. The iris, violet and tuberose are each very fragrant flowers on their own terms. Putting them together makes this a very strong floral fragrance. Fortunately they are balanced with woodsy notes. This is a lovely chypre with aromatic touches of woods, patchouli and oak moss. There is also an amber toward the end drying everything very nicely. This was a very satisfying fragrance for me. I would recommend it for spring time and for the day time but it's flexible enough as an evening cologne.

I can see where someone would get the Nursing Home smell from this....if by Nursing Home you mean the lovely older ladies and not the home itself! I pictured those ladies myself, at first. Proper ladies who know how to smell that way. Very feminine, flowery. Then the heart began to assert itself, giving the scent a hint of warming sensuality. By the time I went to pick up my daughter from school, the scent had dried down and I really noticed it in the enclosed space of my car; I smelled Expensive, luxurious, warm....yet still like a lady. And a little like a "good girl" who had spent the afternoon being "bad". Good stuff!

This is my 2nd Creed fragrance. I have Fleurissimo which was Grace Kelly's wedding day perfume. This is a beautiful iris fragrance. If you know how iris works you know that it becomes powdery very powdery and sweet and like a little puff of cloud. It smells very much like body powder or face powder. The iris is standing out but it's also floral with violet and a creamy tuberose. The peach note is very noticeable as it opens. The dry down is woodsy with oak moss cedar amber and a touch of vanilla. Elegant and amazing. Smells expensive and it is expensive. Love it.

The loss of treasures like Irisia, makes me want to go back in time and NEVER come back to this era of mediocrity and lack of taste and refinement in perfumery. They don't make them like this anymore, because cheap, vulgar, and easy is what sells well today... How did we fell into this pit? I ask myself every-single-day.

It's a classic chypre, I love that. I think it is similar to Balmain de Balmain, Estee Lauder Azuree, Dior Diorella and a bit to Cabochard. I like all of them, I don't think I've ever met a chypre I didn't like. I put it on today, a very hot day in July, and it works well. It is a classic after all.

I had Irisia for a gift! It's much too overpowering on me and I wish I could find a way of getting rid of it without being blamed for polluting the environment!

The favorite perfume of Sofia Loren did you know that ? I love it as well, amazingly fresh and mysterious!