Shalimar Millésime Iris

Pre- review: I waited too long to purchase directly from Guerlain and by the time I was ready, it was sold out! Resellers are scalping everyone for a bottle. $250, $300, $500!?!? Absolutely disgusting! *We should create a forum where we collect a list of scalpers so we can blacklist them. One shouldn’t have to take a loan out to purchase a fragrance: paying a premium for a hard to find frag is one thing but geez.* Anyway, I found a ebay seller (art of fragrances) who is selling authentic *sealed* boxes for $155 or best offer. I paid $150 after taxes. My flacon is authentic. I’m over the moon! Review: First impression of two sprays on each wrist, love at first sniff! more musk than others have let on and less Iris than I thought an Iris centered fragrance would have though it’s definitely a tamed version of Shalimar. The fragrance is ethereal but it still has great siliage. I keep smelling her as I move around creating a wonderful scent bubble. It’s sweet without being cloying. I’m not getting the gooey caramel others have mentioned but again, this is my first impression. It’s really not as gourmand as some are making it out to be. I’m experiencing a powder puff/ fur like texture to the fragrance. I keep imagining white fur. If Shalimar Miliseme Iris were a color it would be a pastel purple. I really love the house of Guerlain. Now I must root out an affordable bottle of Milesime Tonka! Edit: I’ve been wearing this all day and I’ve added to my two sprays Wow! On second application, I get the signature smoky/leathery vanilla incense in the opening then the lipstick Iris comes in quickly behind just to peak in and say hello. I really wish the this part lasted a bit longer. After a while SMI becomes sweeter and I smell cotton candy. I keep getting whiffs of it in my hair and it triggered a scent memory of a very particular cotton candy from my childhood. So I see the references to Prada Candy and Pink Sugar but I have both of those and S.M.I is just more special. I perceive this flanker to be Shalimar with sweet, waxy Iris *almost lipstick but not really* on a bed of confectionary, powdery almond/vanilla and cotton candy musk. Shit! I’m gonna need to buy a back up bottle. Damn it! It’s delicious. If this isn’t for you, please message me and I’ll buy it off of your or swap from one of my full bottles in my extensive collection. Edit: This lasts well into the next day. This is definitely gourmand, I was wrong but not in a caramel ice cream way, I get a Iris Dragee or a Iris candy/Jordan almonds effect. It’s really addictive. I do wish the smoky/leathery opening stayed throughout because I love Shalimar but perhaps with more wears I’ll experience that and pick up on it.

It's lovely, for what it is. It opens with a touch of bergamot ~ which always intermingles with some of the resins and gives a touch of "Shalimar". Going forward from there, it's a bit different from what I was expecting. I don't get carroty iris, I get a doughy iris that ends buttery. It's sweet, no doubt about that, but the caramel/vanilla note does help this along. I will say, this ends better than it begins. About an hour in and I get a buttery, iris-y Shalimar candy, it sort of leaves an airy, smooth and somehow ~ sparkly ~ trail: but it's always a Shalimar-lite. Not at all hard to wear, it never wears you. The og is the Queen, never to be dethroned in my opinion, but the Millésime line are such delicious options for different moods. The orris root, imo, is very good quality ~ just not sure it was best put to use here. I've only had it for about 10 days and Vanilla Planifolia and Tonka both changed, morphed into better scents. All Guerlains do (the older ones especially, but the newer ones get better too). I'm a Shalimar ho, so I will always buy the next one; but I'd suggest testing first unless your're like a lot of here and love anything Shalimar. Shalimar Millésime Vanilla Planifolia ~ very pretty, easy to wear and I think rivals todays version of SDV for a great vanilla. Not the older version of SDV,, never the older one. Shalimar Millésime Tonka ~ technically a nicely structured perfume and beautiful, it's just getting deeper and more lovely. I'd say it's true to Shalimars complexity. Shalimar Millésime Iris ~ buttery, smooth iris candy, with a better trail than body. It's kind of swirls and eddies around you, others seem to enjoy it on me. Edited to add: I'm excited about Rose next year, and hope that it's more complex, truer to that French Guerlain ideal, not a more gourmand-y flanker. And I love a good gourmand/vanilla/milky-musky scent -but it just needs to be more......Guerlain.

As an unconditional lover of Shalimar I find it gorgeous and it shares the density, depth and richness of the other Millesime, Vanille and Tonka. So from that perspective, beautiful, and I hope all Shalimar lovers will like it even if the more smokey and leather notes of the original are toned down and the vanilla toned up in general. But this is the case in all the Millesimes I find. On the other hand, inside the Millesime range I find Iris the least pronounced on the headline note, the iris. Yes the iris is there, of a very high quality, more on the dusty side not really a very powdery one, but very diffused and not bringing a strong enough iris preence in my view. I still sense more the stamp of the vanilla of Millesime as a signature of the fragrance rather than a pronounced Iris-Shalimar. From this angle I think Shalimar Philtre de Parfum managed the iris print much better and I would say that if you look for an iris based Shalimar that one is more iris than the Millesime (just my view). But overall this range is wonderful if only for its richness, density and quality (and a very good staying power also). Am looking forward for more next year if they plan to release one a year.

I bought two bottles of Millésime Iris when it was released in 2023. One still remains unopened. With its predecessors Millésime Vanilla Planifolia and Millésime Tonka being favorites in my collection, I figured Millésime Iris would be a slam dunk. I was wrong. I barely wore it at all. I didn’t expect a gourmand Shalimar and I didn’t understand it. It is not like any of the other Iris fragrances in my collection. Initially MI opens up with a buttery caramel. It is slightly salty and almost verges on the side of caramel popcorn. I couldn’t get over my disappointment. Where was the Iris? I love Iris fragrances. So, I shelved it. Two years later I am wearing it again and I completely get it. Now buttery caramel seems like the perfect sidekick for Iris in a Shalimar iteration. It wouldn’t make sense to lean into violet or carroty nuances with the Shalimar base. This is a buttery Orris and I am really enjoying it. It is not as smoky or as leathery as the Vanilla and Tonka Millésimes. I smell very little bergamot in the opening. The dry down is where the Iris begins to have its moment and I’m here for it. I have to say, now I am glad I purchased two bottles.

Happy to have it, thanks to fine folks at QVC, because I originally decided I wouldn't bother with yet another Millesime edition. I have so many Shalimars, and as much as I love them, my husband is starting to notice my spending habits, so I had to slow down some when this one was released. The collector in me is screaming "Yes, you finally have this version too", but the wallet is saying"Really, they all smell alike". I am not getting any iris from this at all. Iris seemed to be a big thing in 2023, and of all releases, La Vie Est Belle L'extrait was the one that knocked my socks off. Millesime Iris holds a huge resemblance to Millesime Vanilla P. and Millesime Tonka, and it would be really hard to tell these three apart if one had to. I am finding the Iris version to be a tad sweeter than the previous two, but still very grown up and very leathery and smoky, just like the OG Shalimar. However, I still love wearing it, and since all the rest of mine are in storage while we are house hunting, I will enjoy this to the max. And the lotion this came with? OMG, everyone needs Shalimar body lotion in their life. Everyone. It Is Just Heavenly!