Iris Doux Special Edition

Similar to L'Heure Bleue?! In what universe? This is a deep, leathery floral with strong vintage vibes. No violet, or cool toned medicinal notes here. The oud is dark rubbery and smooth. It doesn't bear that much similarity to the original; for example, I wouldn't know that they were related. If you smell up close the original may be detected underneath: a warm, honeyed iris, but far out, it's much darker and richer. Its like the original threw on a mink coat

Started a bit harsh, like a citrus cleaner. Then dried down into an almond/violet/spices/citrus/iris combo that smells 90% similar to L'heure Bleue to me. Maybe a tad bit more metallic and sweet than LB but the resemblance is very high. It's pleasant, but... I'd rather wear the current version of L'heure Bleue, which is arguably a bit better and at 1/5th of the price. The notes here list oud (?) which I admittedly never experienced. Any sort of warmness and spicyness feels like it comes from a combination of mimosa starchyness and the whole, musky vanilla/tonka/clove making up the background. Very similar to the original version of Iris Doux (which also reminds me of L'heure Bleue) - perhaps the OG is a tad bit more perfume-y and musky while this special edition is slightly more spicy. But there wasn't any sort of epiphany of smelling the OG with some major twist, no. At least not to my nose - all I experienced was Iris Doux with a tad bit more clove. It also gave me a headache in the deep drydown.