Iris Perle

Iris Perle is a great name for this perfume. It has a very pearlescent quality to it: soft yet brilliantly white with almost imperceptible hues of cream and silver, perfectly symmetrically round, a metallic sheen to it in the right light, and elegant in a way not many can pull off. Carefully read that last description. Not many can, or will want, to pull off this perfume. That is mainly because they don’t like real orris. Makeup, baby wipes, lipstick, starchy and potato like, overtly powdery, soapy, etc. - and many other descriptors of a negative bent. Sorry, but that’s what real orris smells like. I, for one, adore it. Maybe I haven’t had the negative associations in my past that others have had with cosmetics featuring this accord. Were a lot of you forced to wear makeup, hit across your person with packages of baby wipes, had soap shoved in your mouths when you were foul, or forced to eat bland potatoes, as children? I don’t understand. Anyway.... The biggest thing to note with Iris Perle is that the orris absolute stretches from top to bottom, beginning to end, of the perfume. Other notes you might detect play around at different stages filling in some of the gaps and giving minute attention to details: Les Indemodables’ modus operandi, although a bit different with Iris Perle. The opening has sage and jasmine accords to it, which present the orris as almost throat-scratchingly dry and giving it a metallic sheen. The jasmine is completely indolic, its musky mothball quality in full force, while sage gives a green and herbaceous lean emphasizing the earthy and rooty (i.e. potatoey) nature of orris. Meanwhile, playing around in an aloof manner below the surface is something sweet: the sugary banana accord of ylang-ylang that makes itself more apparent after the jasmine and sage dispense. This seems to be where Iris Perle loses people, as this creamy and tropical sweetness plus the starchiness of orris comes across as what you’d find in a lot of cosmetics. I think it’s beautiful, and it puts pictures in my mind’s eye of the microscopically subtle swirls of cream and silver colors you can sometimes find in the pearl’s polished white facade. Finally, and rather quickly, mimosa makes an entrance and carries on the brief from the banana-pushing ylang-ylang. Yellow and honeyed floral, slightly woody, brimming with pollen, the mimosa combines with orris to make sure you know the orris came from the iris flower. It’s gentle, caressing, and beautiful, and it makes sure you understand there is a simple beauty but a timeless elegance to the iris flower. The last thing you’ll smell is a skin scent of that gorgeous orris absolute, completing the journey and taking you home. When Iris Perle at last takes me there, I cannot stop smelling my arms and wrists for one more hit of its heartbreaking beauty. In terms of olfactory complexity, and how much detail Les Indemodables’ exquisite materials provide, there isn’t as much to say about Iris Perle compared to many of their other compositions. But, this is not a detraction or a negative, if anything it reinforces the message of simple beauty and elegance with no frills or unnecessary words said. It’s one of the few LI perfumes that provides space for the accords to move, breathe, and speak for themselves. Most LI perfumes are a single paragraph, extraordinarily well written they are, but Iris Perle includes a couple paragraph breaks to let some space and gaps exist between thoughts - which is a metaphor likely understandable for only the few of you taught to properly write as evidenced by nearly all of the reviews I see on this site. If you love iris/orris, in its naturalistic and simplistic elegance and beauty, you will love Iris Perle. If not, you might find it mundane and cosmetic. I personally think it’s one of the best iris perfumes I’ve ever smelled, right up there with Apres L’Ondee, Iris Poudre, Dior Homme (the original release, mind you), and Iris Silver Mist. Stunning.

Damn!!! I don’t know man! I’m starting to like this more and more but its and uphill battle for Iris Perle. I’m really enjoying this now in the warmer weather rather than when I first smelled it in the winter when most of its fragrant facets were muted by the cold. I recently acquired vintage Moustache eau de toilette Concentree which is gorgeous and this is giving me a similar candle-like waxy animalic honey and bitter lemonade feel. This almost feels like Chypre Azural’s sister while Chypre Azural is an aromatic bright green orange, Iris Perle is a powdery and soily, bright yellow lemon. Ice cubes, brisk and chilling, and crystalized sweet lemon powder being mixed into cold water is what I smell. Just heavenly... Wait, wait, calm down... I might see a bottle of this in the near future but I think I need some more testing on this. This is a really fantastic blend that doesn’t even smell floral to my nose. If I was smelling this blindly I would think it was a citrus dominant perfume. The only thing that suggests a floral nuance to me is the powdery almost resembling dry dirt or soil contributed by earthy orris with a bitter herbal nature from clary sage giving the scent a good amount of lift and projection. I think the sweet banana like qualities of the ylang-ylang lifted by a minty jasmine and the spicy, and a somewhat zesty, metallic, clary sage are blended together at the perfect threshold to reach a photorealistic lemon rind or lemon zest accord here. The smell of refreshing lemonade. Or the smell of if you were walking past a stand of lemons sold in Turkey stacked like a pyramid or in baskets as they would be in Mexico or Portugal. What magnificent techniques in blending with this brand. I am floored. So my story with Iris Perle... I did a test of Iris Perle, Fougere Emeraude and Musc Des Sables on my arms in the winter when I received my sample set. Massive massive mistake which gave me a coughing fit and a slight headache - my head felt as if I had been spinning on an office chair. I felt disgusted by all three. And I vividly remember Iris Perle being in the back of my throat somehow. But I went back to try them all separately later. My love for Fougere Emeraude grew the fastest and it made quick amends with me. But the jury was still out on Musc Des Sables and Iris Perle although I was favoring Musc Des Sables to be the one I approved. Now upon writing this review I think I have made the decision that Iris Perle is the one to win my heart with that beautiful fruity, herbal and floral feel with a bit of dry dirt and powder from the orris and mimosa. A great signature scent, but just not exciting to wear or experience in the winter or colder climates I suppose. In my opinion the heat of spring and summer allow Iris Perle to liven up and reach its fragrant potential. 🍋🍃🧊 10/10 Depending on the season I suppose - but stunning no less.

Iris Perle opens with a blast of citruses; it's almost astringent because it's so sharp, almost abrasive. I hate to say this, but the opening does remind me a little of laundry detergent. It's sprightly and clean, but it's also not what you'd expect from a seemingly iris-forward fragrance. As the scent develops, however, the iris becomes more and more noticeable, as do the mimosa and jasmine, which gently support the sprightly note and give it a sensuous aura. As many reviewers have noted before me, the iris never takes on a center stage or acquires a lipsticky effect--far from it. This is a very polite, soft, well-composed fragrance. It has a retro--but not vintage--character that will remind you of a classic perfume from the 1920s, like a Chanel No. 5 (They're in fact quite similar). Iris enthusiasts may be dismayed by how shy the iris here is, but I personally find this fragrance exceptionally comforting and elegant, and far superior to Musc des Sables, another fragrance in the collection that boasts of a higher dose of iris.

I already know that I’m not going to be able to fully describe this perfume, it’s complex composition and scent progression. So I’m not going to talk about the notes. Instead I will focus on how it makes me feel. It’s very beautiful, intriguing but it’s also a weird scent. I do admire this very strange juice; a scent that once you smell it, stays with you. There’s a vintage aspect to Iris Perle—leaning decidedly feminine—and one that takes me out of the present, moving me into Victorian, or even earlier times. Heavy curtains are blocking out the sunlight even though the air is still and warm. Iris Perle, a Victorian scent that’s used to camouflage natural body odor. Everything from Les Indemodables is memorable and absolutely the definition of niche. I love that this magical potion exists, even if I wear but only once or twice in my lifetime.

Very pretty floral iris. If this were half the price I would get it as an every day perfume. Gentle sillage, 6 hours longevity. Update: the quality of Les Indemodables is amazing. I keep coming back to Iris Perle in particular. It is just so beautiful, sophisticated, and happy. It is nice to have a perfume that is always appropriate to wear, in any weather or occasion. I may need to get a few full bottles from this line and this will be one. Compared to other iris-heavy perfumes that I like: Shem-el-Nessim is distinctly more vintage and complex with a L'Heure Bleue herbal/heliotropin vibe and hint of animalic undercurrent. No. 19 Poudre is synthetic, linear, and has a galbanum/nailpolish remover hiss. Angelique is less sweet, more complex and unisex. Angel Dust is overt and has an undercurrent of skank under that sweet powder.