Iris

Olibanum. Iris is an interesting iteration of a well known yet elusive note. I always think of iris as a cold, metallic, mineral note. It often reminds me of a very chilled white wine served alongside a carrot heavy crudités platter. This is what I'm always looking for with iris fragrances but disappointingly, I find they quickly veer into soapy/powdery territory. Generally speaking I am not the biggest fan of powdery notes in fragrance, as I haven't been an infant in many moons. However, this fragrance interprets this soapy/dusty variant in an intriguingly warm and spicy way. The initial impression is very much the cold, vinous iris I desire. This only lasts a handful of moments though, and afterwards it has more of the character of a carrot cake scented soap (if such a thing were to exist- I suspect I may have just invented it from thin air and whimsy). This too is ephemeral, the fragrance develops into a very white floral vintage middle with just a hint of the pepperiness of lilies. Wearing this is like attending the funeral of an old foe and flirting with her attractive nephew over the buffet table. Whe n you leave you will have both his phone number and a slice of cake secreted in your very good leather handbag. You will only eat the cake though, the young man you consider more effort than he's worth. In summary, I like her. She's weird and unsettling, just like me. Too many of you seem to fear smelling like old ladies and I assure you that is a mistake. Old ladies are powerful beyond belief, just attend any HOA meeting if you don't believe me. We all get old, some of us just do it with more style and less apology than others.

Close, but no iris-scented cigar. Brief thrill of deliciously chalky, carroty, rooty realistic iris which lures the sniffer to dare to hope for that eternal chimera - a decent substitute for the majestic Iris Silver Mist. But no. Sadly this dissipates all too soon, in well under an hour, to a vaguer and more generic floral-iris, tending more to the warmer and gentler side than the fridge-cold 'dewy irises' like Hiris, or the canded-violets sweetshop vibe of Gucci Tears of Iris. So near, yet still so far, from its initial promise. Very pleasant indeed, like all the Olibanum range, but sharing their slightly underwhelming follow-up on their intense appeal at first burst. The same old pitfalls and pluses of all-naturals scents like this label's: it's always soft, melding beautifully to you, never screechy, admirably un-sugary-sweet yet consistently friendly - and in Olibanum's case, done with a much more sophisticated hand than in many other houses' - but that same gentleness becomes a bit of a letdown in the end. Fades away completely, although beautifully so, within 3 to 4 hours tops. Most amiable, but unless you're really wedded to the all-naturals school, more dramatic and harder-wearing alternatives are available.

First secondes are a cosmetic powdery iris. Then it turns sour for a few minutes. As it sets, the iris comes back shyly with light spices and balsamic undertones, like a caramelized spiced iris. The olibanum makes it quite envelopping but I don't find the evolution to be that powdery, it's more hazy. In my opinion it has a subtle clean cosmetic feeling but nothing overdone. The olibanum is clearly dominant in the drydown. It kind of reminds me of fragments of some old school Guerlain perfumes with the iris-spices-resine blend (in l'Heure Bleue I think there is a iris-carnation-benjoin blend), but reduced to a skin scent. Don't get me wrong it doesn't smell exactly like l'Heure Bleue but to my nose they share a common feature.

Good value for a niche perfume. It's a simple, classy, minimalistic iris scent. Soft to moderate projection, about poor to average longevity on me, unfortunately. About 3-4 hours in very humid weather. Personally, i don't get much jasmine or lily, it's a simple powdery iris to me. Reminiscent of Hiris by Hermes, but less "dry" and more "milled makeup powder". Pleasant, but I have about 5-6 other iris perfumes in my collection, so will pass on this. If it were my first iris perfume - would definitely have purchased.

Probably the most natural iris I’ve smelled beautiful floral slightly powdery with a white floral touch to it what holds this back though is it’s extremely weak wearing this by itself will require a ton of sprays but I still didn’t get more than 2 hours out of it, this brand is kinda hit or miss on either being dismal or pretty strong to use standalone but probably won’t come back to this

silver and smooth powdery iris, really nice - like all the creations of this brand

Iris poudré , tres realiste. Malheureusement beaucoup trop fugace , aucune tenue.

I've been on the hunt for a hot weather iris and this is the one. Gorgeous solar notes from the jasmine & lily, like summer sunshine on salty skin (I'm not a huge fan of white florals but this isn't too much for me). The iris gives it the skin-like warmth that's not too powdery to wear in heat. It's meant to evoke summer in Saint-Tropez and it is truly transporting.