Irisoir

I sent off to Luckscent for samples of this together with Thebes and QA. I adore Irisoir as an attar and Sohan d’Iris which I slightly prefer but I think it’s discontinued. Anyway, samples arrived and because of my love of Iris palladia I tried this first. It opens with a full on orchestra of flowers, sharp, pungent heavy duty flowers but within minutes, the Iris shines through with its buttery silken slightly vegetal aroma. After 5 minutes, it softens to the more powdery side of Iris with a hint of medicinals about it but still the florals keep pushing through. It’s absolutely glorious and took my breath away. I haven’t smelt stuff like this for years! I grew up at the tail end of the glory days of Guerlain, DIOR Balenciaga and Caron. So initially it reminded me of VINTAGE Dioressence but that was fleeting until it unfolded in all its glory as a warmer version of Iris Silver Mist by one of the greatest perfumers of the twentieth century, Serge Lutens. I loved ISM but it was a bit cold, Irisoir is slightly warmer especially in the far drydown but it has the bones of that beautiful masterpiece of Lutens. It lasts on skin for a good 8 hours and my 1ml sample wasn’t exactly over sprayed. I’ve never smelt Djedi but I remember when Sultan wrote about it and its effect on him. I love all his work, I first read about him on the now retired Kafkaesque blog so HAD to try his work. The attars without exception are all beautiful and I’m so pleased he’s ventured into the “squirt and go!” Irisoir is THE BEST Iris perfume out there and I’ve tried almost all of them, yes it’s not cheap but it is exquisite and beautifully crafted. It blows La Pausa Chanel, out of the water! le Labo Iris 39 is quite good and I wore it for a few years but it’s heavy and a bit old fashioned. This is bang up to date with a vintage quality and polish. Well done Sultan!!

You’ve probably seen those paintings of a man composed of vegetables by Italian Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. This perfume is like one of those paintings, but it is a woman; she’s tall and voluptuous, and is made of layer upon layer of flowers and fruits, mainly a warm, spicy, honeyed peach. She gives you a soft hug, and it feels like summer. All to say, this perfume is the furthest thing from the cold remote iris we associate with perfumes now. Irisoir has a lush, vintage feel and to my nose the perfume features that honeyed peach as its central tent post, rather than the named iris. It’s a peach that reminds me a bit of the one in Mitsouko, and the iris twines about it along with an almondy heliotrope and layer upon layer of other flowers that make the perfume feel like a 1000 page book rather than the brief magazine article that so many perfumes today recall. I’ve never smelled Iris Gris, the perfume that this is said to be a representation of but what a joy it must be to smell that. Anyway, on its own merits, this is an absolutely lush, beautiful perfume that must be experienced. To my nose it is a breath of fresh air after so many amber/wood creations that all start to smell alike. It’s obviously an extreme high quality perfume, and though the price tag is high I think when you look at average prices in the niche perfume market now, the price of Irisoir is justified. It is a work of art, like the painting and the novel I have compared it to. Irisoir envelops you, it is dense and you don’t need more than a couple sprays to have the full experience. It doesn’t project in any obnoxious way, but wears within a foot or two of the skin. The longevity is good, you get about 8 hours out of a couple sprays.

sorry in advance for 2nd review. I'm not an iris converted fraghead ( yet ), I know it is a true crime. But this scent has blown my socks off and then some! it's all a fraghead needs when it comes to iris scentered fragrance. Touches of peachy fluff make it fizzy and fluffy, almost edible in a sense. Trying both the irisoir attar and irisoir extrait is definitely an experience of its own. While attar is more earthy and dark-gloomy, the extrait is more playful and cheery-posh-vintage smelling. Million out of ten release! I can understand attar lovers claiming it is not the same, it is most certainly not. But the quality and overall blending is sublime to say the least. Full finished sample later, I have my bottle and I'm catching comments on my scent of the day from people near me, this might be my new signature scent, period!

Where to begin? I mean it’s Sultan Pasha and it’s his Irisoir, award winning and beloved. It’s perfection. It’s totally unisex, perfectly spiced, ever so lightly floraled without ever stepping on the Orris Butter’s toes. The carnation? *chefs kiss* All the warm basalmic and cool ambergris just add that cozy gorgeous hum that they do. The beautiful Mysore and crisp Haitian Vetiver are gently nudging forth more complexities. I could sing its praises all day. So thankful I have this gem. PS fragantica is missing some notes above. According to SP the notes are “Top: Iris absolute, violet, heliotrope, lilac, peach. Middle: Orris butter, carnation , tuberose, jasmine, rose, violet leaf absolute. Base: Ambergris, styrax, tonka absolute, Mysore sandalwood, cedar, Haitian vetiver, orris butter, musk.”

I totally get the resemblance references here on Fragrantica with Fath's and Guerlain's cretaions. I had L'iris de Fath on watchlisr for some time and I think I can personally let the idea of having it go. Now that I've sampled Irisoir on my skin, I have placed it on the wishlist after one wear! Irisoir isn't about the bright, cheerful iris of spring bouquets, but something far more enigmatic: a hushed, foggy iris that speaks in whispers yet commands absolute attention. The iris here is powdery without being dusty, buttery without being heavy, sweet without being cloying. The balance is simply perfect. I imagine the attar is different and more dense and darker. If i ever have the chance to try it, I'll do the side by side update of it here.

Irisoir-Extrait de Parfum by Sultan Pasha Perfumes is the ultimate in Iris fragrance beauty. The opening notes are high quality & beautiful, Iris Absol, Violet,heliotrope, peach, lilac and Orris butter and they shine beautifully throughout, while soft carnation, gentle notes of Tuberose, jasmine, & rose are delicate accompaniments to the focal point of Iris & friends. Bright opening, energetic & fresh, softens to a sensually warm sandalwood, Tonka, Vetiver and cedar layer while the opening carries through. Unbelievably beautiful! A true masterpiece by the Sultan. Full bottle worthy. Quality you can smell. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = fragrance, quality ingredients and longevity.

Brilliant take on/homage to Iris Gris. Honestly, I found that this smelled maybe even closer to the original than the new Iris de Fath! The new Fath scent is more rooty/carrot-ey and has a strong violet leaf presence vs the more purely synthetic peach-ionone cocktail of the vintage bottle I owned! All smell wonderful, to be clear. Irisoir has an elegance and beautiful top-to-bottom journey that the original attar didn't have. I hope Sultan Pasha makes more extraits! His Cuir de Russie is brilliant and would do well to get the extrait treatment.

This is a beautiful dark iris. A unique one. It’s not a woody Iris scent, not a leather and Iris, nor a powdery one IMO. I think the warm carnation note is what makes this one special. The spicy carnation contrasts with the cool iris. The carnation initially comes off as a strong clove note, but it mellows out and gives the iris a deep dark spicy depth. A pretty violet and a fuzzy peach note lighten it a bit. As it dries down, Iris fades leaving a woody base of creamy sandalwood on an earthy vetiver with cacao undertones. 10/10

Classical orris perfumes often have a cool, grey, rooty creaminess about them. Sohan d'iris by Sultan Pasha Attars broke that mould with a rich, gourmand, musky orris. Irisoir extrait is different again, presenting an exuberant, Technicolor orris: rooty & creamy, sweet spice, wildly fruity, young, boldly floral, friendly, suede & silk, outgoing, seductive, purple, retro & modern, exhilarating, intelligent, plump, angular, peachy, dry and juicy.

This smells great, ofcourse a lot of iris/orris. I also sense some almost metallic peach and overall Irisoir comes across as quite vintage. This is great for vintage lovers looking to re-intruige their interest in modern perfumery and to show it still can hold the quality that it used to.

For me this isn't dark at all, it's more candied peach with a chypre hiding underneath. Not bad but much too cheerful for my taste in iris.

I ordered a sample of this perfume and I'm eager to try it, but I'm afraid I'll like it so much I'll order a whole bottle. . 😍

I was a fan of Irisoir attar, which I found to be quite a dusky cross between L'Heure Bleue and Mitsouko, complete with iris-powdery and gamma-undecalactone peach notes, with a complex floral heart and mercifully faint dusting of cocoa powder. It evoked walking through a well-groomed park just as the sun sets, with a soft but persistent rain falling all around, illumed by deep orange, classical street lamps. It indeed managed to fuse the cool-blue-violent colours of LB with the warm-gold incandescence of Mitsouko. Here, I find Irisoir extrait has diverged quite strongly from the attar, to the point where I personally smell only a minimal resemblance between them. Irisoir extrait is powdery with gamma undecalactone also, yes, but there's a whole crew of additional fruity and floral notes which coalesce, at least on my skin, to smell almost identical to one species of British hard boiled sweet from my childhood (I think it's pear drops but it might be another one, I barely remember). It does this in as classy a way as one possibly could (indeed, I got the same thing from Vol de Nuit extrait which reminded me of chocolate lime hard-boiled sweets) but ultimately I can't quite escape from feeling like a grande-dame in an enormous fur stole, rummaging through my purse to give this intensely flavoured fruit drop to some child whose favour I'm seeking (for whatever reason). If that sounds mildly off-putting it's because it is - I find this ULTRA vintage smelling and not quite so timeless as the attar. I like it, I'm fascinated by it, but I don't love it and if I bought it would never wear it. Could have perhaps benefitted from a dial-back on the fruit and violet-sweetness, but for some specific lovers of ancient feminine fragrances this will be just what they're looking for. One for the Roald Dahl's Witches out there perhaps...

Gorgeous very petal forward to me. Like it smells like the fresh flower of the notes mentioned. Not sure what’s doing it but it’s very ylang ylang-y on me. Maybe carnation? It reminds me of essential oils

Very reminiscent of both Arpège by Lanvin & L'Heure Bleue by Guerlain, which I suppose was the point. Iris is the star here, but there's definitely more going on. This is a bouquet of vintage style flowers over ripe peach & spices. While the scent quality is very apparent, I unfortunately found myself underwhelmed. At $500 for 50ml there are both vintage and modern iris scents I enjoy far more.

Nope. This is absolutely foul! Soooooo earthy on me. Like someones pissed in soil and then uprooted some flowers and vegetables from it. So glad I didn't blind buy this!

Interesting deep iris scent. Like rooty iris, the peach makes this somewhat leathery, this isnt your sweet sparkly lipstick Iris, much more carroty, like steamed carrots almost. Not my favorite side of Iris. A bit spicy. Maybe it’ll grow in me as it dries down more.

Holy moly Sultan. Holy moly. This is good. I’ve been out of the perfume game for a moment but this KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF. I liked the attar version of this years ago when I had it but this is a STUNNER. How is this spray so unbelievable? Wow.

Save yourself $300 and get the original Iris Gris from 1946 (reconstructed) by Jamie Frater. It is sold under "Compound Gris" on: www.fraterworks.com You're welcome.