Ashen Orris

I must admit that I'm quite stunned by the lightness/quality/care combo brought to this perfume. The top notes are the still life of a huge bouquet of hypnotic purple iris sitting in the middle of a rustic wooden table in a country house, accompanied by a small stoneware cup filled with violet candies. And then perhaps, spread out on the table, small coriander seeds collected last season directly from the garden. In low light. Window overlooking a quiet garden, beautiful sage, and herb vines, which a little grandmother would have cared for all her life. I don't explicitly smell sandalwood on the drydown, rather woody notes, very true to what they feel like in nature. And man, these flowers are really looking at you like they want to make you happy. A walk in the countryside on Sunday afternoon, accompanied by a loving family, a breath of fresh air, at the same time a sensory and a spiritual experience. But what a firework of simplicity and beauty! I have the feeling of all the notes exploding one after the other, all in grace and delicacy, to really let you grasp what they are, what they have been put here to say. Ok, all the notes here are among those I have always preferred. But beyond this personal aspect, I think this perfume has that "real-world je ne sais quoi" that often makes me move back from the world of 'perfumes' to the world of 'scents': it's a creation made of disconcerting accuracy, where nothing is too much, nothing is overrated, nothing seems artificial. Miles away from the type of perfumes staged in a commercial for prime-time commercials, from the world of marketing, from the pyramids of notes mixed without coherence just because all their names are catchy. It's made with a type of humility, accuracy, and intimacy that is truly rare and touching. With the exception of the fact that it doesn't hold up very well (if at all) on my skin, it's what I would have liked to create if I had been a perfumer.

Iris all the way home. Not a lipstick iris, but a chewy iris, roots and all. A less sweet version of Donna Aqua. I have a hard time smelling the difference between almond and iris. And this smells very close to the dry down of Donna Aqua, a less sweet Bvlgari Pour Femme.