Hedonist Iris

This review is from the sample kit ordered from Viktoria Minya's website. My parcel was lost in transit the first time and Viktoria very kindly replaced it :))) I had almost given it up for lost when I finally received the second dispatch after a Long wait. Out of the 5 scents, I like this the most. All of Viktoria's perfumes have this pleasant fizzy aromachemical base as a common thread tying them together as an oeuvre. Much like what 'Tauerade' is to Andy Tauer's perfume line. Each of her scents is a delightful variation on a theme. Hedonist Iris stood out for me because of its olfactory coolness. If I can just sum it up in a few words, it is a Cool Elegant Iris. The persona it channels is that of a well-kept woman, very high maintenance. Men (and women) wonder at her either because she is off limits or out of their league. Underneath the ice queen image however is a born seductress. This perfume is not only a statement to the woman wearing it, but also the man behind who is masterful enough to have her. This is a very well made fragrance by a talented perfumer. It is not my style but I'm very Glad to have tried it. Viktoria Minya's work is very feminine and girly, all champagne and bubbles and pretty little things. It's only my personal preference that I go for darker, more complex and harder-to-understand fragrances. I will wear Hedonist Iris out. It is a perfume I'll wear for other people, not something I'll wear for myself though.

My favorite iris. My favorite fragrance in general among all latest releases. It's a stunner! It starts with a sublime mix of red fruits and bergamot, I get also watermelon for some reason, but definitely acquatic too, in a unique and original way, not like cool water stuff. It's rich and refined, sweet and cuddly, but all the way luxurious and elegant. Fabulous! Towards the drydown, it becomes more muted and suede like due to the cedarwood, it's less sweet and definitely stays closer to the skin. Wonderful, but very quiet. I have a very dry skin, usually i have a problem with longevity, not sillage - in this perfume I get less sillage but I can smell it almost for days on my skin!!! I literally smell fresh and creamy ,powdery and musky and luxe- all at once. I tried Hedonist by Viktoria Minya before, and I liked it, it's a very sensual scent, but it is Iris that will go on my Christmas list, and I'm so much looking forward own this beauty!!!

I generally like iris as a scent since it ́s my name as well ;) Among all of the perfumes wiht iris dominance I like the Hedonist the most. Even after a long day I can still feel my favorite flower and slightly the black currant as well. I love the shiny bottle as well. I usually wear it on days when I know I have to face some chalenges. This scent gives me confident and works perfectly with my lilac pants suit. My best friend bought it as well after she has tried mine.

Extremely beautiful scent. I love the bottle, I love the fragrances , I love everything at it. It s elegant, it s fruity, my husband adores it when I am wearing it. This one triggers emotions, somehow it changes my day. When I shew the sample to my colleagues, after applying it, they were very enthusiastic. After 10 minutes the scents start to resurrect, and suddenly new fragrances come to life. I carefully studied the ingredients and yes the fruity aromas come to life.

I've tried all the hedonist flankers and this is my favorite. So much so that I've added it to my 'want to buy' list. The dry down is just so lovely. I do detect the iris note in the dry down, but this is a note my skin amplifies in general (I"m a floral green profile). Hedonist Iris is one of the best perfumes I've sampled in a year, I really enjoy it.

Wooow, it is surprisingly beautifule and elegant parfume! I tought that it will be too soft but it is stong enough- yes and soft too but it has a good sillage- there is a Hedonist Iris cloud around me all day. So the longevity is 8 hour minimum. There is musk, iris and cacao on it and at the beginning I can feel the black currant too. GOOOOOD!!!!

I have been using the Iris for 5 days. I have to say, it creates an elegant ambiance. It s serious but it can be warn buy younger age too. The vintage and modern impressions are planted in this perfume. Very feminine, alluring, soft, my boyfriend love it, he says it goes perfect with dark color dresses.

A woody musky scent in which the proportions are perfect. The fragrances come out in the perfect moment and gives me this evening feeling of going out, having a cigarrette on a date and feeling perfect. Lovely

Honestly I love it, but I don't think I love it as much as the original. With a foundation like that, you could add anything to it and it would be beautiful. Really impressed with Viktoria Minya! 8/10

Hmm, lovely, I have the vintage-retro impression. It gives me that vintage feeling, yet it gives a natural , close to nature feeling as well. Very feminine, elegant.

Great job, the woody-musky proportion are in a perfect way created. I feel it very soft and delicate. Great sillage and longevity.

I just added this to my collection and I am over the moon for it. Huge love.

Great job Viktoria Minya!!! Another great fragrance refined and elegant.

The perfume is gorgeous! The scent is brilliant! Love it :)

adorable frag, very easy-going AND classy in the same time!

This begins with a mix of woody and powdery notes. Right off the bat it’s much dryer than the other hedonist incarnations. It quickly becomes almost lemony, and the powdery iris recedes into the background. After a couple of minutes I get sugared lemon and sharp tangy green cedarwood. Lemon merges into bergamot shortly afterward. Through this whole opening pink pepper plays a lovely support role giving an edge and a sharpness to the other notes, you would never smell it on its own but you can smell it lending definition and a sparkling quality to the others. This hedonist, unlike any of the others, is clear, crisp. Greener. They are creamier, sweeter, more sensual. I keep going back to adjectives like ‘clear, sparkling, sharp, defined, crystal’, etc. It feels alive. 1/2 hour in it becomes much sweeter, adding in some vanilla? Sugarier lemon. This could also be brought on by a higher skin temperature, as at this time in the wearing I was walking quickly in 13 degree (Celsius) weather and thus became a little flushed. An hour in the sugary lemon has been replaced with lots of powder. The iris is fully present, and the concoction is not at all sweet anymore. Dries down quickly. It is a skin scent within 3 hours. Mild and subtle and nice but not anything terribly wonderful. Lasts through a shower as a skin scent, though...disappears around the 9 hour mark, though that may be inaccurate considering I did shower during that period. 6/10

An extremely beautiful scent. Just GORGEOUS and lovely and pretty and basically all things wonderful. It is clearly well thought out and planned, with time taken to ensure a quality perfume. I am not good at detecting individual notes but I can say that it is sweet, but not cloying, and definitely more iris flower based than root (which is a VERY good thing imo). Extremely delicate and feminine. Surrounds the user in a cloud of soft, sweet iris and cocoa. The ingredients used smell very high quality as well. My only issue is that it's so soft and delicate that I do have a hard time smelling it. This may not be true for other people who have better noses, but it is just too light for me. I was hoping more for something like her first original Hedonist, which had great sillage and longevity, but this is a very true skin scent that is hard to smell.. :(

Hedonist Iris is quiet and nuanced, with noticeable cacao notes. I imagine sitting in a coffee shop, wearing a soft cashmere sweater, during a lull — the morning crowd has already passed through, and the early lunch hour crowd isn’t in yet. It’s late September or early October, relatively warm, but the sky out the window is cloudy. My coffee cup is long empty, but a couple of tables over someone is drinking hot chocolate with cinnamon. I usually don’t do well with powdery notes, but they are very mild here. Just like the rose in Hedonist Rose, the iris in Hedonist Iris becomes more apparent as time goes on. Also, while the description says "fragrance for women," I think Hedonist Iris would be quite charming and elegant on a man -- especially one wearing a cashmere sweater and sitting in a coffee shop.

"Hedonist Iris" has a cool, creamy texture that reminds me of body milk. I get a smooth, natural blackcurrant warmly embraced by a very subtle and dry cacao pod. It is not gourmandishly sweet at all, which surprised me considering the cloying intensity of the original Hedonist. Nor is it densely powdery. It has the same charm to me as "Premiere Figuer" by L'Artisan - obviously with completely different notes, but with the same soft, balmy quality. Much like the other release "Hedonist Rose", it quite reserved and fairly linear, but the structure, texture and balance achieved here is much more impressive. This is a good day wear scent; gentle and non-intrusive.

this opens with a lot of iris and musk with a dash of pink pepper, that gets a bit stronger in the first few minutes. it stays linear and i get no other notes. it's just a powdery musky iris with pink pepper on my skin. *maybe* a tiny hint of cedar to add woodiness. i get zero blackcurrant here too, maybe it's a skin chemistry thing. i have smelled another similar perfume but can't place it right now. it's a very pretty iris for spring.

It's very elegant and the cacao note is very unexpected. With Iris Ganache, it's white chocolate so somehow it just blends. But the cacao stands out here and is just a tiny bit jarring but soon it's blending too, into a sweet unusual Iris. I can't stop sniffing my wrist and I love the bottle, so it'll be on rotation until it isn't. A strong like for now. Not a blind buy unless you collect unusual Iris'.

This is alright, but I won't buy a full bottle. I think I can clearly smell the iris, and not much else, but that's alright.

Every time I wear my sample, I fall deeper under the spell of Hedonist Iris. It's a slightly (not overly) powdery iris with a fairly strong dose of cacao and a surprising touch of tangy cassis. I know there are many members on this site who are big iris lovers, and I would highly recommend this. I have owned a couple of powdery perfumes with cacao, but I think Hedonist Iris smells like the finest such fragrance. It is classy and discreetly sexy. I believe the cacao combined with iris is what gives it a velvety, buttery texture that reminds me of suede. It is not sweet, so a man who can handle a bit of powder can wear this and smell sexy too. Sillage is charming, not overpowering, and it amplifies as the perfume warms on my skin. I am not typically a big fan of iris, but this is one iris perfume I truly desire. Very nice, very nice indeed... [Update 8/21/15: I now own a bottle, and it is even more gorgeous when you get a nice big spray rather than dabbing from a vial. Sillage is great, and you can really smell the complexity. Definitely a luxurious, sensual scent]

My irises are currently flowering in my garden but they have more of a sharp bite to their scent than this - this is a soft iris as the white musk fluffs this up and wraps it in cotton wool. It’s nice but it’s a subtle musky iris. The Iris Absolute version is very different, so not a stronger alternative to this.

This reminds me of clean laundry and dial soap. It's just a fuzzy clean laundry musk and cool soapy iris. It's nice.

I'll start with my biggest complaint about this: it's insanely overpriced. The packaging, both the bottle and the box look lovely, but I'd guess much of the high price is to do with them as much as the actual juice. It would be nice if she offered refills cheaper. Kilian does this and it seems fair for people who don't want to be charged a fortune just for packaging. Ok, on to the perfume. It really is lovely. The fruity notes are very well done. They're subtle and slightly juicy rather than the sickly fruits that happen all too often in fragrances. The pepper is also very subtle, and I wish it was just a little more prominent. The iris seems to be more flower than root, making this a very feminine fragrance. It's almost girly, but still very mature. There's a hint of a slightly unpleasant synthetic lurking in the background. It's not prominent enough to ruin this, but it's noticeable enough to make me grumble about the price again! I find this quite powdery, both with the iris and the musk in the dry down. It is a very nice fragrance and a great iris. It's elegant and feminine and interesting. But... I just can't at the price. Or rather, I won't.

It's terrible! Sorry, girls, but it's smells like cheap perfume from mall. I bought samples, because read good reviews. I have Hedonist, Rose, Cassis and Iris. Already tried Hedonist Rose and Iris and both on me smells like cheap, terrible nothing... I'm glad, that I have only samples... Please try before you buy.

I love a good Iris but this reminds me of something my grandma would wear. The cedar + black currant combination puts me off, to my nose it’s old lady vibes.

I would like to find my new signature fragrance, I'm trying Hedonist Iris. I'm trying a sample size to see how this one wears with my skin. I am used to vintage perfumes, cause I feel there is more "depth" in them, and I really think of expressing myself with scents. I was suggested long time ago to try Viktoria Minya's Hedonist, as it seems, there is a vintage aspect to it. It is definitely full of amazing materials, I can smell that much, for sure! I loved it, still one of the most unique in my collection, however I find it overpowering some days. Hedonist Iris is much much easier to wear, although it still is very unique, even among the growing number of irises out there! This one concentrates of the flower instead of the root, hence it is less powdery and more feminine! The initial spray of this smells amazing on my skin. I'm almost at a loss for words here, simply because with my chemistry- which can only handle good old creations like vintage YSL and Chanel usually. The longer this wears on my skin, the more alluring it is becoming - but I'm still at a loss for exactly what to say. It is almost indescribable, although I studied the ingredients carefully. I get the green juicy blackcurrant, I get a flowery cuddle to it, and I get a lot of LOVE - as weird as it sounds, this triggers a lot of emotion. 20 - 30 minutes into the scent, it suddenly becomes sexy and mysterious and very alluring. It doesn't have a great sillage, which at this point I rather appreciate, as I prefer to have an intimate relationship with my frags. About 4-5 hours of wear, and this has dried down to a soft and pleasent scent, still very pleasent, but like before, stays close to the skin. After 7-8 hours, the perfume is still present, not much changed in the last few hours, sillage is becoming lower though. All in all, I think I might have found the One I was searching for, and although I was hoping it will be a cheaper bottle - this one has real Iris Butter, which the girls in the forum are telling me cost a fortune. I think this will be my self-Christmas gift, an amazing quality scent that triggers so much pleasant emotions, not offending anybody, very different from anything I own and well, yes, the bottle is pretty amazing too.

Minya's Hedonist Iris is a truly stunning iris that will make iris lovers everywhere rejoice. It opens with a cool buttery iris note and a strong cacao pod note. The pepper is there, too, but the combined pepper and cacao come across initially like spice notes. The cacao pod is a bit "funky" smelling at first, but it smooths out to a stunning balance to the musk and currant notes. The drydown of this scent is rich with cedar. To my nose, the cedar becomes more prominent during the mid-phase of the scent and then starts to fade a bit after a few hours. The cedar is so well balanced with the other notes it does not smell anything like conifer trees. Longevity on this fragrance is a good 6 hours with some sillage and a skin scent for much longer. Hedonist Iris is never a strong scent. It has subtlety but longevity at the same time. I could smell it as a faint skin scent after 12 hours. I love this fragrance because it is not your mother's iris. There is no violet or rose in this baby; it's different and modern. It goes its own way but Hedonist Iris still delivers a beautiful, elegant, well balanced smooth iris fragrance. I find it to be unisex although it does have some softness and a bit of powderiness to it. The currant gives it a nice edge that makes it appropriate for a man or a woman. Finally, the bottle is spectacular and the box is a beautiful presentation also.

cool dewy green and purple, smooth sweet iris powder with bright black current crispness (fruity not leafy) on top of musky cocoa with a tiny pop of pink pepper around the edges that keeps it from sitting too heavily. my chemistry does tend to pull iris noticeably in most scents but this is definitely an iris forward fragrance. Very similar to the refined delicate cool iris notes in penhaligon's iris prima (the surrounding compositions being very different of course, none of that leather and varnish dry down here in hedonist). Then it fades to a dry cocoa musk for me in the last stage of the dry down, with a slight ambery, rabbit-furry warmth from the labdanum. (surprised by the bergamot in the notes though, i don't sense that at all.) A really simple yet sophisticated composition and I really enjoy it, but I do have a couple other cool-purple-powder scents in full bottles and I haven't yet convinced myself that the price tag on this one is worth it. I bet I'll give in eventually though.

This is a pretty fragrance, but not particularly striking. It opens very light and watery-I get melon and almost aquatic notes, and then it settles to a very light powdery musk, but after an hour or so, all I'm left with is a rather synthetic creamy note like generic hand cream. It's not particularly complex and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. It's sweet, feminine, gentle, restrained and extremely light-silage and longevity are minimal, I can barely smell it on my wrist an hour after applying. It's really more of an eau fraiche rather than EDP on me. I got a sample set of the Hedonist scents from the perfumer's website and although they've all been nice, none of them have stood out.

There’s something nauseating in this mix. At first sniff I detect a gorgeous orris-blackcurrant shampoo scent (reminiscent of the hot air that wafts out of chic salons) but soon it turns, contorts, into something artificial and play-doh sweet. That once luxe, hygienic smell flips into something less flattering... like globs of hair product that never quite made it down the drain, left to coagulate on your shower door. I’ve grown weary in this quest to find the perfect “clean” perfume. They’re all too saccharine, citrusy, or Glade-like. Hedonist Iris is no exception. Besides, the price point is bananas and the bottle, try-hard.

This is a bewitchingly beautiful scent, no question, but it is mostly musk-blackcurrant, with iris being in the background. There is a wonderful sweetness and depth, and spectrum of floral elements here is amazing. It really truly works perfectly as a scent -- even though I'm not in love with this, it is stunning nonetheless. It would work well for people who like a gentle balance between sweet, fruity-floral and woods. It's not one for me, however, but I can see how this would appeal to many people...

Sharp iris grounded by cacao. Very masculine, cold, very squeaky clean and fresh. It’s not for me, but those looking for a less powdery true fresh Iris will enjoy this very much. It did not last very well on me, applied at 7am needed to reapply by 11am and every so often after that, so I do not think it is worth the price. It lingered beautifully however.

This is the "cleanest" scent from the series! I agree though with others claiming that it has a very elegant feature, a posh type of allure, which I appreciate too. I have no idea how IRis root smells like, but I can confirm that the iris flowers have this delicate aroma that the perfume catches well.

Hedonist Iris is very unique even among the growing number of irises out there. Iris concentrates on the flower instead of the root, I find it is less powdery and more feminine. The first spray smells amazing on my skin. I'm almost at a loss for words here. Adore it :)

dry cedar woody aromas. This pups up when I apply it. I like its elegance, it goes great with dark color dresses. It s hard for me to detect the individual notes, but in as a pic picture it is a good impression.

Musk + blackcurrent is all my nose perceives. There is nothing iris about this. Smell synthetic but not neccesarily in a bad way. If you are looking for an iris or iris-centered scent, this is not it.