Romance d'Iris

I did a 180 on this fragrance in a matter of 24hrs!? I'm not normally a floral fragrance kind of gal, im usually more amber/wood/spice/resin etc type profile. But with the exception of purple flowers. And some rose like French Leather Memo. Anyway, enter Romance d'Iris (EDP dark bottle) with all its purple flowers! Blind buy but on sale so thought I would give it a go! By the way I experience fragrance through emotions, vibes, colours etc not so much invidual notes. 1st thoughts: very sharp citrus green opening, then comes the explosion of flowers with a 'fizzy' like quality. It very slowly gets less 'fizzy' and more powdery and musky. Then I thought this smells VERY mature like something I smelt some years ago. Then I thought 'nope this is not for me'. Not that I disliked it but just really not my vibe. Although some hours later the dry down i quite enjoyed it think because the floral phase had died down and it was the musky, powdery freshness left. Day 2: something made me crave smelling it again to my surprise. So I spritz it again and i was like actually I think I quite like it. The different stages it had I was now enjoying. The overly mature vibe it was giving off felt a little more acceptably mature. Then I remembered what it was that I smelt that had some similar qualities. Juliette has a Gun, Lipstick Fever!? I bought a 10ml vial like 6 years ago and the violette and Iris combo had the same 'fizzy' quality. But its sweeter and lighter with the raspberry. I didnt buy a full bottle as for me it felt a little too 'young' and lacking depth for me. It felt like it was for a young woman just starting to understand herself and make her way in the world. Well, Romance D'iris feels like the Aunt who has lived life, knows who she is. She has some sharp edges which were created by life but retains her softness within. What a wild 24hrs I've had with this fragrance! P.S sillage and longevity is good, not beast level but not skin scent either. For me it can go from day to evening. And I think actually this could be quite nice on a man, there is enough boldness and character for it to work. Plus its not particularly sweet and has a slightly cold like quality to it.

Sounds promising and it really is that beautiful. Starts with sort of almost nutty and vegetal rice note which later transforms to something almost metallic and bright with all the purple flowers. And you get the muskiness within 10 minutes, which all of these combined turns into something like your skin but better vibes. So beautiful. For some reason I can compare this one to Narciso Rodriguez - Musc Noir. It must be the musk and the heliotrope. Although i dont claim that they are exact dupes or anything, more like a similarity in vibes can be detected. The musk we get in Romance d'Iris isn't per se clean or dirty, I wouldn't say this smells laundry clean or anything, nor it gets too dirty and intense but there is a sensuality to it. So glad I randomly found this beauty on a second hand app and I hope Zara decides to put this one back in their stores and website. I am loving it and I also think this one will be even more beautiful on a winter night. Well done Zara x Jo Malone, well done! Make more of this, please please please!

Really beautiful opening of starchy rice and crisp bergamot, followed by a bouquet of candied green violets, heliotrope, and powdery and earthy iris. On the dry down, I detect a musk that is not quite clean, alongside a Haitian vetiver that is clean, airy and bright. This is definitely an enigmatic, cold, and chic purple floral fragrance. It is a great fit for a woman who is intellectual, mysterious, and slightly melancholic. She is someone who works in the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, museums), or spends all her time there, and loves trip-hop. I would not call this fragrance mature, but rather, better suited for a certain kind of person and I am within that target demographic. Excellent blind buy if you like these notes already, but if not, I would test first. Perfectly safe for the office, especially corporate or traditional workplaces, and excellent as a unique signature scent. It sits close to the skin on me, but definitely has moderate sillage. I think it would project beautifully on clothes.

I couldn’t stop smelling my hand after spraying it and walking around the mall. It’s very unique and memorable compared to most of Zara’s offerings, which is why I ended up buying it. I wouldn’t say it smells overly “mature” (I would attribute that more to ylang ylang heavy scents), but rather esoteric. This is a very confident, yet calm person. Someone you’d cross paths with at an art gallery, a museum, or the library. I associate iris with the smell of my mom’s Guerlain lipsticks back when we were in France, and she was exactly that type of person. Really beautiful scent, but I can see how it’s not for everyone because iris is very lipsticky in nature. I, for one, find it fresh and creamy, suitable for summer and other seasons as well.

I took a chance on blind buying this as I enjoy all the notes listed, and I'm so glad I did. It is absolutely beautiful and everything I enjoy in a fragrance. Powdery, floral, earthy, woody but also a bit milky, clean and fresh. Its cold and soft like crisp white cotton bed sheets. The rice note is there but its not a sweet rice pudding kind of rice. Its more of a powdery, vegetal, green kind of rice. Its a very similar vibe to Arden Beauty except its more powdery and purple floral. Its such a calming fragrance which has helped me through these past few weeks. I always feel good when I wear it.

The new version with the darker bottle has quite strange opening that doesn't have much similarities with the original one. It kinda has strange earthy, dominant rice smell. But once the initial phase is over within 10 minutes it starts to smell like the original one and it is slightly more potent and has a bit better longevity than the original one . Apart from the opening , it is definitely identical.

For anyone looking for a dupe of Chanel’s Comète, this comes close. Romance d’Iris features Violet in place of cherry, but I actually prefer that. A stunning release from Zara that truly smells like something from a high-end designer exclusive line—and for $68 CAD per 100ml! Impressive. Does anybody know how often Zara discontinue their fragrances? Should I be buying a backup?

This one changed my mind about iris fragrances, as I absolutely love it. Happy that I was able to score it during the sales. It's kind of dark and mysterious, especially for a floral fragrance. The rice note really adds something very special to all of it. Probably very good year round, but I am very intrigued to how this is going to work in the colder months.

This elixir is a unique work of perfumery art. It is long-lasting and rich, but it even seems like the composition is different. The box lists bergamot, iris flower, and white musk. There have been no testers since last year, and the product has only just appeared on the shelves.

Romance d'Iris has returned to the Zara website, along with the others from the Silent Flowers Collection 🙂 its a bit more pricey though, but I think its a higher concentration. Im not sure if this or any of the others are reformulated or not.

Jo Malone by Zara, it’s the gift that keeps on giving... I’m not a big fan of iris scents but this one I wear effortlessly. Very unisex and can lean ever so slightly towards the feminine side.

Blind buy, as there was no tester available. I want to like Iris note, but I am not convinced. It is earthy like fresh carrot juice. Edit 6 months later: I love it now!

Has anyone had a chance to compare new parfum version (not in the database yet) with the older version shown here? If so, please do tell !

If has the old lipstick smell with more citrus, but still adore it

TLDR; beautiful, unconventional and melancholic, powdery, violet-infused musk. Not an easy wear for me, but could definitely be so for others, especially those looking for a different, dry floral that stands on its own. This was a strange buy, an impulse decision fueled by stress and anxiety a couple months back, after which it was relegated to the very back of my collection. Initially a big, bold and almost abrasive violet, this then gives way for a powdery, soft and strange (in the best way) mix of soapy and organic. All my Zara perfumes seemingly have this stanky note (vetiver?) at their base, giving an almost metallic, alkaline note of dirt - not the wet, earthy kind, just straight up urban dirt, and here it just works. Do I see myself wearing this often? Maybe not, but it’s a nice change of pace every now and again, a melancholy powdered violet in a sea of juicy sweetness and light. Edit - I remember why I bought this - for the violet and the alleged resemblance to fleur de peau! To me, this mostly reads as l’heure bleu and foreign (read - not the hyper-fresh type favored in my country) detergent - it’s beautiful, but not an easy wear. I’m curious to see how this wears during cooler seasons, nights or rainy days.

It’s slightly more violet, maybe buttery orris root. For some reason, it does not project—at least to my nose. I do not think the musk is dirty/animalic. I do think that for a Zara frag, this is overpriced. However, the presentation is nice. Heavy cardboard circular box. Bottle is more stylish, and the magnetic cap is a bonus. I have not tried many irises, but my favorite is Aerin’s Iris Meadow, which is sadly discontinued. Prada’s Infusion d’Iris is elegant. We all have different olfactory preferences, but Zara Romance d’Iris, while competently formulated, is something I will not buy again. Others may find quite lovely. Update 01/03/2024: considering it’s a parfum and has a better bottle presentation, I no longer think it’s overpriced. I am still undecided about how I feel about the scent. Definitely not bad, but also not swoon-worthy. Update 03/27/2024: I sprayed it again today, and I like it, though not love. The powdery iris is more prominent now than Violet. Maybe letting it sit for three months smoothed it out.

I don’t know why, but somehow the notes come together to smell like mimosa to me, along with rice and iris. I can pick up on some vetiver in the background, but only if I’m really trying to discern all the notes. This is another non-sweet/non-gourmand rice fragrance. Like the generic short grain rice you buy before realizing that Jasmine and Basmati exist. Plus a powdery—but not quite makeup-y— iris that gives a heady almost vintage effect. Somewhat similar to L’eau Papier by Diptyque, though Diptyque is more airy and minimal with the austere chemical note (ambroxan?) that invokes paper. If you layered this with AnOther 13 you might approximate a dupe. Attractive bottle and the scent I sprayed on my hand in the afternoon is still present at midnight after multiple hand washing. Editing to add that this dries down to a powdery vanilla a bit like Bois d’Argent.

Clean, powdery, creamy, smooth, melancholic purple floral fragrance. Great for layering and has slightly above average performance. I def hated iris/orris before this frag but starting to like it now. I dont really pick up the rice persay at all really although there is a slight vegetable tinge in the first 10-15 min which could be the rice but outside of that I just get a purple flower petal vibe. Just pure powdery and creamy Iris and a lightly sweet Violet with heliotrope adding a slight almond vibe to the creaminess. And ofc there is a lot of musk. Def was a good pick up.

Took a risk and blind bought it because it was on sale and absurdly cheap for 100ml. I like powdery iris perfumes so I thought it should be fine. Opening is very earthy and green, quite sharp to my nose, but thankfully after twenty minutes or so develops and becomes softer and creamier. Still dry and cold though. Mature but elegant. I'll try to find something to layer it with. Let's say it's not a safe blind buy. (talking about the new version in darker bottle) Edit: Nevermind I actually love it. Opening is kinda horrible but dry down is magnificent.

It's more violet-y and heliotrope-y than iris-y. It's like mixing a bit of Dyptique L'Eau Papier with violet and heliotrope. Vetiver? Maybe, but not earthy or dump, maybe just provides some woody backbone. Someone wrote below "dirty musc" or whatever bs; nope, completely false, just a touch of some white/clean musc. It's a very pretty scent suited for spring and summer. Unisex, leans feminine. Heavy bottles with magnetic caps, and all of this for £35!! It makes me really think how much money dior, chanel...etc make from their £350 perfumes!!!

I agree with everyone that I too smell mimosa here. In the opening it definitely resembles Prada's infusion d'iris, except for the fact that Romance d'iris smells a little "cold" which I like a lot, and isn't as dry as infusion d'iris. The drydown is slightly powdery, probably because of the heliotrope and musk. Overall a very pleasant, iris forward perfume. The longevity isn't the best though, lasts only around 4 hours on my skin. But for that price it doesn't bother me. A nice little gem considering that Jo Malone created it.

warm, warm af—do i get rice in this? am i trippin or is there actually rice? yum, i’m hungry just from smelling this. it’s a tad bit shampoo-y and kind of sugary as well. it’s powdery, like candied violets and almonds. i get a prominent floral iris effect, yes it is powdery, but it's not necessarily buttery or rooty, it's more like the flower of iris. as a matter of fact, imagine an almond-violet mochi garnished w dusted makeup powder—yeah, kind of like a sophisticated floral concoction. musk? yes, i’m almost getting blisters.

For me it is exactly like L'instant Magic Eau de Parfum Guerlain. I really like this Zara Jo Malon colab. The only thing I don't like in this parfume is when you spray it, the first note that I sense is strong smell of cucamber or even the smell when you squish a mottled (stink) shieldbug. If you go pass that first ''smell'' it gives you a beutiful vibe of L'instant Magic.

An iris lover might love this? Romance D'iris has the vibe of Prada's Purple Rain. Considering the price, enhanced longevity and availability, I think it is worth getting a big bottle. Love the magnetic cap design. The overall design of the bottle is so much better than the minimal collection, I have broken a full bottle because of the trashy cap!!!

This is a lovely frangrance. At first I get gentle flowers. It later transforms into a musk fragrance. It reminds of Kenzo L ́Absolue. Sillage and performance are great too.

opening: light figgy rice, slightly powdery mid: powdery iris, infusion d'iris-esque dry down: jo malone mimosa & cardamom

This is if Chanel Comète and Versace Crystal Noir had a baby.

I haven't been buying their perfumes for a long time (Ebony Wood is the only exception I made last year in summer), opting for higher-end brands but today I was at the store and started casually smelling perfumes just because I like smelling things :) This one was the only one I liked but I have treated myself to several pricey fragrances at the end of this year and wasn't going to buy anything anyway, so I left. The trace of the fragrance lingered and as I was catching it I realised there's one note I really LOVE and it was a prominent one - heliotrope it was. Heliotrope Gingembre & Belle de Grasse by Fragonard were once on my list of future purchases and in both of them I liked the same note which I couldn't figure out. Now I got it :) So I went to M&S to compare the latter two to Romance d'Iris but only Belle was there, and there is some note in it I don't really like with my heliotropes, I guess it's mimosa. Heliotrope Gingembre would be perfect for winter, although they ran out of it so I ended up with the one from Zara. I didn't regret it at first - it's soft and powdery and longevity for mass-market seems to be okay. It's a nice clean scent, seems safe for daily use. If you are a heliotrope fan, you'll probably like it. "Silent flowers" on the bottle really describes it well. Surprisingly, I like it in winter, however it's more of a spring scent Might also smell a bit artificial but you get what you pay for. Heliotrope Gingembre in my opinion is more natural, however, the longevity isn't perfect. Romance d'Iris performs pretty well on me - sprayed before going to bed and 10 hours later it's still there, settles in nicely. The bottle, packaging and magnetic caps are really nice UPD: just after a while, the artificial notes started getting to me. Sometimes I feel like I'm smelling a cheap scented candle or an air freshener. I might keep using it as a spray for linen or as a room spray but for now I wouldn't want to be the centre of this "cloud"

I recently tried this new collection but was not impressed by any of the perfumes when I sampled them in the store. They are not as light and everyday as previous Jo Malone creations for Zara. All of them, including this one, felt more like a night perfume, with strong luxury soap notes on the dry down. It also leans more towards feminine than unisex. However, men shouldn't feel left out as Zara currently offers a few decent men's perfumes. This particular perfume had strong notes of iris and musk. It bears some resemblance to Dyptique FLEUR DE PEAU , but it's too much of a stretch to call this a duplicate. I have a travel size bottle of FLEUR DE PEAU that I got as part of the set and it is not my favorite, so maybe I am just not an Iris fan. However, I can't say that I got a full impression of this perfume. I wish Zara still sold a sample collection for this line in its London stores or online, so customers could properly try the line before committing to buying a full bottle. At £40 per bottle, blind buying is somewhat of a hassle. I will give this collection another chance when I see it in store again. But I strongly suspect that I will pass on it, as buying a Dyptique bottle (of your favorite perfume) instead of multiple perfumes from this line makes more sense to me. Side note: This was originally written as a note to self. But then thought it may be of some interest to others, so posted it as a review.

After reading reviews online, I was really curious to try this perfume—especially since it was 40 euros and in perfume concentration. Unfortunately, there were no testers in the store, so it ended up being a blind purchase. To me, it smells very similar to Versace Crystal Noir, but softer. I mostly pick up the white musk. Honestly, I was expecting something a bit better. It’s not bad at all, but I felt the need to layer it with something citrusy and sweeter, or even a rose scent. On the positive side, the longevity is great. It stayed on my skin for many hours—almost all day—and I could still smell it in my hair the next day. If you’re looking for a classy, more mature (+35) kind of perfume, you might enjoy this. But I wouldn’t call it an energetic, youthful or a clean scent.

Blind buy 50% discount Zara sale. Think I was secretly hoping for something that might resemble EP Iris Velvet, but not too be. This has a way different lean. Saturday evening initial evening spray. And boy was this strong- pungently floral, sweet and lipstick like Way too heady, sweet and screechy for me. This was one of those rare scents that just felt to feminine on me. It radiated for 3 or 4 hours and I could still smell it on waking the next morning. I suspect I may come back to this a few months down the line, but currently it feels like one of those Zara outliers, like Elegantly Tokyo, that I just can’t get behind. Then again I felt the same way about Sumrise, until it had baked and chilled repeatedly in my car for 18 months or so.

I don't smell mimosa per se, but there's a kind of sharpness and acrid pungency that I get in mimosa too, so I see why people get mimosa resemblance. This is indeed a rather detached formal iris that is earthy, dry and borderline detergent-like. There's no warmth or coziness and it struggles with wearability and versatility, I'd have to be in a certain mood to wear Romance d'Iris. In my mind this is not romantic at all.

This fragrance is a mysterious, cool-toned iris with a vintage makeup powder base. Imagine an enigmatic victorian woman dressed in a dusty lilac colored dress. That's the feeling I get from this. Not a safe, crowd-pleasing blind buy. It's more of a mature, unique scent that might not appeal to all. Smell: 6 out of 10 Strength: 7 out of 10 Leans more feminine

At first I thought this was boring but I put it on a hot summer day and boy did this really open up! Love the smooth+sweet creamy dry down!

Soapy orris, with a faint hint of pickles over the whole thing. Unisex. At one point, I did note a fleeting hint of powder, but it's really more a woody scent. Zara's website claims "iris flower" as a note, but Iris pallida flowers smell like grape soda, and i never got any grape, lol. It lasted through the work day. I don't really like it, but I can see that someone else might.

First impression is dry, cold and pure but savory violet candies. Will come back later. Edit. Extremely cold and dry. Somewhat dusty and reminding me of l'heure bleu, a modern interpretation perhaps. Very dry. Carrot juice? Somewhat depressing. Not my style honestly!

I am in love with the note composition - iris, musk, rice, knew this will be right up my alley in my recent powdery phase. And it is, zara really impresses me sometimes, this is niche category. Not super powdery, but definitely feel the strong iris and rice working together to make a beautiful clean spring scent. Earthy, and the vetyver really adds a unisex kick to it - woody and I think this could easily be worn by a man too. This is not a sweet floral at all, but there are plenty of aromatics in there to make it a very pleasant journey indeed. This one isn't too bad with lasting power - zaras sometimes have that problem (although most are edts.) The violets here are subtle, I don't love a strong violet but it can work well in small quantities and here it has been used really well - just small hints of the aromatic flower. I could easily use up a bottle of this so if anyone is tired of theirs in the uk let's swap! Just noticed the perfumer. Makes sense!! Drydown is very violet / vetyver dominated. Still around a soft powdery fluffy cloud, but you need to love violets to love this one!

Romance d'Iris will be the more familiar violet-iris blends to your nose amongst this collection. It is somewhat bitter-iris like the carrot seed oil, definitely carrying the true orris root earthiness and not that overly sweetened violet (Toulouse) candy blend you find at times. Safe to assume all of this purpleness is laying down on a thick Iso E Super and white musk layer. I didn't get any "rice" note which seems to be a trending note this year. Performance seems much better on paper compared to other violet/iris blends from the same collection, namely Brulante Violette and Parfait d'Orchidee. This is a violet-iris on stereoids scent, again, very good like the entire collection.

I went to a zara that was the first in my city to put them on the sales floor. They only had two testers out and this was one of them. I sprayed four times on my arm and it's still going strong at the 6-hour mark. I would say this is predominantly iris and I smell some white musk. Heliotrope is one of my favorite notes; I have a large collection of heliotrope dominant fragrances and I can barely make it out. It's nice. Is powdery. I would have bought a bottle if I didn't have so many iris perfumes. I would never reach for this over Hermes hiris for example. I have a bottle of Calvin Klein eternity intense and no, this does not smell like that. 🙄

A simple, straightforward violet and iris fragrance. Starts out with powdery violets, then the iris appears, then the iris transforms into a lipsticky iris. Smooth and balanced and great for purple floral lovers, but you have to love purple florals to love this one. The purple florals here are not candied, nor are they earthy, they are a nod to the natural fragrance of both, but the lovely, sweetened version of them. The bottle is quite nice for a ZARA perfume and features a heavy bottle with a magnetic cap.

Romance d'Iris opens up with powdery camphor scent, the kind of pharmacy ointment has.Few moments later,when starting to dry down it transforms into powdery violet -iris with vanilla. It is a beautiful, classy scent that I would compare to Gurrlain L'heure blue at the beginning and dry down Is Burberry The Beat Elixir intense .Not as complex and refined as Guerlain's but in the same style..In my opinion is unisex leaning feminine. Highly recommend to try to iris lovers.

This is lovely. It has a very green, vegetal opening but it dries down to a lovely lipsticky iris with earl grey tea - I'm guessing that's the bergamot helping give the earl grey feel. There's also something ever so slightly minty, which I'm guessing is the camphor. It's really sophisticated and chic. Love it. I would say it's mature in the same way that the Iris fragrances from Chanel Les Excluaif are more mature. This could easily be a Les Exclusif fragrance.

Back on sale and this is also a very magnificent perfume, as it is a perfume concentration , not a EdP. I find this collection to be very unique and unisex , this Romance d'Iris is not exception . I've bough the whole collection when they came out and they have been macerating in their box and spraying this one on again today made me fall in love with it again, so if you haven't tried these perfumes , you just gotten a second chance to do so...

The opening is really cold and vegetal, kind of smells like carrot juice. The violet and iris really stand out when this is sprayed on clothes, with the iris being pretty buttery. On my skin this quickly dries down to a lipstick/vintage cosmetic scent but in a soft skin-like way. I enjoy it but maybe only for springtime.

Zara is starting to get a little silly with these prices. If you're wanting to charge close to £40 a bottle, at least offer sample sets ffs. I'm really hoping they have these as testers in my city, but usually they only have the basic AYR ones (Red Temptation, Golden Decade, Applejuice, etc) out for sale. Siiiiiiiiiigh.

I love Iris and powdery notes but the opening is giving me a bit of a cucumber scent which I’m not enjoying if I’m honest but after 10 minutes is starting to fade away. It was a blind buy and only £35 for a 100ml bottle so I think it’s a bargain if those are the notes you enjoy.

Finally tried this and though it was nice, as other have said it leans more powdery than anything with a slight undertone of Iris. I did buy it, but also tried Balade de Figuier, which as I walked round smelling on my hand I decided I liked more so I went back and exchanged it.

Picked this up during the sale & I love it I’m a male but somehow this works on my skin it smells like a sweet musky rice cake I do get the iris but it’s not floral more powdery it’s addictive just wish it projected a little more will be layering it with Prada L’Homme

I have been searching for a “lipstick on” by Maison Margiela replica dupe for the longest time. I got the perfume from DUA but it doesn’t have that 🥊 even though it smells the same. It’s like a sparkle... A star factor that’s missing and I finally found it in this.

Smelt this from the bottle and bought it immediately. It's quite bland on skin and clothes theres just no real beauty to it. Lasts quite long so I plan to use it as a layering scent with other prettier iris perfumes in my collection.