Aedes de Venustas Iris Nazarena

Italy is an open-air museum and we are lucky  that we can just walk and inhale beauty. Arts and culture flourished here like nowhere else and exquisite examples are Venice, a unique floating masterpiece and Florence that’s been the cradle of the Renaissance. Both are also connected with the burgeoning of perfumery.  Milan as well has a glorious history from the genius of Leonardo (celebrated this year in a beautiful exhibition by Accademia del profumo also as cosmetologist, botanist and perfumer) to Cattelan. Art meets perfumery more than elsewhere downtown in Brera. Not only because the first niche perfume shop opened its doors there more than 30 years ago, but also because you can visit the Art Academy with its XVIII century botanical garden growing rare fragrant delicacies and the Art Gallery. I love to get back at it specially to see favorite artworks, among which a Madonna with child by Vicentine-born painter Marcello Fogolino. It is a painting I saw various times, yet when I was wearing Aedes de Venustas Iris Nazarena, I realized the baby Nazarene was  curiously holds a beautiful iris.

 Madonna and Child between Saints Job and Gothard by Marcello Fogolino (1505-1508) – detail

Quoting Milan Kundera, “if a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi’s shoulders”, and this is the long story made short of how both the painting and the perfume are almost reflections of each other. Moreover, while most of iris perfumes from the last decade fall either under the Prada musky sheerness or the Dior leathery-gourmand category, with Iris Nazarena perfumer Ralf Schwieger went off the beaten path tracing a new sophistication that not only won a Fragrance Foundation Award “Perfume Extraordinaire” in 2014, but it’s  also worthy of being named a CaFleureBon Modern Masterpiece.

 Aedes de Venustas Perfume and Boutique founders and owners Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner

The inspiration creative directors Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner chose for Iris Nazarena comes from the hills East of Nazareth where the rare iris Bismarckiana was discovered in 1890 by a German botanist and later named iris nazarena from the region of origin. The flower, almost unscented in nature, offers though the unusual show of its ashy beauty holding out high the violet veined delicate petals against the light while it bends to ground with its mud-tinged spots. Moreover the mineral coldness of incense swirling from the base, a common cornerstone with the other fragrances in the line, unmistakably ties its ambery drydown to the brand signature trail I dare to call “Venustade”.

This tension between sky and ground, connected by an impalpable tread of smoke is evident in Ralf Schwieger composition featuring incense as a main player (used in his second creation for the brand Musc Encensé, which was both Michelyn and my Top 25 Best of Scent 2018). As for Fogolino’s painting, an uncanny splendor grabs the senses here like the Holy Infant grabbing a tender bloom, its fierce green stem flexing in innocent hands, spreading those pale blue petals like glimpses of heaven. A luminous, pearly halo is rendered by the mineral, almost metallic radiance of cashmeran lifting from bottom to top the elegant yet severe iris root and olibanum gum. The floral aspect is noticeable just spraying the fragrance but it’s a short-lived impression painted in watercolors with crispy green May rose petals and pear-tinged ambrette mellowness fading to celadon. Verging to the yeast facets of iris, the sidereal coldness of star anise immediately lands it to the spicy-aromatic vegetal territory, almost like a bunch of freshly picked coriander.

 Mane’s master perfumer Ralf Schwieger with Ermano at SIMPPAR 2019 in Paris

The silver-green heart of light petals in Iris Nazarena are slowly dappled with the burnt aroma of cloves while an animalic mellowness is given by a hint of precious oud providing the velvety iris with warmer, rougher and slightly leathery tones. The fragrance sober transparency becomes even more apparent thanks to the moist, earthy patchouli, vetiver and musks base which gives good lasting power and an even more mystical vibe. Daring and refined, Iris Nazarena embodies the perfect proportions of De Vinci’s classic golden ratio and its radiant palette translates as a hyper-modern interpretation bridging the aloof elegance of Henri Robert’s Chanel No. 19 and the woody-spiciness of Serge Lutens  Iris Silver Mist.

disclosure sample from my own collection, opinions my own

Ermano Picco, Editor and Fragrance Expert

Thanks to Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner of Aedes de Venustas  we have a draw for a registered CafleureBon  reader (if you are not sure if you are registered click here (you must register on our site or your entry will be invalid) for a  3 x 10 ml travel set of Iris Nazarena. To be eligible please leave a comment on Ermano Picco’s most modern of all our modern masterpieces. If you want to your comment to count twice follow our Facebook page Modern Masterpieces here.  Do you have a favorite Aedes de Venustas perfume? Draw closes 11/06/2019.

Photos from Aedes de Venustas unless otherwise noted

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