Angelos Creations Olfactives Irida Extrait courtesy of the brand

When I was a little girl, I was taken to see Giselle, a classical ballet in which the title character stabs herself with her lover’s sword and then, after midnight, rises as one of the ghostly wilis, young women who died of broken hearts and nightly rise to seek revenge on men who wander into their path. This was perhaps not the most prudent choice for viewing by a seven- or eight-year-old who was always anxious that something horrible dwelt in her closet at night. But, as it turns out, I was more fascinated than frightened by the wilis; the pale elegance with which their silvery bodies dipped and swayed across the stage, bathed in cold, bluish light that clung to them turned them into sad fireflies, flitting and weaving amongst each other in the dark, arms twining about each other in an eternal sisterhood of grief. Some years ago, I remember thinking passingly of Giselle the first time I smelled an iris fragrance: the coolness, the grey-blue spectrum of notes ranging from damp earth and just-pulled roots to violet candy and old-fashioned face powder that made me think of grey tulle and the lovely, sweet sadness of tragic tales.

Australian Ballet, Giselle, photo Lynette Willis, The Guardian apped by Michelyn

Iris’s aroma has ever since struck me as fascinatingly beautiful but slightly spectral (there is even a pale greyish variety of the flower known as ghost iris). The bearded flower’s showgirl beauty is belied by a perfume that smells both of earth and the otherworld, a contrasting fragrance of roots and ash, lacking the fleshiness and warmth of other floral smells. With its note of old-fashioned face powder it suggests a faraway past, and the quickness with which its trail disappears, iris smells like the perfume of a phantom. Most iris soliflores last perhaps half an hour on me and then disappear like Giselle’s ghosts at daybreak. Those iris fragrances that have hung about longer usually make iris a co-star alongside something sturdier like musks or woods.

Angelos Balamis, photo by Lauryn

When perfumer Angelos Balamis told me he was creating an extrait version of his stunning but ephemeral Irida, I crossed my fingers that here might be at last be an iris that doesn’t fade on my skin as quickly as a bored spirit at a séance.

Angelos Creations Olfactives Irida Extrait artwork courtesy of the brand

Angelos Creations Olfactives Irida Extrait is not simply an amped-up version of the original but a prism-like fragrance whose spectrum shifts from warm and earthy to chilly and ethereal. Balamis followed the same template of classic iris notes balanced with green violet, neroli and musky ambrette of Irida but bolstered the formula considerably with higher concentrations of irones (using both orris butter and iris absolute), the tiny molecules that give iris its paradoxical richness and airiness. Unlike the citrusy-green opening of Irida, Irida Extrait opens with a blast of cinnamon that recedes almost as soon as it arrives, providing a  backdrop for the iris. The perfume’s multifaceted quality begins to reveal itself almost immediately. As the cinnamon is stepping back, neroli appears for a moment and then iris comes forward in all its strange beauty with notes of violet, pastry dough, powder, tin foil. Camphorous clove underlines the fragrance’s chilly aspects. But the temperature shifts again. In a few minutes the whole composition is heated up with the bodily tang of labdanum, cistus and a sizable helping of aged sandalwood.

As I work all this through, I barely notice how gorgeous the entire effect is until I step back and smell Irida Extrait on my skin after about half an hour. Good god is this beautiful: rich, delicate, buttery-sweet, spicy, rotating between iris’ snooty cool and the pashmina cosiness of labdanum and sandalwood.

Irida Extrait is a finalist for the Art and Olfaction award for Best Artisan Perfume this year – and I would have been shocked if it hadn’t. It is one of the most breathtaking and distinctive iris perfumes I’ve ever smelled.

Purple iris, photo by Lauryn

When I woke today the faint scent of iris was still clinging to my wrists. The ghosts, it seems, have stayed a while longer.

Notes: Neroli oil from Tunisia, violet leaf absolute, orris butter 15% irones, orris absolute 68%, orris absolute 80% irones, carrot seed, violet, jasmine, clove bud, cinnamon, sandalwood from East India (aged), amyris, vétiver from Haïti, guaiac wood, ambrette seed oil, cistus absolute, labdanum resinoid.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Angelos Olfactives Irida Extrait generously gifted to me by Angelos Balamis. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Angelos Creations Olfactives Irida Extrait artwork courtesy of the brand

Thanks to the generosity of Angelos Balamis, we have 30 ml bottle for a registered reader in the USA or EU only. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Irida Extrait based on Lauryn’s review and where you live. Have you tried anything from Angelos Creations Olfactives? Draw closes 5/4/2024.

Michelyn’s Note: The brand is available at Luckyscent and you can buy or sample Irida as well as Angelos Creations Olfactives (use Code CFB).

Angelos Balamis was Michelyn’s rising star of 2020 and joint Artisan Perfumer of the Year 2022

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