Perfumes with Iris

Iris smells powdery, creamy and cool, with earthy, slightly carrot-like undertones and a soft cosmetic elegance that recalls face powder or lipstick. The scent in perfumery does not come from the flower but from the rhizomes of Iris pallida and Iris germanica, known as orris root.

The roots are dried and aged for several years before steam distillation produces a waxy orris butter, whose scent comes from molecules called irones. This slow process makes it one of the most expensive raw materials. Iris mostly sits in the heart. It pairs well with violet, musk, sandalwood, vetiver, leather and rose.

Iris appears in 8,876 perfumes in the Fisfis catalogue and is used mostly as a heart note.