Acqua Nobile Iris
Acqua di Parma (2013)

I get light, candied iris. An iris essence like it's brewed in a citrus brine. Violet leaf and orange blossom dance around it. The iris is pale but, I know it's buried in here. This perfume seems full-on creamy, to my nose.

Iris stays "in the air". It takes on a lipstick accord mostly. Citrus becomes flowery. Orange blossom becomes the dominate note, staying creamy. It blends into the base. Iris disappears. Overall, I enjoy this one. It's simple, becomes a bit more green later.

The opening blast is a fresh lemon/orangey mandarin citrus, with a slightly bitter grapfruit component. Crisp and bright.

The floral drydown is dominated by a darker violet impression, with whiffs of lilac added at times. Sone white florals, orange blossoms mainly, and there is a bit of a green iris present too, but never prominent enough to warrant the mention it gets in the name of this product. A touch of neroli provides some further brightness.

The base is constituted badly a weak vanilla, whiffs of tonka and an abundance of white musks.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and six hours of longevity on my skin.

An agreeable summery scent that is quite generic at times. 2.75/5.

Hmm.... This is not iris. I'm not sure I ever located any Iris in several minutes of sniffing it on a test strip. And I know a thing or two about Iris, having visited an Iris garden in full bloom, having them planted in my yard, and having participated in the Iris Sample Pass recently. I've smelled the flowers, the butter, the tincture... and this is sadly not it. Whatever else it may be besides violetty I do not know or care as I was too busy trying to detect the phantom Iris, and too disappointed in not finding it to consider whether it is a pretty fragrance apart from that.

Dealing with Acqua Nobile Iris I frankly stumble over an anonymous unsurprising slightly "fat" orange/grapefruit/vanilla agreement with an un-distinguished (and somewhat veiled) floral trail. If you expect to find an imperial grassy/earthy orris root aroma (a la Chanel N. 19 for instance) or a luxurious and extremely sophisticated (decadent/mysterious, mossy/animalic) iris chypre (a la Le Labo Iris 39 for instance) you will be on the contrary negatively surprised by inhaling a monolithic sort of J'adore's twin just barely richer and "greasier". The grapefruit is the key element, a note obdurately influencing throughout the aroma as supported by neroli and vanillic musk. I tend to find un-appealing and boring the overly stout grapefruit/orange accords subsequently encompassed by musk and vanilla. The trail is in here a linear (such a synthetic) citric amalgam with an undistinguished floral feel and a final musky smootness. Where is the iris? No way to be detected by an humble nose as the mine since I on the contrary catch a more temperamental violet which (combined with neroli and further floral patterns) elicits an ostensible lily type of feel. The final outcome is a boring sultry, almost cloying, "un-performing" (short evolution/faint complexity) perfume with a touch of sensuality but a total luck of elegance and uniqueness. A mediocre 5/10 my rating.