Iris Fauve
Atelier Des Ors (2017)

I was kindly given the opportunity by a dear blogger friend to test a few fragrances from Atelier des Ors (thank you!), and here are my experiences with Iris Fauve:

Iris Fauve can be translated into English as Tawny Iris, and it turns out that it's mostly tawny but not much iris on my skin. Upon spraying Iris Fauve, there is a very brief glimpse of aromatic bergamot. The fragrance is then swiftly dominated by an imposing cloud of the dry, hay-like fuzzy spiciness of tonka bean and the syrupy caramel sweetness of amber, hence my association with the tawny colour.

As long as I make an effort to look through the opaque cloud of tonka and amber, yes, the iris and a few other listed notes are all there. The iris here is not the grey, rooty, haunting melancholy, nor is it the sensual, buttery tenderness that will melt one's heart, but a woody, doughy and somehow malleable chameleon that binds the other notes altogether. The warm, sweet woody spiciness of cinnamon is sprinkled on top of this iris dough like a fancy cinnamon roll, while the smoky, slightly sour faux-oud smell of cypriol and vetiver stirs in the background to add an exotic touch.

However, as a whole, these interesting interactions are largely engulfed by the massive canopy of spicy, fougere-toned tonka and caramel amber, especially in its heavy-to-moderate sillage. And there isn't any significant evolution during its 10-hour longevity. If I don't pay much attention to the details, Iris Fauve wears mostly like a smoldering, sugary spicy amber-tonka-dominated oriental fougere that has a more pronounced tobacco facette in the dry down, and I wouldn't particularly think of iris if I had not known the name. As a result, I would not recommend it as an iris fragrance in the conventional sense, but rather put it in the subcategory of sweet amber fragrances with an iris nuance such as Jacques Fath Bel Ambre and Juliette Has A Gun Calamity J, or link its tobacco dry down with tobacco-iris such as Diptyque Volutes.

A suedish smooth-waxy-musky iris. The Iris Fauve's opening, like in a flash, conjures me soon powerfully Dior Homme Intense (I get indeed a smooth-silky-suedish darker iris/patchouli-accord plus ambrette, musk, vetiver and woods), just I catch much more subtle complexity, more woody darkness, a deeper spiciness and a tad of more prominent powdered/resinous woodiness (which is always a "risky field"). This is surely a more "affected and intellectual" twist on the "basic infamous formula". I get as well a slightly chocolatey undertone and a liquorous spark conjuring me either vaguely several Valentino Uomo's dominant hallmarks. Iris Fauve smells basically more resinous, more visceral-animalic (with a stout myrrh/cistus-dominant accord) and "mystic" than Dior Homme Intense (whilst DHI is super modern in a glamour/chic way Iris Fauve preserves a tad of more cerebral and vaguely arcane/liturgical dustiness - vaguely a la Il Profvmo Patchouli Noir - made of resins, burnt opoponax and molecular spiciness). I'm able as well to detect a sort of vague tuberose-like candied vibe flanking and enriching this dominant iris-presence. Finally a quite animalic/organic, palatin-noir touch of "burning candles type of" powder envelops our senses in a sort of decadent/palatin glorious lullaby. Whether you find Dior Homme Intense too simplistic (and brightly gourmandish) give a try to this Atelier Des Or's more structured aristocratic alternative.