Iris Nobile
Acqua di Parma (2004)

I love this house, Acqua di Parma and I wore Magnolia Nobile for what seems like forever. I decided to give Iris Nobile a try and overall, I really like this EdP.

As others have noted, Iris Nobile is an iris fragrance but certainly not a soliflore. Shortly after the very intense ANISE and (signature) citrusy orange AdP opening, this perfume morphs into a lovely display of soft white florals. Iris is present but tuberose, orange blossom, yling-ylang and other ethereal sweet florals also come to life. Yet Iris Nobile is not translucent or sheer in any way. This EdP is a rather hefty, creamy, dense spicy-floral fragrance that lands with ambrette, musk and a wee-bit of amber.

To my nose, Magnolia Nobile is feminine floral all the way. I detect spicy floral, some resin, a bit of cedar but not much more. And unlike what others have noted, I do not get a ton of vanilla in the dry down.

Similar to Magnolia Nobile, the silage with Iris Nobile is moderate and longevity is long, say 6+ hours on my skin.

Not sure yet about this one. I ADORE Magnolia Nobile but after a spell, I moved away from feminine floral and into oud, wood, resin, incense-y, sorta churchy fragrances. Now I feel like I need more of a balance because the latter mentioned tend to lean way too masculine for my current taste & lifestyle.

This is a lovely floral fragrance, which I understand is out-of-production. If you can grab a full bottle before there are none to be had and you love Italian leaning citrus floral fragrances, go ahead and give Iris Nobile a try!

This is a beautiful fragrance, strong on powdery and slightly chalky iris to me. It's cool leaning, smooth and feels strong in its presence.

Smells like Acqua di Parma’s Colonia with a dose of cold iris - which makes it a wee bit 'metallic confectionary'; but that’s a trivial complaint, it also makes Iris Nobile pretty -and- challenging, like a Tsarina who can beat you at chess.

Iris Nobile is not really an iris fragrance, but it's beautiful. It is a gentle floral, delicately powdery, with a prominent star anise note that lends the fragrance an abstract sweetness, achieving the sweetness via a different method than most other fragrances. It has a comforting feel and I'm looking forward to wearing it in cooler weather.

I blind bought a bottle when I saw FragranceNet had a few bottles in stock, as I knew it had been discontinued, and had gotten a positive review in the 2008 guide. I'm happy with my bottle and glad I took the plunge.

This review is for the now discontinued EDP.

Earlier this year I finished up a 10-year-old bottle of Iris Nobile, which I think might have been the EDT because the EDP, which I purchased off eBay the other day (Iris Nobile is unfortunately discontinued), is much darker and spicier. I suppose the formula could have changed somewhere between my original bottle and this new one, but who knows.

Regardless, this EDP reads much more like a floriental, more silk brocade than silk chiffon, beautiful no doubt, but it lacks the luminosity, sparkle, and throw of the formulation that first made Iris Nobile one of my favorite riffs on one of my favorite flowers. The EDP is also way less iris-centric, focusing instead on orange blossom, a very banana-ey ylang ylang, vanilla, cumin, and anise. I get zero oakmoss or patchouli in the dry down. Just a persistent amber and vanilla.

Iris Nobile was always a summer staple for me. It blossomed beautifully in the heat, enveloping me in a cloud of soft, rooty-sweet iris for most of the day. By the time this EDP gets to the dry down, the sweet becomes a little sickly, like eating too many caramels at one go.

My review is for a carded sample of the EDT.

Iris Nobile is like a garden experienced at a distance. The iris takes a back seat to the other flowers far too quickly, but overall it's a beautiful etched-in-air mirage.

No soap, thankfully. The longer I smell it, the more I like it, and the more I think I will find a sample of the EDP.

This would be appropriate for an office setting.

Not much projection or sillage, and it's probably too feminine for most men to want to wear.

My husband likes it on me, says it's one of the best fragrances I've tried so far. I'm giving this a thumbs up, and I'm going to find the EDP.