L'Attesa

An iris dream. Over the course of its development, it displays every facet of the flower and rhizome: chalky, buttery, earthy, powdery, lipstick-y, rooty, green, floral, even faintly leathery. Clearly, no expense was spared on the formula; my skin practically glistens beneath the abundance of absolutes, butters, extracts, and whatever other extravagances have been packed into it. My only very tiny nitpick is the prominence of iso E super in the drydown... definitely not my preference, and to me disturbs the balance of high quality natural raw materials in this fragrance. Had the composition instead sat atop a bed of soft white musks, oh it would have been perfect.

A light sparkly basic iris perfume. Really suitable everywhere where you don't want your perfume to overwhelm others or for office, as it is kind of elegant, simple and a bit serious with that clean suede note or if you don't like sweet aromas. If the colour would represent it, it would be grey with a hint of silver for that light sparkling quality it has.

This is it for me. The perfect iris. I've been on a years-long search, and now I've found it. I feel like a rich old lady, but not in the vintage-perfume way. Just in a total vibes match way. It starts off with that champagne note, dryer than you might imagine - no pink pepper sparkle. The orris here is expertly balanced. Slightly lipstick-forward in texture, with handbag suede to keep it sophisticated. However, it doesn't come across purely cosmetic - It retains the earthiness from the orris, maybe with the help of oak moss (though I don't get any Veramoss, thank goodness). There's woodiness to ground it, but unlike Iris Poudre from Frereric Malle, it doesn't rely entirely on its sandalwood base for longevity. L'Attesa tricks me into thinking I'm smelling the orris butter for hours on end, propped up by the suede and sandalwood. Definitely not the most projecting fragrance in my collection, but I'm enveloped in a tan suede and orris cloak for the day. Goodness, I'm chic. PS - It's also great as a layering tool, to bump up the orris in other fragrances.

L'Attesa is a gorgeous hardcore perfume balancing between lavish connoisseur take on a rare expensive note, and an avantgarde, Francesca Bianchi - grade kinkiness. Is it trying to please both types of fragheads, the luxury and the niche? Is it the lovechild of Hiris and Iris Silver Mist? That classic lipstick and suede pair gets easily dominated by a warm playdough/yeasty base that grounds the composition in a very unusual way. In the back, neroli performs a little dance for the soap lovers. I keep thinking of white chalk and plaster and lipstick and silicone but never champagne. Personally, I think the champagne part is a marketing trick.

You’ve bought a new house. After walking through all the rooms, envisioning the changes you’ll make and the furniture you’ll add, you find a drop ladder up to the attic. You climb the ladder, one step at a time, wondering what you’ll find. You arrive at the top of the ladder, and notice a single can of paint in the attic corner. You walk over to it, wondering how long this paint has been up here on its own, and why the previous owners cleared out everything but for this single item. The packaging reveals no hint of the color inside, so you pry the top off with surprisingly little effort. It’s periwinkle. With reckless abandon, you thrust your face in the can, with your nose nearly touching the faint purple liquid, and take a deep inhale. That is L’Attesa.

L'Attesa, by Masque Milano, smells like leather, green moss, very sour bergamot, dill, lovage, lemon juice and sour cream. This basically smells like a hyperrealistic Ciorbă Rădăuțeană, the lovage - lemon juice combination, these being the strongest notes in the perfume, these generate exactly the smell of that soup.

The initial harsh bittery orris/leathery note faded away in 15 minutes. After that, this perfume opens up very nicely with powdery iris and a hint of sweetness. For iris fan, this one is worth at least a test-sniff. For me, after a couple wears, I reduced to headaches. Sadly it’s not for me.

Baby powder with a lipstick-like resinous oil base, sweet with a dry lingering baby powder accord. Mostly I smell baby powder and lipstick, if you like that.. then this is for you. Its soothing and nice. On dry down, the powder fades a fair bit and mostly you smell a sweet resinous lipstick note that lingers throughout the life of the scent, its addictive and nice but nothing magical

All I smell are baby wipes. Super scrubber for me, and I usually adore Iris. There’s just something very off putting here to me.

Powdery iris atop a layer of Coppertone with a sour metallic twang.

It’s a very dry, rooty iris that leans bitter and austere. The texture is papery and elegant, with a cool restraint that I appreciate more than I enjoy.

This is the only perfume I can still smell on myself hours later. I love it so so so so much. I am an iris fan but this isn’t the typical. In fact I don’t get iris at all. Something about it is nostalgic and very 90s designer perfume to me but I cannot determine what and why. It is definitely in the drydown. That said, I spray a little and layer with other things but it stands on its own. Warning though not everyone will appreciate it! Ps I do not get any of the notes listed on this page except ylang ylang. I do get a hint of vanilla mixed in with the leather. And the leather isn’t moldy leather like most scents are going for these days. I don’t know why I am getting carrot seeds and maybe rose? I am note sure. Anyway this is not powdery like other iris scents. This one is a definite BUY. RESTOCK. It’s your going out one.

Nested firmly between Les Indemodables Iris Perle and FM Iris Poudre. Has the artisanal, rooty, thick iris butter of Iris Perle and the aldehydic leathery powder from Iris Poudre. Most wearable out of the three. Edit: This is better than both, perhaps the best iris soliflore I have smelled. Incredible stuff.

The opening is gorgeous - classic, slightly chalky, buttery lipsticky iris that any iris lover would adore. And I LOVE iris in all its forms, so I fully expected to love this. The drydown however, is SO synthetic and nauseating - there's some strange note in the base that isn't listed here. After about 4 hours on skin and clothes, it dried down on me into a rubbery, plastic, ?amberwood-y smell. Thankfully I tried a decant. Would NOT suggest to blind buy, please try this on your skin first. Opening a solid 9/10, the drydown dropped it straight to a 0/10 for me. The gorgeous opening isn't worth what it dries down to.

I can’t believe no one has compared this to Eyes Closed by Byredo. Eyes Closed is a slightly spicier and warmer version of this. Overall you get a slight carrot cake vibe with powdery and slightly dusty Iris notes. It smells like a big estate in a forest from a family of a deep and rich history where only the matriarch of the family lives there/is alive and you’re her only grandchild and she is baking you carrot cake while you look at old photographs and read old family letters while she spills the family secrets. In the best way possible.

Sparkling/fizzy vintage compact powder and lipstick that is loosing it's original scent so it's waxy and powdery with a touch of iris that gives it that vintage smell. Very odd because it is is very 'neutral' smelling in a way that is like those alehydic or molecular perfumes but imagine if they were done 100 years ago. Initially this started off smelling 'sparkly' in the way some of Serge Lutens offerings (L'Orpheline, Dent De Lait and Iris Silver Mist) do but it doesn't last long and in the dry down this heavily reminds me of Jardin's D'Armide by Oriza L. Legrand. Same vintage make up and waxy/powdery/suedey scent but more muted and less colourful. This is actually kind of melancholic and makes me think of the colour silver or grey. I imagine actresses from the times of black and white films but when they are in their dark times (Neely from Valley of the Dolls when she becomes addicted to drink and opoids for example) smelling like this. The depressed dark side of Hollywood regency era.

Dusty, rooty, foundation, kind of fruity. Strangely addictive to smell over and over. Leans slightly feminine... I'll have to revisit this some other day but so far I do really enjoy it!

This one opens immediately reminding me of the rooty iris in Iris Silver Mist then it quickly shifts to this slightly salted mossy water/pickle juice smell and stay that way with minor changes to the end. Not really unique since I smelled quite a few other offerings from different houses smelling like this. I would not call this one a powdery iris fragrance but instead a fresh spicy one. Doesn't smell at all like Irisss by Xerjoff, not in the slightest.

I'm drowning in a thick, dense, beige-tinted iris fog. Super, super irisy. 10/10

L'Attesa- Masque Milano What an amazing display of Iris in a single fragrance! “Using three types of expensive Iris, the fragrance is: -creamy as buttered suede, -plush as thick, silvered velvet, -immensely floral, quite remarkable.” Believe me, they weren’t overstating when this description was written! L’Attesa is not imposing, she’s not going to fill a room obnoxiously. She’s soft but immensely present, and she will only disclose her beauty to those who are nearest to her. L’Attesa’s notes are so expertly blended you could sit all day enjoying whiffs of her endearing sillage and never tire of her resplendence. L’Attesa is the only fragrance my husband never fails to compliment me on without being prompted to. He really likes it! If you are a lover of beautiful Iris fragrance, L’Attesa’s the lady for you.

Edit/summary: It’s masculine leaning, but ultimately unisex, orris-leather MUSK, with a sharp bergamot-heavy opening. I blind bought this one as an orris/iris lover, and unfortunately, it has far too much bergamot, oakmoss, and ylang ylang for me! Very neroli forward too, which is contributing to the sharpness. At least I found it on eBay for a very discount price… and the presentation is fun. Also, unfortunately not detecting any tuberose, just ylang ylang and neroli. It’s very bright and citrusy. Very much a ‘clean girl’ scent, which was not what I was looking for. If you love iris, orris, and leather, I recommend Iris Cendre instead. Seems like a great post shower scent, or something to wear before you sweat, since the bitter oakmoss and sharp citrus should keep you feeling and smelling fresh. Okay, 30 minutes later it transforms; the bergamot and other sharpness fades and it becomes a soft musky iris/orris/leather that is much better than the opening, but too musky for a fragrance that doesn’t list musk as a note. The dry down hours later is simply a masculine, slightly bitter, musk. Not a big fan of this sort of note, it’s probably what’s ruining the fragrance for me since I actually do like bergamot, ylang ylang, and oakmoss.

out of all the samples I have which are in the hundreds..this one is THE WORST THING I EVER SMELLED by FARRRR. Not sure how this has a 4 star review. It's disgusting, so unpleasing - smells like synethic harsh chemicals and cardboard lipstick. 0/10 . Yuck

This is the only fragrance which brings me lots of compliments.My chemistry probably agrees.Beautiful powdery slightly aldehydic iris.Quality is superb.

I love this. It has this lipsticky play dough like accord yet has the greenness you’d find in Chanel no. 19, while not being as somber. The iris here is slightly vegetal however much more creamy and viscous, as opposed to dry and fragile like 19. If 19 is a foggy garden in imagery, this is the same foggy garden but with two lovers tangled together on the damp earth, their warmth cutting through the chill mist.

As an iris lover I had to try this. A dry, dusty, leathery, earthy Iris. I only smell the fizzy, sparkly champagne during the opening and it is short lived, wish it lasted longer as it was bright, fun, and felt like it gave more life to the iris. Neroli is there but it is subdued under the heaviness of the orris root, oak moss, and ylang-ylang. Tuberose is more pronounced instead. It sometimes smells medicinal as it dries down.

Melancholic dry iris bomb that will no doubt appeal to iris lovers. This is an austere medicinal iris with leather nuances. I am getting no champagne and while it is buttery I find it too severe for my taste. I'm not a fan of super sweet lipstick iris either but this one feels like a hint of floral or sweetness would soften and make it less rigid. That probably wasn't the perfumers intent and I appreciate the artistry of that even if it isn't my cup of tea.

A very interesting take on Iris. This becomes a bubbly fizzy champagne with Iris notes. It’s not too sweet and the Iris is not drowned out by the champagne accord. I applaud this wonderful effort from Julien, he really managed to present Iris in a whole new way. Very unique composition that’s easy to wear and a crowd pleaser, this should be a best seller for this brand.

I love Iris scents and for years I have been hearing this is a must for Iris lovers. Smelled it in Copenhagen and now saw it on >50% sale, still think it’s not worth the money. It smells nice, of course l, but I had to dig my nose in my wrist to smell it, let alone getting different notes and accords! On sale, these 145€ would get me 2-3 really good Iris fragrances.

Starch. Yeasty champagne, warmed.

Not my favorite Iris fragrance, but deserves a test for sure if you are an Iris fanatic, like myself. Opens sharp and fizzy with champagne note and sparkly bergamot. Iris comes in bone dry, sort of sterile, almost metallic. No cosmetic undertones here, no carrot and vegetal aspects as well. I prefer my Iris wetter and more natural, but this is interesting too. This has no projection at all, I can only smell my skin and inch away from it.