Iris Silver Mist

Years ago i tried this and got fresh carrots and red hots (a usa cinnamon candy). Today, there is pronounced blue cheese getting stronger. Cambozola and grilled bread. The bottle has been kept dark and cool. Top notes were intact and intense...is this blue cheese toast the "yeasty", brioche?

After years of reading about this perfume, and reviewers like Turin awarding it the highest acclaim, a friend very kindly brought me back a bell jar from Paris. I absolutely fkn hated it. In fact, it took several wears, and many moments of quiet contemplation, before one day it just clicked. What an absolutely fabulous perfume. It’s unlike any iris I’ve ever encountered. Cold. Witchy. Vegetal. Metallic. Frankly, it’s everything except the soft, buttery, creamy or waxy iris that I’m usually drawn to. Those same facets you might expect to find in many accomplished compositions considered works of art, their creators having spent countless hours selecting the finest materials before patiently carving them into the ultimate expression of iris. Iris Silver Mist, by contrast, feels like standing before the very block of marble from which those works were carved. Not yet sculpted. Not refined. Not shaped to please its audience. Just the most beautiful piece of raw stone imaginable. It sits at the foot of the finished sculpture as a quiet reminder that beauty doesn’t always need polishing.

For someone who have never seen iris, the flower, much less smell or touch them, my expectations of what iris would smell like differs so much with reality. I initially had pictured iris to be somewhat a creamy floral that is sensorially opulant and smooth, like running your fingers against silk and an in between of tuberose and rose. But it is far, far from that. My first iris fragrance I had smelt was Iris Pallida Extrait 6 by Guerlain, and it captured the pre-conceived opulence and smoothness, but in an unexpectedly bready or hazelnut way. Thus, the reality of iris's scent hits me like a tons of bricks, and leaves me in absolute awe. From there on, I came to discover many facets of iris, leaning from the aforementioned bready and nutty, to being clean, not in a laundry way, but more like freshly printed papers and blue collared jobs. And with Iris Silver Mist, it had introduced me to a newer, and I would guess a more naturalistic, earthier take on iris. There is nothing new that I can say that decades of reviews have previously mentioned, because truly, it is exactly what they describe this fragrance to be. It bursts with something rooty and vegetal, that feels austere like banging on steel, or munching on raw carrots. The nutty-woody facet is far intense in here and mixed with incense, it is incredibly atmospheric and evokes the trails of a vengeful spirit wandering through misty clouds. Is the creamy opulence lost? Absolutely not, it is instead interpreted rather differently and takes on a woodier form, like cedar wood spun into a silky fabric. I think after smelling Iris Pallida Extrait, I have always associated iris with freshly baked bread which, as a retired gourmand lover, is something I have always wanted to smell like next to rice. Thus, when introduced with other facets of iris, they only brew dislike inside of me due to my unmet expectations. But Iris Silver Mist comes in so strikingly extravagant that I cannot help to stop, stare, and sniff. Wearing this in the library, studying with nothing but the white noises of pouring rain and cloudy skies makes for an almost therapeutic experience, transporting me to where I am reading my book on a wooden bench outside a German gothic chapel situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking the increasingly opaque mist views of green, mossy, rocky grounds. It is undeniably classy and elegant, and to me, best described as the essence of neutrality. A presence that is only sensorial, not physical. Sampling Serge Lutens has been both a blessing a curse. Both for the same reason, which is that I had found 3 scents that I would definitely full bottle. But then, that staggeringly expensive price tag is like a knife to my heart, especially as a college student. Thankfully, there are tons of iris interpretations out there, and this is only the start. Maybe others will save me from the enchantment that this expensive fragrance has put on me, and maybe I will never fully wake up from this dream and end up surviving on convenience store gimbaps for a living to save money for it. Because why eat when you can swag the fuck out? Peace. (This corny ass outro)

cold and clinical at its opening, but it eventually opens up to something that actually smells like real iris flower. the waxiness, dew on its petals... surgical. what a precise scent, what a sharp scent. subtly warm, however. it's like if you befriended your surgeon.

I was on a hunt for the most photorealistic iris in a bottle. The iris blooming season is so brief that I wanted something that could capture that experience year round.. a soft, fresh, soapy, light, powdery iris. This fragrance came highly recommended for that purpose. Sadly it isn’t that at all. Not even close. On my skin, it feels harsh, cold, and almost unfriendly. In fact, I’ve reached the point where I’m hesitant to even want to smell it anymore. I always have high hopes for SL because I absolutely adore Sa Majeste la Rose. THIS is a photorealistic floral done right. Because of that fragrance, I keep returning to the brand, hoping to find another masterpiece. Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me.

I really want to love this but.. I don't... It's objectively a very beautiful scent but I feel the Iris / orris plays second chair to vetiver and galbanum which really gives this perfume its dark and brooding character.... If you like a grey / cloudy / almost depressing version of Iris (I honestly don't mean it in a negative way!) you might fall in love with this... I prefer something with just a bit more air inside like 28 La Pausa EDT or even Iris de Fath.... This one is sooo austere from the vetiver and galbanum... It's like Chanel 19 extrait on suicide watch... Which again... Might be your thing... It's definitely not mine...

This has to be a crime......it's unique yes but all I get is paper/ woody like scent with a subtle hint of iris and some other faul musky note that overpowers everything in the opening and I can't comprehend it. I'll make sure to get another sample from a diffrent place and come back because maybe the old sample got messed with or something, and yes it's THAT bad, if this is the real scent of "silver iris mist" this is going down as a human repellent in my list. Atrocious work.

Iris so purple it turns green. It breaks the cozy illusion of the note by leaving it so central above everything else, a near-soliflore built into a 4D version of itself. The supporting elements create the perfect roomtone for the glimmering iris; cold, earthy, ancient, yet futuristic. I don't feel like it's impersonal, it's got the aura of a quiet yet comforting friend. Warm in unexpected and profound ways. The ephemeral and airy nature is a perfect exercise in restraint. It’s as if someone is singing the prettiest melody so quietly as to not wake someone in the next room. The "shushy" nature ends up feeling like the whole point. There's not a single rainy day this year where I wanted to reach for anything else. I have an immense fondness for the few scents that, upon first sniff, immediately overshadow the rest of their genre. Iris Silver Mist is this and so much more, easily a top three fragrance for me, and perhaps first on a good day.

Cold garden earth and green carrots, bitter cloves and damp irises hidden between cedar trees I have been trying to get a decant for years now in order to finally sample this elusive Paris exclusive. Indeed I briefly started losing faith in Uncle Serge as there are so many brilliant modern irises on the market that made me waver for a moment, thinking can this really still be that good? ISM is surprisingly abstract, "Mist" feeling really appropriate in the way it travels off the skin without ever condensing or solidifying. The iris powdery carrot like oily bitterness is there, but feels distant like being viewed from inbetween dense earthy mossy cedars in late winter, where the earth has turned pale and icy and the wood itself papery and cold. Cloves being a steady bitter contrast, some classical amber touches bring finesse and wearability. To me it is a fragrance that feels completely removed from human contact, minimal musks to warm it out or ground it, like an undiscovered iris patch in a lonely cedar thicket. Yet it’s undoubtedly beautiful and mysterious at the same time, like something you are not meant to discover and accidentally catch a glimpse off never to forget it.

This smells like a specific Lush bath bomb dead on. One from their OG line up (before they did the random limited edition ones) and it's annoying me that I can't remember which one. I think it might be twilight because that makes sense but I will need to go into store and re-smell them. At first I was amazed at how similiar it opened up to L'Orpheline but now that has settled in, it is definitely a lush bath bomb. When I figure it out I will come back. Has that same fizzy, ultra sweet and unique LUSH scent. So if you like LUSH and love all their OG bath bombs or you love L'Orpheline, this would be a safe blind buy, its very similiar to both of those things. It would be redundant for anyone to own Orpheline and this imo and lets be real, Orpheline is WAYYYYYY cheaper, Comes in the spray bottle which is easier to display, travel with and apply AND is easy to find, unlike this (I think you can only buy this from their website or in Europe?). If you are picking between both, I would go with Orpheline because its a touch more neutral. Same incense but instead of purple floral (iris), it is black pepper. It is a touch heavier and more masculine than this (but totally unisex) where i would say this is more feminine, has a slightl grand-mother leaning touch too where O is much more modern. Both are equally beautiful, I only give that more credit because of the pro's vs cons. I am an OG lush girl and love this and if it came as cheap and easy as O I would add this to my collection in a heartbeat. Ethereal, mystical, glittery, translucent, ghost like, angel like, fae like. Can be cloying so do not use 4 test sprays (I have it in a decant sprayer) like me because now I can't breathe 🤣

This is quite feminine. The iris reminds me of a light Dior Homme but its a little more powdery. The woods peak through and I get a little taste of the clove and vetiver. About 90 minutes in it turns to a soft woody skin scent thats barely noticeable. I only used 3 sprays though and its wintertime. 6.5/10

I've spent my year going to the Serge Lutens store to smell that fragrance, and the first time I was taken back because I've never smelled an iris like this. I do not scent the other iris perfumes as I used to after having the pleasure of smelling Iris Silver Mist. My mom gifts me this masterpiece for Christmas. I was not really convinced by the bottle, but it's incredible. I love iris,, and the only fragrance I love as much as this one is Iris Pallida from Guerlain. Iris Padilla would be the warm and rich iris, and Iris Silver Mist is the essence of grey/mauve. It's cold, and it has a ghostly presence. You smell it randomly during the day, getting a whiff of the incredible and kind of hard-to-describe scent. Cold iris, carrot with a cold woody quality in the dry down. It's not even green to my nose ; it's grey in the best way possible. A perfume that makes me wish that I could smell every note before it's blended because it's so beautifully done that I would not be able to pinpoint anything beside iris.

Im officially selling my bell jar of this. Message me if interested (US).

I liked it a lot but it is not for me. It's too too powdery and lipsticky. I agree with others it very quickly becomes waxy. I barely can smell the orris though. I also agree that it dries down into a soap! Unfortunately, because of that it was a pass for me.

Opens like a freshly cut carrot. But quickly within minutes becomes a waxy clove orris incense. On my skin the spicy smoky element comes in strong. Then it becomes a powder bomb tickling my nose. It’s a very beautiful scent and I haven’t smelled anything like this. It might be just too strange to become a favorite Iris. O feel like I reach more for Iris Malikahn or Pour Revere more than this. I have to really be in a certain mood.

Finally got a chance to try this, and it's beautiful. Cold, dusty vegetal orris. Roots being pulled out of the dirt on a damp fall morning. At this point in time, there are better iris scents. But I can't help but marvel at the work of art this was for the time. Update: I gave this some time, & as this dries down I find it transitions into a vintage floral soap scent. For whatever reason I'm reminded of Burberry Touch For Men

Iris Silver Mist has been talked about for decades now. I’ve heard it said that this was the modern iris to give permission to and enable all the modern iris perfumes afterwards that we have today. I’m not enough of a perfume historian to validate or argue that statement, but I have no problem believing it. It will never lose relevancy. I can keep my description of accords brief, there is really only one: orris. Dry, chalky, potatoey, vegetabley, bitter, cold, woody, waxy, musky, etc., it’s every aspect of orris dialed up to the same vocal volume. Roucel piled in every orris material he could find into ISM, and it shows; this iris is photorealistic to an absurd degree, like you can smell in 3D. To make sure all of these aspects were on a level field, Roucel amped them up with a splendid team of materials working behind the scenes, far from the audience of your nose and behind the stage door. Galbanum makes sure the dry, green, and vegetabley aspects get fair due. Balsams make sure the woody vocal notes ring true. Clove makes sure it stays bitter and cold. Musks, benzoin, and labdanum make sure the starchy textures keep you wanting to scratch your tongue, like after drinking strong black tea or a very tannicky red wine. ISM is linear and monodimensional, like most SL perfumes, leading many to question “what’s the big deal? Why the hype?” They are not incorrect, but very close study reveals a masterfully executed perfume of exquisite quality that gave us orris like we didn’t have it before. Enough about that. You can find plenty of wonks to tell you about all of that stuff, and likely a lot better than I can anyway. What is it like for me to wear and smell Iris Silver Mist? Honestly, it is heartbreaking. Every time I wear it I remark at its beauty, but no smile ever hits my face. It get awash in the feeling of wanting to put my head on a loved one’s shoulder and absorb the safety and comfort of their embrace. But this isn’t crocodile tears and wailing, there’s an austerity to it - a stiff upper lip - concealing a truly heartbroken character. My grandmother loved flowers, she grew irises among others, and she loved colors of red and purple. We were close; she was a lovely person whom I dearly loved. When she passed I wore Iris Silver Mist to her funeral. Black suit, with a purple tie for her, and Iris Silver Mist. The perfume reminded me to be austere, strong, and keep a stiff upper lip - but feel the emotions and accept them as well. Like Apres L’Ondee, it’s a perfume I love that precisely pokes at a specific spot in my heart, but I can rarely wear it. It’s strange to think that something I love so much can rarely receive my attention. But there it sits in one of my perfume cabinets, austere and available, ready to lend a shoulder when I need it.

Serge Lutens #10 – A blank canvas, a gift to imagination. At times i catch myself window shopping on the official Serge Lutens website. I could never afford to buy a bottle at full retail price so im content with simply browsing through the offerings. When i clicked on the Flacons de Tables category, lo and behold, the first one on the list was Iris Silver Mist. A while ago I’ve managed to get a sample through a fellow fragrance enthusiast who knows im enamoured with the house of Serge Lutens but I set the sample aside, waiting for the right time to test it. Being aware that the scent is within my grasp, i stopped and stared at the picture of the beautiful Bell Jar and the grey, mist colored liquid inside. In my mind, a series of questions emerged: “What will you speak to me? What is hiding in the Mist? Will i find serenity or will i spiral down into despair with the realisation that im lost?” Setting aside these thoughts, i said to myself not today, not yet. Today, the time for this mythical perfume has arrived. My intuition was that it would be a wispy and ethereal fragrance and i was concerned that perhaps it would be too quiet, too...nothing. I hoped for a mysterious and other-wordly perfume that still has a bit of a body and nouance. My intuition and dare i say concern was in many ways correct because it is indeed an ethereal fragrance, true to its name, but thankfully it got my brain going. Iris Silver Mist doesn’t hide anything in the Mist, its the Mist itself. It doesn’t feel like a perfume at all, there are no distinct aromas here, no discernable notes that would make me reference other perfumes. It is more like a sensation, as if the nose would have an abstract conversation with the brain about how the Mist feels like. Imagine this: You are going on a week long vacation in the mountains at the beginning of September. Summer didn’t completly pass so you are rather lightly dressed but, to your frustration, the weather turned and it rained for days on end. There isn’t much wind, there's a stillness in the air and the ground is wet from all the rain. The air is cold and it feels as if Summer itself invited Autumn to play a trick on you and ruin your vacation. A thick, cold and unpassable mist forms on the mountain and goosebumps litter your skin as soon as you leave the warmth of your cabin. The moist of the mist physically envelops you, dampening your clothes and skin. Only echoes of falling trees deep in the forest break the eerie and cemetery-like silence and only the hoots of owls keep you from thinking you are the last living creature on the planet. To snap back to reality, i must admit that as fun as it was to let my imagination run wild for a bit, given the price of the fragrance, its not worth it for me. The scent has little going on to my nose, and if i sever it from poetic thoughts, it holds little else. As i mentioned earlier, it doesn’t come across as a perfume but rather like a chalky, clinical scent. I get the rootiness of the Iris but that too comes across as inorganic. It lacks a touch of color that i crave for and even tho it succesfully captures the imagery of a Mist, it leaves me wanting for more then that.

I love it so much; it smells like a carrot is haunting you.

An austere, pale-green, dusty iris. Every iris I own has its own beauty, and this one has a very particular feeling. It’s melancholic and cocooning at once; like shivering under a duvet, trying to warm up: you’re sheltered, yet you still feel the cold… The vegetal, earthy facet of carrot seeds emerges more clearly toward the heart. I enjoy that note, but the selective should take heed. As it develops, the pale-green iris begins to grey; like Silent Hill ash drifting down from the sky. What remains is a cold, musky powder, a hush that closes the door gently from the inside. Edit: I’ve spent quite a bit of time with this perfume, and I’m experiencing something interesting: sometimes I get that cold, crisp vibe I described earlier, and other times it turns into a violet-heavy, vintage powdery feel. It’s fascinating… Tag(s): cold iris, pale green, violet, melancholic, cocooning, austere, vintage lipstick

Looking to sample this. If you want to swap a 2ml of this for 2ml of something I have, please DM me. USA only please

Such an unusual scent. The opening is reminiscent of carrots, subtly sweet, with a waxy feeling, which I found odd at first. I can't really feel anything metallic like some said, it's waxy and powdery. It's quite delicate, feels like something distant, dreamy, lost in the mist... otherworldly. An intriguing, beautiful, ethereal fragrance. It really has the color of its name: pale, misty, silvery with a touch of lilac. The silver here is not metallic, it's like a shimmery, iridescent dust.

iris maxed out and the scent if very well done but it is just so nuclear

This scent is gorgeous. I recently got a 1ml vial and I'm already dreading the day I run out. This perfume is spectacularly androgynous. It's smooth and earthly and distinctly floral. Though this scent is best for Winter days, it reminds me of Summer afternoons in the Midwestern backyard of my Catholic grandmother- fresh-cut grass and the scent of trees high in the air.

This is a "perfect storm" fragrance. It was built on the foundation of an overdose of a raw material called orivone, which is orris-smelling but has some terpenic offnotes. The way the perfumer built around this, keeping both the orris note along with the terpenic freshness to combine into this masterpiece is something extraordinary. The marketing team who chose the name of this fragrance must also be commended, as truly it evokes a certain sparkling mist that is almost as irresistible as the orris itself. This fragrance is a result of brilliant minds coming together at the right place, at the right time. Wonderful, captivating, and enjoyable all the way.

the inital opening is just this perfect scent of delicious blackberries, but very quickly it becomes powdery instead of juicy. then there's some tequila, dusty, and dry. quite atomic and gives me goosebumps. like dirt that's been warmed by the sun, that crumbles in your hands and as it falls to the earth it cools down and becomes cold.. then it kind of smells like various things-- hay, nuts, and carrots, and i smell the green coming out, with a slight rich, cinnamony spice... but still very dry. it's definitely a layered scent, a cold feeling filled with mirth. i just can't imagine enjoying it much on anybody, the dryness and dust near the beginning is too yucky.

Jenny Hval just released an album called Iris Silver Mist in honor of this beauty

A perfume that I appreciate more artistically than I enjoyed wearing, to be honest. Dark and gothic à la Lutens, and most distinctive for its very pronounced carrot like facets - my first impression when I smelled this perfume was in fact boiled carrots (in the best way though). Quite gentle in terms of its presence and somewhat fleeting as iris perfumes usually are, but gorgeous nonetheless.

This perfume is an absolute gem! Truly, such an ethereal masterpiece. In the opening, my nose somehow detects lavender. It comes off a bit medicinal and syrupy at first. However, this quickly dissipates into the purest, dewy iris scent. As you continue to wear it, it takes on an earthy quality as well. It’s a bit eerie, like talking a stroll in a cemetery. This is an iris that transcends time. It feels haunting and crisp, like a wisp of brisk night air blowing through an open window and billowing curtains. Iris silver mist brings to mind the vision of a gentle fog engulfing a moon shrouded garden. Or, perhaps, the apparition of a victorian woman’s ghost wandering about vacant hallways.

An iris plant and a carrot plucked straight from the earth, with the dirt still clinging to the roots. This smells so *vintage* at the same time. Like old expired lipstick. The smell of an abandoned makeup drawer. How can something smell both so earthy and so much like synthetic cosmetics? The answer is Iris.