Reviews of Iris Silver Mist (1994)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

I'm learning that perfumes that are commonly described as "cool" rarely ever excite me. I like drama and spice. That said, Iris Silver Mist doesn't strike me as scary (like CB Black March) or insipid (like Apres l'Ondee.) It goes on smelling like freshly pulled carrots, which isn't unpleasant. The carrot is joined by a tiny, tiny bit of spice and a lot of cool notes, like fresh earth and cold air. The overall impression is silky smooth and quiet -- maybe too quiet. I keep waiting for something to happen, but no, it's lightly spiced carrots and cool air all the way down. After testing for an hour or so today, I started to get a mild headache, which might or might not be associated with the perfume.

Certainly nothing unpleasant, but just kind of, eh. I'll keep a little bit of my sample around. Maybe I'll get it some day.

If you think seriously of beginning a collection of niche perfumes, but you have still not found THE one, that will inspire you in order to continue, I suggest you try Iris Silver Mist. Moreover if you like Iris root note and seek the genuine smell of it, I believe you will have the chance to find it in this magnificent juice. No “make up” applied, no other notes predominating at the background, just pure Iris that goes from rooty, earthy and maybe a little dirty, to deep, musky and powdery. Although it is not a mainstream, from the middle notes and on, it becomes so calm and close to the skin that it is difficult to completely dislike it. Undoubtedly unisex, unoffensive and easy to wear anytime of the day. Just great!

Carroty Iris in the opening. Violety Iris in the middle. Cold like winter air. Rooty Iris at the end.
Very good showcase of Iris.

Not sure about the top note; seems somewhat harsh. A strong carrot pyrazine green. However this soon goes and what is left is pure, cold powdery orris. It lasts a very long time, and is wonderful

Icy and sinister, like the frozen earth on a winter morning. This is undoubtably the best iris fragrance I have encountered. Iris to the max without being overwhelming. A masterpiece.

Iris, most elegant, wearing evening clothing of the finest cut and material, hands scented with cinnamon, kneels in the garden, where black damp earth and soil-flecked carrots rub together upon her.
Sublime. A must try. The smell of twilight.

Way too carroty at the beginning. The iris as it develops is also really strong and does not smell fresh, but rather heavy. No comparison at all to the lovely Iris Pallida.

I am not a fan of iris if its not properly blended in with other notes. I`m not sure why, but I simply have always found that rooty, powdery aroma quite unpleasant in action. Its always been an interesting smell, but not something I`d like to wear.

Iris Silver Mist is no exception. It smells sort of interesting, no doubt. Its very earthy, rooty. Its very pure and sophisticatedly raw.

But I just don`t feel myself comfortable wearing this. It doesn`t make me feel good. It makes me restless.

I get the connection between this and carrots. However, oddly enough I absolutely love carrots, and as an vegeterian I eat them allmost every day in a form or another...

Oh well.

Iris Silver Mist (great name!) is pretty straighforward iris root fragrance, but I also get very clear cinnamon note here. The whole composion is masterfully sweetened by benzoin.

Aloof and unfriendly. Extremely woody iris with notes of incense. There's no warmth and definitely a dirt note. While it's not a bad scent, it's definitely not an image I want to project. Too cold and snobby somehow.

Iris Silver Mist has allowed me to attain a giant leap forward into understanding, appreciating and encompassing the iris note in all of it's facets.

The top notes are rooty-tooty (beet root?) and carrot smelling. A little dirt, but definitely cold dirt. The iris note interwoven at this point does have that classic 'lipstick' smell that only I get from iris, however (maybe I'm used to it already, maybe this scent is different?) it isn't quite as powdery as other iris scents (Dior Homme, Hiris, Prada Infusion d'Iris). I find the dirt provides just the right backdrop to the iris scent. It's incredibly hard to describe in words, because it smells nothing like other scents that smell like dirt (Route du Vetiver, Dark Earth, Dirt by Demeter) - no other scent captures the smell of cold dirt like ISM.

The middle and base notes allow the scent to really fill out and deepen to a resolutely iris absolute accord. It not only smells more like iris, the smell is more wide-angle (iris HD!) - I swear I got the visual image today of how clouds might smell in the sky. Not ozonic. Just airy, ethereal... I hope I'm not coming across as too artistic and fluffy in my descriptions, but this scent really does evoke a feeling of serenity and meditation in me. Long stretches of time today, I thoroughly enjoyed moving around my office in articulated silences - in awe of this scent swirling all around me. It also manages to avoid being sweet on my skin, although many reviews I've read about ISM mention it as a gourmand. Strange.

Longevity is excellent, sillage is above average - fans of Dior Homme should love this, since I think it smells entirely unisex.

I must say that personally, I prefer a much greener iris note (Le Labo Iris 39) - but after several wearings I now own my first bell jar of ISM.

Fantastic!

Very deep Serge Lutens scent that deserves more reviews.
This is one of the strangest scents I ever smelt. Iris is predominant and remains strong after several hours.
This is a niche scent that you won't find everywhere but if you wear it you'll be for sure unique.

My first thought after spraying was, "Interesting, nice, but why would I want to smell like a rutabaga?" I tried to like it, but didn't. Tried again, still no. Then I kinda liked it, but would never actually buy it.

And now I must buy it. It grows on you. It really does. I was told it would, but I didn't believe it. This will be a perfume just for me, as those around me may well wonder why I smell like a rutabaga. Oh well.

The beginning reminds me of freshly grated carrots, which is not really unpleasant, just weird.

Then the carrots fade, leaving a sickening smell of sewing machine oil. Or the oil used to oil bicycles.

I'm staying away from this.

A unique, sombre and potent fragrance which certainly isn't for everybody or for every occasion. For me this captures the spirit of Edward Gorey in a bottle: a monochrome, gloomy cloud silver-lined with shining wit, beautifully drawn by a masterful hand, and perhaps best worn at the wake of a favorite pet.

From the very first sniff, Iris Silver Mist is all about the iris. I grow irises, and they need regular thinning. When the rhizomes (or 'roots') are dug up, fresh from the damp rich soil ~ this is what ISM smells like! Incredible! Earthy, moist and a bit vegetal. Soon, the powdery facet of this frag kicks in, accompanied by sweet violet. I love the distinct evolution this scent possesses. As it settles, the iris, earth and violets are grounded in spicy woods that slowly ease...calming into a magnifiscent base, which retains the best of each note within it's composition. It is luminous. Iris Silver Mist is so very worthy of a sampling...if not the whole bottle!

Oh thank you Lord. This scent is perfectly named, it presents the root as a comet, the earth as the moon, paramours orbiting each other, both silvery and warm. It is transfigured celery or turnip. I wonder if it could do with one more glinting note amid this intoxicating soup of earth (cuts off the hand that wrote those impious words). A comparison with CB I Hate Perfume Black March would be in order. But this is way out there beyond that - stratospherically good.

It starts woody and earthy on me, and in the finish it's the powdery violets of orris with a touch of leather. Certainly not unpleasant ... no more so than (say) Guerlain Vetiver, another earthy and rooty favorite of mine. Thumbs up - way up.

Okay. Now, I know I'm supposed to like this. All the perfumistas seem to, and Dr. Turin gives it five stars. Well, I'm supposed to like lots of other things too, like Frank Zappa, show-quality classic Siamese cats, Blahnik shoes, Jeff Koons, half-rotted liquefying cheese, the fungus that grows on corn, and other such delicacies. I just don't. And it isn't because I haven't tried!

It's like spraying vodka on your arm, and then it becomes...unpleasant, flat, metallic and it just won't go away.

Who on earth wants to smell like this? "Bug spray," said my plain-spoken husband, and for once I agree with him.

Is there some form of mass hysteria at work here? Like when that housewife in Georgia was certain she'd been visited by the Virgin Mary, and throngs of the like-minded showed up to camp out in her yard?

People, it may be Serge, and it may be ultra-exclusive, and liking it may admit you to some secret society of the olfactory intelligentsia, but...it doesn't smell good!

It doesn't smell good.

I got an eagerly awaited sample of Iris Silver Mist and on me, it smelled like an ashtray. A luxurious ashtray owned by an elegant lady in the 1950's but ashes all the same. By the way- it lasts a VERY long time....

Iris Silver Mist is buttery and semi-sweet from the start, with its suave iris grounded on a woody foundation and seasoned with what might even be a dash of chocolate. The opening soon settles into a velvety off-dry accord that blends the super-smooth iris with creamy sandalwood and soft white flowers.

The accord is very elegant, with just enough of a bitter edge to keep it out of gourmand territory, where I'd rather not stray. To me the mid-notes seem more dark brown than silver, and the texture more earthy than metallic or misty. There is a distinct honey note here (this is a Serge Lutens fragrance, after all,) but it is exquisitely tempered by the dry, rooty side of the iris root.

The soft, yet bitter quality of the iris slowly takes over and banishes any suggestions of chocolate that might remain. The iris melds with the woody base in a sumptuous accord that carries the scent toward its spiced wood and incense drydown. This is a very well-crafted and sophisticated scent that handily dodges the syrupy amber quicksand that mires several other offerings from this line. Surely not, as Luca Turin claims, "the only iris fragrance worthy of the name," but certainly one of the best, along with Bois d'Iris, Iris Poudre, and Iris Bleu Gris.

Notes include: iris pallida root, galbanum, cedar, sandalwood, clove, vetiver, musk, Chinese benzoin balsam, incense, and white amber

I feel that the Sheldrake-Lutens style of moroccan honeyed candy infused fragrances is limited. Thus, I was quite relieved to find no listed notes of "honey" , "candied mandarin" or "chocolate covered cashewnuts dipped in sweetened butter" in ISM.

There is a raw and rooty iris note which runs through the entire composition - the immediate opening reveals a doughy iris accord not unlike Hiris. This lasts for mere seconds before the vegetal and earthy iris side is revealed - it smells a like a very raw violet note, but is probably the result of iris, cedar and vetiver coalescing together. I dont find it unnerving or distracting, but I prefer this accord over the Hiris-like iris note which opens ISM. The iris accord then further evolves to a make-up smell like accord which so dominates Dior Hommes iris composition - however here, the accord doesnt smell like a drag queen in heat, and thats probably due to superior note blending as well as ingredients like incense and clove which keep this "make-up" side of iris under check.

Luca Turin called ISM "a total success, the only current iris worthy of the name". Although he is entitled to his opinion, lets not get ahead of ourselves here Turin dear. The guy holds a PhD yet sometimes spews out gems which at times resemble the sophomoric and totally moronic exhaltations of Mr. nincompoop himself, Chandler Burr. Good thing the year was 1994 and the internet hadn't penetrated much of Europe so thankfully many people were safe from his writing (Burr's, not Turin;s). Sure, ISM contains a high quality iris note, and thankfully its not a candied mandarin and honey sensory attack that most Serge Lutens fragrances are, but it does have stiff competition from Hiris and Iris Bleu Gris (IBG). Its iris note lacks the earthy and cold nature of iris found in IBG, which is what makes IBG to me the definite iris accord in perfume. Its also less varied than IBG in its evolution. I dont doubt that ISM contains a high percentage of iris absolute (Serge Lutens was apparently unhappy with Maurice Roucel's initial iris concentration and requested the iris concentration to be doubled many times over - maybe he was likening iris to honey ) but to me, the overall composition doesnt stand out much. At various facets it resembles other iris interpretations, and consequently suffers from a lack of individuality (and especially compared to the other Lutens). Yes, it definitely smells good, and is probably a fragrance you should try if you like the iris note, but I have a feeling that most Lutens fanatics rave over it because its part the "exclusive" line and they would have to make a pilgrimage to the land of Eiffel tower and underarm hair to acquire it - thats part of the allure, isnt it ? Oh and IBG can be had for $110 for a large bottle...still, I give ISM a thumbs up. Finally a quality Lutens I can actually wear !

A very strong smell of wet earth, in a good way, but it is certainly unadorned, unadulterated earth. It makes sense that it is the roots of the iris that are represented. This scent has a very emotional impact of me. The stoic bitterness is like sadness in a bottle, but not bad sadness. Wearing this when I am down has that same sweet painfulness of rubbing a bruise. One of my absolute favourites.
It can be warmed up with layering. I wore it over cuir mauesque and loved it.

Made from the root of the iris. Smells green and root-like. I did not find it interesting or appealing.

A very strange scent for me. I definitely get the dustiness of iris, but the overall impression this scent leaves is of lipstick - thick and pasty. Something about it smells cosmetic on my skin. It's not something that I like, but I suspect it's due to skin chemistry, so I'll forgive Serge this time! Bois d'Iris I think is a touch sweeter and not as thick in this pasty sort of way. L'Homme de Coeur is better all around - clearer, more interesting, less odd, and obviously not smelling of cosmetics. For what I feel is a better unusual take on iris, try Iris Taizo by Parfumerie Generale.

One of my all time favorite fragrances, Iris Silver Mist makes me feel as though I have dug my hands into the ground, dug up fresh irises and crushed them roots and all in my fingers. I would never have thought that something that reminded me of the smell of dirt could be so provocative but this seems to capture the green life potential in the earth and transfer it to your scent receptors. Hypnotic.

One of the most ethereal scents I have ever had the pleasure to smell. In spite of its incredible fragility and airiness, it also smells of damp earth, but so delicately and subtly you wonder how this fragrance was ever anchored down. A masterpiece. I thought its name was pretentious - instead it's more apposite then any perfume I know.

Iris Silver Mist is incredibly beautiful and refined. It has an exquisite ethereal quality that makes it something special. There is a slight metallic edge which for me takes it into the realm of masculine fragrances. If you love THE DIFFERENT COMPANY Bois d'iris and DIVINE L'homme de coeur, you should love this as well.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.


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