I have fallen in ridiculous love with ISM.
Why 'ridiculous?' Well, because it is difficult to find, my husband doesn't really like it, it costs a pretty penny, and it has no half-life to speak of.
And, yet... there is nothing in the world of perfumery that smells remotely like it. (If you've found something, please PM me.) It is also unlike anything else in my previous perfume collection: it has zero animalics, it is not in the least seductive-smelling, its opening is almost bitterly, freezingly ozonic, and yet now I can't go a day without smelling and re-smelling it.
I have already gone through two of the 30 ml travel sprays and my interest and infatuation shows no signs of lessening. If anything, it's becoming a slightly worrisome obsession.
I guess, perhaps, the most powerful love interests are those that are somewhat inexplicable. It's becoming ever-more apparent that a bell jar of this weirdly haunting and magical scent is definitely in my future.
Christina by Amedeo Modigliani, 1916
Iris right away - lovely, haunting iris. Light cedar. A slight hay smell. A hint of clove. Light vetiver somewhere in here. Honestly, iris is pretty much all I smell. Love it!
Supreme sombre/neutral resinous (almost edible) smoothness, a spicy melange of musky (powdery) iris, labdanum, resins and balminess, a scent initially somewhat humid/earthy/rooty but finally musky and rubbery (galbanum and frankincense) with a spicy leafy/floral undiscernible spark. Iris is dominant (though the floral vibe is more complex), kind of boise, spicy (mostly cloves) "lipstick" and definitely smooth a la V&A Bois d'Iris. Incense and amber provide a quite misty/resinous/powdery/suedish/gummy pop-clubby dark atmosphere. Refined (with its earthy-floral twist) and glamour, definitely avantgarde for the time it was conceived.
Simply the best! An iris for iris lovers. Take everything you know about iris in perfume and throw it away because that was all child’s play. This here smells like you stabbed the soil with your bare hands and dug up a buried rhizome in the garden. It’s moist, sweet, metallic and a touch disturbing. But alas it is also dry, doughy, and like the breath of an angel. Sillage is close to the skin but it’s the kind of somber and beautiful grey day scent that you want to sit close. I love this stuff. I am on my second bottle and it just feels feels right to me. My brain just must be receptive to these notes. Some people loathe ISM and I do not doubt their sincerity. But some people, myself included, can’t live without it.
All orris facets in a perfume. From fresh green, to powdery violet, to suede leathery to rooty.
An art piece!!!
SECRET: Keep your distance from where you apply it.
It is NOT a perfume to be experienced by digging your nose on your wrist.
If you do that you only smell incense-vetiver-carnation sourness.
Instead, my advice is to apply it inside your jacket-coat or behind your knees.
This way you smell the fog of a buttered, doughy orris!!!
Unique!