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Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris
Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca
Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea
Estee Lauder Private Collection
Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss
Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée
Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie
Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette
Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine
In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)
L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer
Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles
More Roses (rose cookie recipe)
My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)
Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline
Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars
Perfume Quotes - The English Patient
Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within
Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre
Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle
Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Hermes Hiris: Unconventional Beauty
Often when trying on a fragrance for the first time an image will spring to mind, and when I first tried Hermes Hiris, a solifore iris scent, the image that sprang to mind was Cher. To be more specific, Cher circa the early 1970s (before the tattoos and the plastic surgeries).
In my adolescent years, the only glamour I knew came from television—and living far out in the country, even TV glamour was limited to three channels (on a good day—less than that when lousy weather messed up the reception of our antenna). There were more conventionally beautiful women than Cher whom I remember from that time (Elizabeth Montgomery from Bewitched, for instance), but none could hold a candle to Cher’s combination of raw geometry, smoldering sensuality, and risqué glamour. Admittedly, the latter had a lot to do with her appeal: the satin, sequined costumes designed by Bob Mackie that Cher wore on the Sonny and Cher Show were mesmerizing not only for their decadence, but for their skin-baring design that revealed Cher in all of her feline sleekness. At the tantalizing border where sequins met flesh lay the flat expanse of Cher’s taut abdomen; the fine outline of rib above it, the silky long legs below, and the angular plane of cocked hip, visible even when fully clothed, somewhere near the middle. And then, of course, there was her sheath of raven hair, and the face that was too long but which captivated with its slant of high cheekbones, aquiline nose, and dark eyes that seemed distant and aloof, suggesting that no matter how much the rest of Cher was on display, she was a private woman who didn’t give up anything she didn’t want to give up. Cher was one of the few celebrities who could bare a lot of skin and not look cheap—who, quite the opposite, looked rather expensive—and I think it was this languid aloofness, this untouchable expression that gave her an almost regal bearing. (Sadly, all of that changed in the 1980s and 90s, in what seemed a desperate bid to hang onto her status as Sexual Diva Extraordinaire, when she began flaunting her tattooed buttocks to the MTV generation.)
So how is it that Hermes Hiris conjures an image for me of 1970s Cher? I suppose it is because it is a fragrance of unconventional beauty. It starts off with the scent of a root being pulled from raw earth—earth that is dark, cool, a bit metallic and a bit unyielding. Hiris is a streamlined, bare bones kind of scent; it has Cher’s angularity, her sleek nakedness, though not her adornment. This scent has no sequins, no heady or lush assemblage of notes that act as accoutrement, but neither does it need them: Hiris is enigmatic because of its raw, dark quality, which, in time, yields to something softer and more translucent. As it dries down, Hiris takes on a little more of the powdery quality that iris is known for in perfumery, yet the earthiness never completely fades away. As a whole, the fragrance is almost a study of the perfumer’s iris: unlike tuberose, rose, jasmine, or other floral notes, iris is an essence that is derived from the root of the plant, not the flower. Also known as orris root, the best iris comes from Florence, Italy, and it is harvested, dried and aged for up to five years, during which time the fats and oils in the roots undergo oxidation, producing its fragrant compounds.
__________________________________________________________ 1000 Fragrances Scented Salamander
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Bergamotto e Benzoino
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Bloody Frida
Bois de Jasmin
Bonkers About Perfume
ChickenFreak's Obsessions
Fragrance Bouquet
Glass Petal Smoke
Grain de Musc
Hortus Conclusus
LunarSoul's Weblog
Memory & Desire
Muses in Wooden Shoes
Nathan Branch
Notes on Shoes, Cake & Perfume
Notes From the Ledge
Now Smell This
Olfactarama
Parfümieren
PereDePierre
Perfume Posse
Perfume Shrine
Perfume-Smellin' Things
Sakecat's Scent Project
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Sweet Diva
Tea, Sympathy and Perfume
The Non-Blonde
WAFT by Carol