Irisoir
Attar, Sultan Pasha (2017)

Irisoir is Sultan Pasha’s tribute to his favorite period on history for art and culture – the Belle Époque. This is an interesting take on iris. It is extremely difficult to find iris showcased well in attar form, because the oil format tends to compress the delicate nuances of orris butter, a material so ethereal it requires oxygen to reveal its true magic. But not only does Irisoir succeed in displaying all the cold, silvery aspects of orris butter, it manages to keep it up front and center thanks to a thoughtful arrangement of supporting cast members. In the opening, there is the spine-tingling aroma of iris rhizome – rooty, ice-picky, and almost poisonously pure, like the iris note in Iris Silver Mist honed to a shiv. Interestingly, although there is no oud in the composition, I smell a funky note of fermented pear or peach juice, a note I often pick up in Cambodi oud. This provides interest to the iris, its fruit rot smearing the purity of the root.

Soon, a doughy floral mélange swells up to support the iris note, dominated by the lush almondy nuances of heliotrope. This thick, almost marzipan-like heart is spiced generously with carnation, whose spicy clove character brings the central accord into the orbit of Guerlain’s L’Heure Bleue. The iris note still reigns supreme, but naturally, some of its more ethereal facets are swallowed by the doughy heart that now holds it aloft. This cherry-pit note laces the florals with a poisonous bitterness, melding perfectly with the chilly death glare of that iris. Tonka bean in the base throws its own creamy almond-like nuances into the ring, mixed with bitter hay and grasses.

Irisoir from Sultan Pasha. Easily ranks among my favorite Orris-based compositions.

An Iris perfume with a vintage touch and a Victorian flair, incredibly rich and sumptuous. It smells so thick and creamy that I feel like it's choking me if inhaled deeply. Being an attar and a base-heavy composition, it feels rather monolithic, almost not progressing much, yet it does. However, slowly and over a long period. The top phase is consumed quickly, and the heart and base spend a long time on the skin. There is a hint of spiciness and some zesty fruits in the opening and after, it's full-on Orris. It is slightly punctuated by other florals such as candied violets and spicy carnations. The Orris, however, is the star of the show. Powdery, creamy, almost cocoa-like at times. The overall buttery texture might render a chocolaty sensation, occasionally. And what better way to complement this beautiful material than by marrying it to sandalwood and ambergris? Both show themselves more as the perfume consumes on the skin, but the Orris always feels in control. The refreshing zesty fruitiness from the opening is stretched long into the heart of the composition, and almost into the dry-down, and that is why I say that it feels like it has no progression, but I think it is rather a slow and seamless process that makes everything feel so compact and dare I say, monolithic. A beauty of an attar. Alluring, dark with an edge, full of glamour, and decadently rich in both texture and flavor.

IG:@memory.of.scents

I came to Sultan Pasha for his exquisite ouds and deep layered chypres, stayed for his fougeres and now… somehow I think his belle epoque classical French compositions have somehow become my favorite attars. I really don’t know how. Initially I dismissed Irisoir and Violette Noyee but they absolutely sing in a way my favorite Guerlains(apres L’ondee, l’heure bleue, et al) haven’t been lately. I’m baffled. This stuff is very good.

I guess I can't expect to like all the samples( of which there are 30 )received of SSP Attars. This scent dries down to an accord of Ceremonial Sweetgrass, which for some is sublime and sacred. Particularly when burned for it's ceremonial. Reaction to my skin produces a reedy, whiney overpowering rather monotone
melody.
I'm much more comfortable with the decay of resins, Grandflorums, Citrus on my skin.

A very floral and feminine iris coupled with violet is what I get which does become more buttery. After a while you can detect hints of lavender and peach with a slightly sweet mimosa joining the composition. The first hour or so the projection is very good until it withdraws to become closer to you.

Not my cup of tea as it smells too feminine, would smell great on a lady but I just could not pull this one off. After three hours it's basically a skin scent, it does not perform as well as some of his other compositions but that could just be skin chemistry.

When I first encountered Sultan Pasha's series of Iris notes, I have to admit I was stunned - from a lot of modern western perfumery Iris usually comes across in one of a few ways: powdery, waxy (which usually comes from a more 'raw' orris root note,) in a way smelling like it's infamous bread-like rhizomes (which again come from either the orris root or butter) or like a synthetic coolness that to me doesn't ever feel like iris/orris, but becomes simply 'that synthetic note' which is used to re-present iris. None of these are the feelings I get from the Sultan Pasha fragrances whereupon iris is prominently displayed. For instance, Masque Millano's wonderful L'Attesa is a great example of the starchy, buttery, and waxy/dusty orris root/butter, which can be used amazingly to contrast with Irisoir, which reads a lot more to me as a Pure Iris Flower if such a thing can be spoken of in fragrance. Of course in both situations there are a tonne of notes being used to create the total representation of a note, and to amplify or curve other notes - if you can imagine a photo-realistic painting of an iris for instance, there is of course a lot more at play that simply depicting an image of an iris - and ultimately the 'framing' or the work is another way through which the master artist is constructing the whole of the iris to be displayed.

All of this is to say that, in works like Irisoir, there is a lot more at play than simply the 'note of iris' despite the fact that, to me, iris is the entire image focused on in this work. I do get Cedar, violet, carnation, heliotrope, lilac, rose, sandalwood, ambergris, peach, and vetiver for sure at various movements throughout this work, for it is one through which the fruity, woody, ambered, and slightly spicy elements of iris are explored, and while violet does read at times as a 'primary note' it never replaces the iris as the focal point for me, and ultimately becomes that which displays again the lovely iris flower itself - more often than not by creating the very leaves of the iris itself - while the mimosa, carnation lilac seem to speak to the temperament of the iris, and the carnation perhaps as a pollen of sorts, while the cedar, sandalwood and ambergris the environment which the iris itself grows in. The peach and rose add a honeyed/ambered element through which you can almost taste the sweetened dew dripping from the flower itself. Irisoir is an absolutely masterful work which prompts me to say again what I said at the end of my first series of notes on this fragrance: "it feels luxurious and a true celebration of florals with a direction that indeed seems to guide one towards an unspoken manifesto of the ways in which florals should be."

A very rare iris, and one which lovers of the note MUST experience.
10/10

YT: Jess AndWesH