Nefertiti
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Company description: The Beautiful One Is Come? Egyptian iris and olibanum with red and white sandalwood, soft myrrh and a breath of North African herbs

A perfumer friend once explained to me that iris in perfumery can smell like any number of things depending on what iris material was used – violets, lipstick, raw potatoes, silver, and so on. The iris note in Nefertiti is wet, green, and possessed of a luridly sweet ‘purple’ facet that makes me think immediately of violets. It is quite a beautiful note – simple but emotionally pure. After a few minutes a minty anise shows up to underscore its sweet herbaciousness. There is a rugged hay-like earthiness to the scent that reminds me of the rural landscapes conjured by James Heeley in both Iris de Nuit and Cuir Pleine Fleur, the first of which revolves around a very violety iris, and the second an earthy but refined mixture of hay, tobacco, and violet leaf.

Not one iota of the listed sandalwood or frankincense registers, although perhaps they are there somewhere, shoring up that green, dewy centerpiece. Myrrh is faintly noticeable, but it is the saline ‘stoniness’ of the essential oil rather than the sweet, honeyed guise it can sometimes take. The most important thing the myrrh does is to strengthen the minty-anisic feel of the herbs flanking the iris. Nefertiti is both beautiful and accomplished. Well worth trying if you like iris and want an offbeat take on it.

I tried this one early yesterday evening, and could still smell it when I woke up this morning.

The list of notes says that it's iris and sandalwood, though on my skin it read as VIOLET, maybe even ULTRAVIOLET.

At the time I applied it I liked it but felt it was so potent and so floral it wasn't "me". But that didn't stop me from sniffing my wrist every few minutes, and when that happens, I know it means that a frag may eventually be coming home with me.

Black Phoenix scents are kind of insidious that way.