Irisia Creed for women

Beautiful chypre! I'm just now experiencing it, and it really is lovely and pretty much a chypre lover's dream. I get a lot of galbanum in this too - so it has a similarity with Aliage/Alliage & Devin.

Despite the notes pictured above, I find no fruit in it other than bergamot, so it doesn't go the way of Mitsouko or Femme, but shares much of their make-up. Darker, drier and much more floral - although like others, I'm finding it difficult (at the moment) to get a good fix on the iris in the composition.

Since I've only been wearing for an hour or so, I'll most likely add more (or edit some) later. Right now, I'll just enjoy it ;)

Iris? Huh?

This is a lovely classic, earthy chypre. I could liken it to many other chypres of its time (1968), and as I am a fan of the genre and era it would be a compliment, but let’s just consider it on its own. Classic opening with bitter bergamot and oakmoss. Not floral, not powdery. It really moves in a small range of grassy, woody, earthy and leather tones. What I mean by simple here is that it focuses smartly and cleanly on the bergamot, oakmoss and amber triad (with a lot of galbanum and patchouli) that makes a chypre a chypre. Irisia doesn’t stray off course and remains focused on fine-tuning rather than frill. It demonstrates textbook, classic progression over time and captures the unfolding of tones that defines the chypre.

If I had to characterize Irisia, I’d call it whip-smart.

Contrary to what its name might seem to imply, Creed IRISIA is, except for a five-second floral opening, a dark chypre perfume. Based now on a few cases, I have come to the tentative conclusion that the Creed family delights in anagrammatic names for their perfumes. So, IRISIA = chypre; VANISIA = amber; TUBEREUSE INDIANA = not a lot of tubereuse; and NEROLI SAUVAGE = neither nerolic nor wild.

It may take me a while to crack the code, but this seems to be a good start. Perhaps I'll have to do some research in the Creed family archives to discover the solution to this cabalistic conundrum.

Back to the review: IRISIA bears similarities to both Estee Lauder KNOWING and Chanel CRISTALLE edp (not edt!). Dark, brooding, heavy, soil-rich, brown mossy chypre is what it's all about. Not my favorite subgenre of the chypre family, but on occasion it has its appeal.

I can recommend IRISIA, which has excellent staying power, to anyone who likes KNOWING and CRISTALLE edp. On the other hand, if you dislike either or both of those compositions, you're unlikely to find much of interest in this barely floral, iris-challenged, oak-moss heavy chypre.

To me, this smells like old English ladies ...
A little like moist fallen leaves on an alley in autumn ...
Cannot find something expensive or luxurious about it. Disappointing. Nothing special.

I can see where someone would get the Nursing Home smell from this....if by Nursing Home you mean the lovely older ladies and not the home itself! I pictured those ladies myself, at first. Proper ladies who know how to smell that way. Very feminine, flowery. Then the heart began to assert itself, giving the scent a hint of warming sensuality. By the time I went to pick up my daughter from school, the scent had dried down and I really noticed it in the enclosed space of my car; I smelled Expensive, luxurious, warm....yet still like a lady. And a little like a "good girl" who had spent the afternoon being "bad". Good stuff!

Head Strong, reminds me of a Nursing Home smell, not good at all... So disappointing... Yep thats NH I smell...