Happy Friday, happy World Red Cross Day, and happy Iris Day! (Also, happy birthday to Sir David Frederick Attenborough and to my little sister.) Our community project for today: wear an iris fragrance, if you have one.
What fragrance did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.
I’m in Prada Infusion d’Iris Absolue, my favorite reasonably priced iris…
We open with irises at Sissinghurst Castle Garden, from 2017. Below the jump, bearded irises blooming this week at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Alice Hahn Goodman Iris Garden, followed by a short film from International Flavors & Fragrances’ in-house naturals facility, Laboratoire Monique Rémy, on the French orris harvest (this is a 2016 video that we already posted back in 2017).
I like to check in with A Lab On Fire on a regular basis, just to see what they’ve been up to. This brand has won my respect over the years, not just for what they do but for what they don’t do. They work with top-notch perfumers to offer unusual but wearable fragrances with quirky back-stories — some of the characteristics that originally attracted me to niche perfumery. Meanwhile, the brand maintains an opacity and reserve that are all but extinct in 2019: no interviews with photogenic creative directors (indeed, no photos of the creative director at all!), no launch parties, no ingratiating social media presence, no peppy PR emails, no free bottles sent to “influencers.”
I’ve owned What We Do In Paris Is Secret and Rose Rebelle Respawn for a long time, and I’ve liked nearly all the other fragrances I’ve sampled from this house, even if I’m chronically lagging behind the newer releases…
Playing the role of counselor to my own addiction, I might ask: “What about expensive scented candles (average cost: $100) appeals to you, Kevin?” Lots of things! Well-chosen candles have perfume-quality aromas. I can vouch for $cented candles by Annick Goutal, Astier de Villatte, Cire Trudon, Diptyque, D.L. & Co., Frédéric Malle…and, now, Ormonde Jayne.
Often, scented-candle packaging is beautiful, too. I can make one helluva candle display around the holidays using empty vessels that once housed extravagantly priced scented candles…
Just beyond the tiny village of San Polo (about a 30-minute drive from Florence) sits the Pruneti Farm. Surrounded by steep hillsides purpled by blossoms, the mill has been operational for nearly two centuries. Today, brothers Paolo and Gionni Pruneti are dedicated to preserving the traditional methods of orris extraction, a costly, labour-intensive process passed down from generation to generation.
— Read more at Orris: The world’s rarest perfume ingredient at BBC Travel. Hat tip to PekeFan!