- Musk de Lumière
- The materials
- Orris
The materials · Flowers
Orris
The patient root
- Botanical name
- Iris pallida
- Origin
- Distilled in Grasse, France
- Part used
- Rhizomes, aged three years
- Extraction
- Steam distillation, orris butter
From Grasse, France to the atelier in New Jersey
Orris is the slowest material in perfumery. The iris is dug from the ground, its roots are peeled and dried, and then they wait. Three years, in the dark, while the scent inside them slowly forms. Nothing else I use asks for so much patience, and nothing else rewards it so completely.
What orris is
Orris is the rhizome of Iris pallida, the pale iris, and its scent comes not from the flower but from the root. Freshly dug, the rhizome smells of almost nothing. As it dries and ages over three years, a chemical change slowly produces irones, the molecules that give orris its powdery violet, woody, faintly fruity character. The aged roots are then steam distilled to give orris butter, a waxy solid so concentrated that it is measured by the gram. It is among the most costly natural materials in the world.
Where our orris comes from
Our orris butter is distilled in Grasse, in the south of France, the historic capital of perfumery, where the craft of aging and distilling iris roots has been practised for generations. Our formula books record the place of distillation rather than the field, and so that is what I print. Grasse is where the transformation happens, where the dried roots are ground and distilled by houses that have been doing it for a century, and the character of the butter, its cleanness and its depth, comes from that expertise as much as from the root.
How orris smells
Delicate, sweet, warm and powdery floral, reminiscent of violet, with mellow woody undertones. It smells of face powder and violet petals, of cool suede and pale wood, and it gives everything around it a softness that no other material can.
Orris in our chapter
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IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the heart
In Paradis de Bleu it sits at the centre of the heart, the powdery violet softness among the green flowers that makes the whole chapter feel like silk.
A note from the atelier
Orris is the material that separates a fragrance from a perfume. It is invisible and everywhere, and the moment you take it away the composition loses its skin.
Questions about orris
What does orris smell like in perfume?
Orris smells powdery, soft and floral, like violet petals and fine face powder, with a cool woody, faintly suede like depth. It gives fragrances an elegant, velvety texture.
Why is orris so expensive?
Iris rhizomes must be aged for three years before their scent develops, then distilled at very low yield to make orris butter. The time and the small yield make it one of the costliest natural materials.
Which Musk de Lumière fragrance contains orris?
Paradis de Bleu carries orris butter distilled in Grasse in the heart.
The Perfumer · Musk de Lumière
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