Iris de Nuit fragrance notes
Head
- angelica seed, ambrette
Heart
- iris absolute, violet, carrot seed
Base
- ambergris, white cedar
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Latest Reviews of Iris de Nuit


I like this. While, on the surface, it feels like a simple iris perfume, there's a lot of depth here. Thumbs up!
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Floral beauty. Iris is centre certainly, however it does melange gently into the other notes in such a way that hints at a transparency and yet a dream-like fuzz.
Drydown offers a soft powdered soap.
Very nice however I prefer touch of Castoreum and Cinnamon Violets of Cuir Pleine Fleur.



I get moderate sillage, good projection and ten hours of longevity on my skin.
Whilst I am not mad about the second have of the development of this creation, this iris, whilst not competing with the great classics, is one of the very well executed contemporary iris creations. 3.25/5.

It's also one of those rare fragrances that clearly emits a color like other fragrances emit a sound or an image. If you're someone who experiences scents in a synesthetic way, then you must try this fragrance and tell me if you agree.
There is a wistful tone to this fragrance that reminds me somewhat of Après L'Ondee with its similarly doleful air. But although it shares some of its faintly anisic, herbal qualities, Iris de Nuit feels very much of this century modern, streamlined, bound to this earth - not cut adrift in a permanent fugue state.
Iris de Nuit is a clean, transparent fragrance, but the ambrette seed adds a vegetal, muskiness that blurs the sharp edges of the violets and iris until it takes on a slightly fur-like texture. Angelica root imparts the green, mouth-sucking astringency of green rhubarb stalks, less of a smell than a crisp, herbal taste I can read with the back of my tongue. In the base, there is a slight herbal saltiness from ambergris and a haunting woodiness.
But the details hardly matter you can't dissect such haunting loveliness. Every note in this fragrance knits in so tightly with the others that one gets just an overall impression of a series of overlapping tints and tones duck-egg blue fading into violet and then night blue, like being inside a cubist's art installation or just standing on a dusty road somewhere watching darkness fall.

This is definitely a dandy's iris (male or female)--neither powdery nor prim. With its cooling effect, this wears more like a splash. It has nice sillage compared to some of the other "straight" irises I've tried. We'll see how long it lasts.

So Iris de Nuit by James Heeley is a fragrance composed around orris root, the root of the iris flower. Personally, I love iris. My signature perfume has an iris/orris root note and I love how it smells clean and earthy at the same time! Here we have a clean, slightly earthy orris note paired with powdery violet and clean vegetable musk (ambrette seed). A very clean musk. There is also a carrot seed note which I think must be similar to (although I haven't tried it - Hermès - Hiris, which has the same note). Either way, I like this one... and as I was wearing it today I received a compliment! Which rarely happens! To me this reminds me of very clean laundry sheets, and earthy powder (hard to describe actually)! A lovely fragrance. Especially as I am a huge fan of iris/orris root. For me personally I have already found my perfect iris fragrance, which does not smell like this one. So for me I don't think I would buy but if you like a "clean" but interesting smell you could try it out.

Heeley's iris scent is a lovely one, as close in its dark rooty ambience as any I've smelled to Maurice Roucel's iconic Iris Silver Mist for Serge Lutens. Iris de Nuit shares with Iris Silver Mist both a hint of anise and a certain doughy, almost foody character lacking in most other iris scents I know. It is, however, at once milder and more natural smelling than the Lutens, and so I find it easier to wear.
On the downside, sillage and projection are both moderate at best, and I have to apply a lot of Iris de Nuit before I start noticing it. Whether olfactory fatigue contributes here or not I cannot tell. The rooty, yet oddly translucent iris accord persists in a linear fashion, fading, rather than altering, into its soft, musky-woody drydown. Iris de Nuit is neither very powdery nor very floral, and I believe it could be worn with ease by either men or women. Though not among the strongest, I do think it one of the finest iris-centered scents available.

8,5/10

A soft and subtle iris with good sillage and projection..
Kind of plastic smelling imo in the opening with a very mellow cedar and amber drydown. Very tamed..
Well composed but not my cup of tea..