Irisia 
Creed (1968)

Amazing, old-school scent. Like finding a bottle of of Halston at an antique store, a fragrance full of forbidden ingredients. This is a perfume that is not afraid to smell like a perfume; it iis a composition in the classic style. This smells a bit like a drier, wiser version of Knowing, or a more feminine Yatagan. It smells like it has real oakmoss. It's no longer listed on the Creed website, although it is still available online. Unisex, too.

Probably one of the more masculine florals I've tried. It's basically a floral chypre, but instead of powder and aldehydes like these usually use, it's built on Creed's signature woody chypre skeleton, so it's more like Bois Du Portugal with flowers than a big feminine flower bomb.

From the top, Creed's signature lemony bergamot gives Irisia a masculine edge. Given a while, the flowers come into full bloom (on me, it's all limpid green florals, as opposed to anything specific), but they're tempered by a strong sawdusty sandalwood. The iris is so dry and dusty that it almost smells like it's part of the sandalwood - I wouldn't suggest Irisia as an iris-lovers fragrance. It eventually dries down to a dark galbanum/moss chypre base with lingering sandalwood.

On a personal note, years ago, Irisia was the first floral perfume I ever really fell for. I'd been test-wearing florals for a while just because Basenotes said I should, but it was Irisia that proved to me that flowers could smell really good on me and that I could wear them with impunity, so it will always have a soft spot in my heart.

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.

Am (inexplicably?) down on Creeds, and this is remarkable for being one of just a few of theirs that I like and would wear. It's a pleasant, leathery iris on me, not dissimilar to Lauder's Azuree. "Nice."