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Post by TinaG
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Hi APJ!
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to catch up with Tara from A Bottled Rose on a whirlwind perfume extravaganza in London. We had an amazing day! One store we visited was Les Senteurs which has a fabulous range of fragrances, quite a few which were unknown to me. (Sorry they don’t ship to Aus).
One of my unknowns was Les Eaux Primordiales, a French fragrance company launched in 2015. We had a quick sniff of each of the perfumes on paper, and Murray (who is one of Les Senteurs’ superbly knowledgeable sales assistants) provided me with a sample of Iris Palladium to try later.
So later is now!
Iris Palladium by Les Eaux Primordiales 2015
Iris Palladium by Amélie Bourgeois + Arnaud Poulain
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Italian Bergamot, Carrot Seeds, Sage, Solar Jasmine, Cedar, Patchouli, Labdanum, Sandalwood, Iris, Tonka Bean, White Musk
The iris in the opening of Iris Palladium starts off doughy and thick, before morphing and bring in some metallic / chlorine / carrot notes along with a prominent dusty sweetness that softens the composition, taking off some of the metallic edge. The mix of dust/powder is not so much in the “makeup” category, but is a musk. I tend to shy away from fragrances which list ‘white musk’ as a note, for some I can’t bear at all – sorry to say that the Body Shop fragrance of the same name is one of these. However this doesn’t hit my no-go nasal zone, the musk is pleasant, soft and warm.
At 4 hours I’m taken by surprise as a beautiful clean jasmine shines through. It’s really lovely and I realise that it had been humming around in the background all this time with some nutty notes adding to the blend but not overpowering.
The fragrance recedes back to skin at 6-10 hours in a yellow woody powdery waft with the lightest impression of citrus and I smell a hint of bitter ash in the dry down. It’s a pleasant combo and I enjoy the longevity that it keeps well into the evening.
Overall the two predominant notes (varying iris / dusty musk) are complimentary, and round each other out. For people (like myself) who revel in a bold metallic iris it may feel like a pillow has been put over it and muffled the composition. It’s very yin/yang, notes curling around each other & balancing out. But there’s a few surprises in there which keeps it interesting. Worth a trial if you have the chance.
Further reading: Black Narcissus
Les Eaux Primordials has an outlet page
Have you had any new fragrance lines cross your radar lately?
xx Tina G