Serge Lutens - Iris Silver Mist

It's funny that the two perfumes I am familiar with by nose Maurice Roucel - Lutens' Iris Silver Mist and Frederic Malle's Musc Ravageur - are pretty much total opposites, tonally. Musc Ravageur is opulent and one of the few full-on gourmands that I really like. Iris Silver Mist, on the other hand, is a nut punch, a take-no-prisoners iris fragrance that also happens to be beautiful in its austerity. I'm a sucker for iris, so I am already predisposed to like this, and goddamn but this says IRIS in every way. Like the best takes on pure iris - Chanel's 28 La Pausa and Prada's Infusion d'Iris Absolue* are the other two first-in-class irises in my opinion - Iris Silver Mist doesn't try to tone down iris's natural boniness. Attempts to brighten iris up end poorly** (cf Iris Poudre, one of the few missteps in the Frederic Malle catalog), not just because it's a bad aesthetic choice but because it's just straight-up inappropriate, like clown makeup on a corpse.

So yeah, Iris Silver Mist is beautiful AND kind of scary, and Roucel had the admirable conviction to amp up even the carroty, dirt-like carrot root facet of iris. Too bad it's only available in person at the New York Barney's like the rest of Lutens' exclusive line, and it's really too bad that it's a butt-clenching $300 for a 75ml bottle. That's fucking ridiculous even for a best-in-class iris like this, especially when 28 La Pausa and Infusion d'Iris Absolue can be gotten for a fraction of that price.***

*Infusion d'Iris Absolue is currently going for around $60 for a new 100ml bottle on ebay, a shockingly good deal for such a fantastic fragrance.

**The one exception is Jean-Claude Ellena's masterful L'Eau d'Hiver, perhaps because the iris/heliotrope combination is remarkably effective or perhaps also because Ellena is a fucking genius.

***This is not to say that $300 is an unreasonable price to pay for any fragrance. But at that price point the fragrance should be a) exceptional; b) better than similar fragrances that are cheaper; and c) long-lasting. Portrait of a Lady and Carnal Flower, for example, justify their (kind of terrifying) price tags by meeting all three of these criteria. Iris Silver Mist only satisfies a).