Hiris Hermès 1999

Hiris is a masterpiece. There are a very few fragrances to which I would offer this classification, and this 1999 sleeper is definitely one of them.

This is a perfume that is a result of a pure and concise concept with perfect execution. You are the iris flower pushing out of the cold, damp soil, emerging into a vast expanse of green fields and dewy, foggy grey skies. Hiris emulates these colors well - pale green and grey-violet.

Carrot seed essential oil is a beautiful raw material. Combined with bergamot and coriander, it gains an unbelievably real dewy softness that truly smells like dewdrops and unearthed roots. The floral heart is soft and careful. It's vaguely spicy, almost peppery. The root-like qualities are further enhanced by the cedar overdose. The whole thing has a perfect sort of sillage that feels like fine silver gauze, weightless but expansive.

It doesn't last long, though, and fades to a light musk-laden woody floral after a couple of hours. Nonetheless it is beautiful.

The art from the advertisements is for once accurate - this dream is painted in watercolor. If only it just lasted a bit longer!

When I wear Hiris in the warmth of the Summer months, it starts off powdery fresh iris, neroli and soft rosewater for me for the first few minutes and I can never remember why I don't wear this more often. I was sure this was going to be my 'signature scent' when I purchased it. After about 10 minutes I remember what happens next. Carrots. Not just any little baby carrots either, it is as if I went into the garden and stuck my hands in that deep rich moist soil and pulled up the biggest jumbo stewing carrots ripped the tops off and punched myself in the nose with them. Then I took them inside and started to grate them, getting into that well developed carrot slightly sweet rooty pulp, no doubt created by the addition of honey, vanilla and amber in the base. At the same time there is a spicy bite, as if I just got the notion to make a chilled carrot soup with Indian spices, a pinch of coriander, cumin and grated turmeric root appear. Cedar in this well-constructed fragrance is almost edible, which is hard to wrap my brain around. Hiris is at once fresh, rooty, powdery, sweet, savory and earthy, but it is definitely Carrot Soup for me. This fragrance has excellent sillage, IMHO about 2 meters (6.5 ft.) for the first 2-3 hours then a more reasonable 1 meter (3.28 ft.) for another 2-3 hours. When I wear this in the cooler months, it smells almost like a brisk clean iris with a neroli-rose and carnation shampoo/body powder scent with a coriander and cedar base. In any case, Hiris projects as a confident, proper, fresh powdery unisex fragrance for daytime, it feels trustworthy, grounded, yet energized. It is the the smell of a natural leader, so be prepared to have random strangers stop and ask you for directions when wearing this one.

Hiris is a introverted elegance a well-poised muse
never reveals herself within words nor action just
her scent of Iris, Hiris opens with it's homage the
Iris a flower a symbol of refinedness and modesty
a scent of cool orris earth adds to the sharp coldness
of the fragrance, the coriander subtle enough not to
cloy over the iris but noticeable in it's spicy drydown
diluted amber dries the top note, delicate and elusive
note of Rose opens the middle note softens the sharpness
of the Iris with it's velvet texture a demure beauty
Neroli turns the fragrance a bit citrusy and grounded.
The drydown consists of unsweeted honey makes an organic
and woodsy finish to this almost of a masterpiece of a
scent next dry cedar conjours a feeling of a forest
after the midnight rain fresh and finishes with almond
tree an nutty accord.

Hiris is a class of it's own not Loud gaudy kitschy
it doesn't take bright colorful sequins dolly heads
fake rhinestones on bottle it's a simple dark blue
bottle less is more.

Hiris is one of the Iris scents which has very original personality. It’s not dry and powdery, it feels more like wet on my skin. It’s beautiful, elegant and poetic. It’s somehow clean and fresh but not soapy one. It’s a little bit melancholic, absolutely ethereal and innocent. It’s like walking through the garden with the bare feet early in the morning. The scent is smooth and polished, it’s so beautiful and so blue.

I don’t have any problems with longevity but I used to change a perfume at least a couple of times during the day.

I haven’t tried this scent in the new bottle so I don’t have any idea if it’s the same. I’m happy to own this one.

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The temperatures have finally dipped to comfortable levels after unseasonably hot May days. The breeze comes through the window and the Hiris on my skin shifts through the air like a blue apparition.

It opens cool, yet not steely, more a salve of rosy, violet-tinged carrots and powdered rhizomes of all kinds. Then, there's a beautiful "key change," as it were, a minor key resolved to major. It smells not merely of orris root but what I perceive when one were to get intimate with one of those large, ghostly, translucent bearded irises, after the rain, damp, its pendant-like pedals saturated, leaves and stems. I did just this in a garden at Acton Arboretum here in MA this past weekend. What a mysterious scent that comes from certain iris flowers themselves if one is to lean in closer. Hiris seems to capture this in its heart.

The base is a phosphorescent cedar, glowing as if foxfire, bubbled woody ionones, traces of bitter almond, saponified dried roots and bark, still cool, still calm. It isn't any wonder that Olivia Giacobetti is behind this understated genius given her many contributions to L'Artisan Parfumeur and her skill in impactful translucency.