III-I L'Attesa Masque 2016

I love iris/ orris fragrances but this particular one is beautiful. The bottle is a heavy, good quality one and although on the pricey side for 35ml I feel it's worth it. The orris obvious from the start with its earthy characteristic but this scent somehow combines a fizzy effervescent element to it which I'm guessing is the champagne and it just works! It doesn't smell alcoholic to me just that fizzy aldehyde aroma you get from say Chanel Eau premiere and as mentioned combined with the other notes is elegant and beautiful.

prismatic orris and iris, running the gamut of facets; dry to oily to doughy to powdery to floral, flecked with bergamot and a tart, yeasty fizz. a rosiness emerging from somewhere. champagne leather. gradually deepens and darkens as the oakmoss becomes more apparent, sloughing its radiance. a luxuriant projection.

L'Attesa pulls off a remarkable balancing act. The iris butter is fleetingly rooty at the top, reminiscent of the iris in Iris Silver Mist, but with a buttery, floral aspect that rids the iris of any raw potato alcohol facets that many people (myself included) find so challenging in the Serge Lutens. It develops into a rounded, slightly powdery, slightly doughy iris note that denotes pure luxury. In terms of purity, I could mention Irisss by Xerjoff, but since L'Attesa lacks the moist carrot/violet nuance of Irisss, I don't quite think that's it. Irisss has a cool, creamy sweetness to it; L'Attesa is tart and almost beery.

The beery note would be the 'champagne' listed in the notes, which comes off as both sour and strangely inviting, like yeasty gasses emanating from bread dough on its second proving. It effervesces around the iris, making it as buoyant as a raspberry in a glass of bubbly. The lifting effect of the champagne accord would make me think there could also be aldehydes at work here but for the fact there is no hint of soapiness or anything metallic. Still, that tart, sour lift to the iris butter is amazing. It lends a sort of exuberance to the opening, a sense of excitement that recalls the 'pulling the tab on a soda' effect of Iris Poudre, but without that scent's slightly rough, chemical-woody undertow.

To my nose, though, the bergamot in L'Attesa plays almost as important a role as the iris and the yeast accord. The bergamot oil used here has a glossy, citric bitterness that cuts through the buttery texture of the iris and turns the dial on its color wheel from somber grey to a greenish-yellow. It sets the tone for the entire fragrance; bright, sharp, tart. It is also what makes me think of the Chanel irises, notably 31 Rue Cambon, with its icy, bergamot-drenched iris, and No. 18, with its olive-green, Vermouth-like one. Additionally, the No. 18 has a distinct bread-like note, as does L'Attesa. Don't take this to mean that they smell alike, because they don't - just that there are parallels here between the classic Chanel treatment of iris and the Masque one.

L'Attesa fades out in a genteel fashion, simply growing more ghostly as the day goes on. There is a vaguely woody-leathery feel to the bottom of this, but it's ephemeral and hazy, and I'm not really getting the full flavor of the oakmoss and the sandalwood that's listed. But I think that goes back to the dilemma that Luca Turin mentioned in relation to perfumers working with iris, in that it's difficult to choose notes to go with the iris that won't drown out its wispy delicacy. So L'Attesa bows out gracefully, like an actress who knows that two encores are more than enough; it would be greedy to ask for more.

This fragrance lies between Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist and Xerjoff Apollonia, summoning the best of each.

You can smell the champagne note, but it´s not frizzy nor festive, but rather reminiscent of a glass of some exepensive one that has been left standing on a table over night after the party was over.

There is a nice contrast between the buttery and banana-y ylang and the buttery chalky orris, enveloped in some very nice but subtle leathery scent.

As a great lover of irises, I thought that L'Attesa and I would at least understand each other, and more, that we would love each other, or at least like each other. Unfortunately, L'Attesa disappointed me a bit. The opening was promising, the same fragrant sawdust from Shameless Seducer which unfortunately turned into the choking and cold dust of Iris silver mist, an iris with whom I have a contentious relationship. I waited impatiently to discover what the champagne would add, but no trace of the bubbly! The smell was sour and harsh, like a glass of brut champagne forgotten on a table after New Year's Eve, only flat and bitter.

The story has a happy ending, however: I recently discovered the most beautiful champagne iris, which has everything I'd searched in vain for in L'Attesa, Pink Champagne.

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Ca mare iubitoare de iriși, am crezut nu că o să ne înțelegem, dar că o să ne iubim, sau măcar să ne plăcem una pe cealaltă. Din păcate, L'Attesa m-a cam dezamăgit. Deschiderea a fost promițătoare, același rumeguș parfumat din Shameless Seducer care din păcate s-a transformat în praful înecăcios și rece din Iris silver mist, un iris cu care am o relație conflictuală. Am așteptat cu nerăbdare să descopăr ce va adăuga șampania, dar nici urmă de bulbuci! Mirosul era acru și aspru, ca o cupă de șampanie uitată pe o masă după noaptea de revelion, doar plat și amar.

Povestea are totuși un happy ending: recent am descoperit cel mai frumos iris cu șampanie, care reprezintă tot ce căutasem în zadar în L'Attesa, Pink Champagne.