FranZan

I love iris butter á la Celine "Black Tie | Celine" ) and therefore wanted to test more fragrances with this component. So it was only natural that I should try Orris Tattoo. Supposedly, it only contains this note. I can't say whether this is the case. It doesn't seem that way to me. Other reviewers/statement writers mention a synthetic woody note, which I personally perceive, if at all, then rather in the background and which does not bother me.

For me, Orris Tattoo is unfortunately not quite what I expected. I had hoped for a warm, soft, buttery iris butter. One that you want to sink your teeth into. This one is more of a masculine (albeit very subtle) iris butter that tends towards freshness. Fortunately, I don't smell any carrots, but I almost wish I did, because I simply miss sweetness and warmth here.
I'm not a raw material freak and I'm sure there will be different iris butters and - depending on the combination in which they are contained in fragrances - they will come across differently. So I can't rule out the possibility of false expectations on my part.

I also know the "Milky Musk/39 | Parle Moi de Parfum" from Parle-moi-de-Parfum, which I once owned but then let go as a bottle in the souk. It was also somehow different from what I had expected. Milky - yes, okay. But more in the direction of milky-synthetic wood and musk. Not a bad perfume - not at all. But also rather masculine for me due to the strong musky note.

What am I trying to say? Apparently there are simply fragrance houses that don't suit you that well. I've already discovered a few. Unfortunately, Parle-moi-de-Parfum is obviously one of them. Which of course doesn't mean that I'll try another fragrance at some point - thanks to curiosity

The fragrance is beautiful. That right at the beginning. A wonderful warm enveloping fragrance that shines especially in the cooler seasons.

I associate it with being snuggled up, elegance, closeness and a (not taken off, sing just warm) gold.

One notices a high quality to the fragrance. He is at the same time complex and yet everything is finely interwoven.

At the beginning is briefly the spice by the absinthe there - I personally find really a cool note, which I want to explore in more detail.
Quickly come a little bit of very gentle cocoa, which spices the whole thing together with a fine iris sweetness. Both I smell even in the base still slightly.
Styrax (is given on many perfume sites instead of the incense) comes as a balsamic-sweet (but only slightly, not pappsüß) component to it. Supposedly it has a calming balancing effect. And so I also feel when I have applied the fragrance.
Sage I smell, by the way, fortunately not.

I have taken the fragrance into my heart. I can well imagine that he will move in with me. A wonderfully touching fragrance.

As I'm currently considering converting my sample of Lethe into a full-size (so to speak), I'd like to take a closer look at the fragrance before buying it. I already think it's great - quite exceptionally beautiful in fact. But it's definitely worth a closer look for me (and maybe for you too ;-))

The start is herbaceous and fresh - just as you would expect from the combination of lavender and bergamot. Unusual, beautiful and "real".

After a few minutes, the (light) woody part of the heart note comes into play. Cashmere and cedarwood now make the fragrance soft, gentle and woody. If the fragrance stayed like this, I would probably find it too boring and possibly too masculine.
But I know that patience pays off here. Because, as I already wrote in my statement, after half an hour an incredibly beautiful, complex, profound (but never heavy) unisex fragrance reveals itself, which I find somehow Scandinavian. This association comes from the following points that I associate with Lethe:
- Understatement
- a sense of aesthetics
- Transparency + lightness/airiness in the design
- a certain freshness (which is not necessarily cool) and
- nordic elegance.

Strangely enough, I hardly smell any vanilla in the base. But I can imagine that, together with tonka, it forms the balancing warm part of the overall composition - but without taking center stage.

I think the color of the bottle fits well, but it could just as well be an earthy purple. Not a squeaky, but a lavendery soft purple.

Conclusion: After the first tests, I had to keep sniffing my wrist. I notice how I keep trying to understand the fragrance, to understand what I find so special about it.
I now believe that this special something is the interplay between lavender and tonka, whose lovely sweetness balances the essential oils of the herbaceous fine lavender perfectly.
The result is a fragrance that is fine, clear and somehow liquid and intangible like mercury.
Perhaps some women might find the lavender-herb note too much - even if it is fine and delicate. Therefore for me "only" 8.5 instead of 9. I would have liked to smell more tonka/vanilla.

I have just rediscovered Lethe for the fall.