The plate: orris / iris
Planche II · IrisOrris / iris · Iris pallida (also Iris germanica)

Ingredients · Powder · dry-down

Orris butter (Iris pallida)

Say itOR-is butter

Powdery violet and cool buttery root, with carrot, cocoa and raspberry hints.

What it is
Natural material from aged, steam-distilled rhizomes of Iris pallida.
Where it comes from
Tuscany, Italy
When you smell it
Dry-down: hours later.
What perfumers do with it
Luxurious powdery heart and fixative; softens aldehydes and adds velvet to rose, woods and chypres.
Worth knowing
Rhizomes are dried and aged for years before distillation, because the violet-smelling irones form only slowly.
Also called
Orris concrete; iris butter; beurre d'iris