Rhizome
Orris, violet leaf, sandalwood
- Composed by
- Ariane Cazal
- Family
- Floral
- Formula written
- 2022
- From
- €95.00
Rhizome
Orris, violet leaf, sandalwood
How it was built
Iris the flower has almost no smell worth capturing. Everything perfumery calls iris comes from the rhizome, and only after it has been dug, peeled and left to oxidise for three years while the irones develop.
Rhizome is an argument for spending that time. Orris butter sits at the centre at a level that costs more than the rest of the formula combined, opened with carrot seed -- which shares the same rooty, slightly sweet earth -- and lifted by violet leaf.
The base is deliberately quiet: sandalwood and ambrette hold the iris up without adding a story of their own. It reads powdery and cold at first and turns skin-warm after an hour, which is the whole point.
How it wears
Four properties, read on skin over a full day rather than on a blotter. They describe behaviour, not preference.
Sillage
An arm's length
Longevity
Into the next day
Temperature
Neither
Density
Layered
These are the atelier’s own readings, taken on skin rather than on a blotter, and they describe how the fragrance behaves rather than how much anyone liked it.
Head, heart and base
The materials that determine each stage, in the order they own it. The bars are compositional weight within a tier, not a percentage of the formula; the formula itself is not published.
Head
The most volatile materials. They are what you smell as the alcohol flashes off, and they are gone inside twenty minutes.
Carrot seedDaucus carota
BergamotCitrus bergamia
Aldehyde C-11
Heart
The body of the composition. It emerges as the head clears and holds for two to four hours; this is the fragrance as it is meant to be recognised.
Orris butterIris pallida
Violet leaf absoluteViola odorata
Mimosa absoluteAcacia dealbata
Base
The least volatile materials, and the ones that fix the rest in place. What is left on skin at the end of the day, and on cloth for days after.
SandalwoodSantalum album
Ambrette seedAbelmoschus moschatus
Tonka beanDipteryx odorata
Materials and provenance
Where the principal materials come from and how they are won from the plant. Every lot behind a given bottle is recorded against its flacon code.
Orris butterIris pallida
Chianti, Tuscany
Three-year rhizome cure, then steam distillation
One kilogram of butter takes roughly a tonne of rhizome and three years of storage. It is the most expensive line on almost every formula that contains it.
SandalwoodSantalum album
Kununurra, Western Australia
Steam distillation of plantation heartwood, fifteen-year rotation
Plantation Santalum album rather than wild Mysore stock. The plantation material is younger and slightly milkier, and it is the only route to this species that we are willing to buy.
Size and price
Each size is filled from the same batch. The ten millilitre format is not a sample; it is the same juice in a smaller flacon.
€95.00
10 ml eau de parfum · reference NOC-RHZ-010
Bottles are filled to order from the current batch and dispatched within five working days. Fragrance cannot be returned once the seal is broken; an unopened flacon may be returned within fourteen days.