Florentine Iris Absolute

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Florentine Iris Absolute is the solvent extract of dried Iris florentina rhizome, the white-flowered orris species historically grown in Tuscany and on the coat of arms of Florence. It is powdery, dry and rooty like all orris, with a mineral, chalky facet and a warmer, less purely violet character than Iris pallida.

Scent Profile

Powdery dominates and is the whole identity of the material: dry, chalky, cosmetic, closer to face powder than to a flower. Creamy woody sits directly under it, the buttery orris texture that ScenTree calls at once warm and dry, sensual and creamy. An earthy rootiness runs through, which is the rhizome rather than soil. A mineral facet is distinct enough that one source names it a silvery-mineralic note of mature iris root. A floral violet reading sits above all of that, present but less pure and less dominant than in Iris pallida. Below there are dry woody, a fruity berry-and-plum lift, a honeyed warmth, green from the irones themselves, and small traces of cocoa, musk, leather and amber.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~30h lasting

Family Floral

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

From the rhizome, not the flower, and the rhizome must be dried for several years before the irones develop. Iris florentina is rich in cis-gamma-irone where Iris pallida leads with cis-alpha-irone. ScenTree records that florentina's use has declined since 1850 in favour of pallida, which yields better, but Hermitage Oils still lists florentina among the three species carrying bulk production alongside pallida and germanica.

Usage in Perfumery

A heart and base material in powdery, rooty and classical orris compositions, and a fixative. It is very expensive and used at low percentages. Where a formula wants orris with a fraction more warmth and less clean violet than Iris pallida gives, this is the reason to reach for it.