Ingredients List: Orris Root (Nice Things are Really Nice)

Sometimes ‘Fancy’ things are a little nicer than regular things. Sometimes they are a little too rich or obtuse to take in. Now and then, they are really really nice. Orris root is one of the latter.

Orris root butter is extracted from the aged roots of sweet irises, primarily Iris Palladia. While some sources say that orris smells nothing like the iris flower, I have to disagree. Irises, like many highly cultivated flowers, come in a fairly wide range of scents. The most common scented irises are very floral-grape Popsicle. The pale blue/lavender irises of my mothers garden long ago, I swear, were the icy-cool wood violet scent of skin-warmed orris root.

Orris root is more than a violet smell-alike.  It is icy, still, calm, and utterly ethereal. White most fragrances reference the garden on the sunniest days, orris is the perfect moment when clouds cover the sky on a fresh spring day.

Orris was cultivated in medieval Italy. It is referenced as an agent used to make ‘sweet clothes’ by boiling one’s underwear with orris roots. This must have smelled amazing.

Orris was also a major ingredient in cosmetics, as it retains moisture. For people of an older, or classier, generation, orris would have been a ‘makeup’ scent.

Of all the classic perfumery ingredients, orris and sandalwood wrestle as my favorites. The butter is damned expensive, thought. I think I’ll try to keep it as a major note in a single perfume to highlight its beauty rather than spread it through everything. Specifically, the coolness reminds me of a library or archive. I am going to experiment with pairing it with Virginia cedarwood (Ticonderoga pencils) and a tea note  for a quiet scent.

Or maybe I’ll go nuts and make a flower extravaganza. Either way, I am wearing an unmixed dilution to bed tonight after writing this (made with a wee dusting on the tip of a needle and a drop of oil!)