Orris

Orris is the dried root of the iris, or more exactly its rhizome, the thick stem that runs just beneath the soil. It does not come from the flower. Once the root has been dried and left to age for years, it smells powdery and soft, of violets and cool earth, and it is among the costliest raw materials a perfumer can buy.

Is orris the same as iris?

In perfume, nearly. When a fragrance lists iris, it usually means orris, because the scent perfumers want is in the root rather than the petals. The plants are bearded irises, chiefly Iris pallida, sometimes called the Dalmatian iris, and Iris germanica.

Where it comes from

Iris pallida is native to the Dalmatian coast, but it has long been grown in Tuscany, in the Chianti hills, which is why perfumers still speak of the Florentine iris. After a few years in the ground the rhizomes are lifted, cleaned, peeled and dried.

Then comes the wait. Freshly harvested, the root holds almost no irone, the family of molecules that gives orris its violet smell. Its precursors, called iridals, are odourless; only during long storage do they slowly break down by oxidation into irones. That takes two years at the very least, and traditionally much longer, sometimes five years or more.

Orris butter, and why it costs so much

The aged root is ground and steam-distilled. What comes over is not a liquid but a pale yellow solid that stays soft at room temperature, rather like butter, which is how orris butter got its name; it is also sold as orris concrete. Most of it is fatty acid, chiefly myristic acid, and only a fraction is irone. Purified further, it gives orris absolute.

The yield is tiny: a tonne of dried root gives only two or three kilos of butter. Add the years of growing, the peeling and the years of storage, and the price makes sense.

What it smells like

Orris smells of violets and face powder over damp earth, with a cool, slightly metallic edge, a rooty depth and a faint fruitiness. It is soft rather than sweet: the inside of an old powder compact, or a linen press. Dried orris was once used to freshen linen and is still used to fix potpourri.

How perfumers use it

Perfumers value orris for its texture as much as its smell. Powdery, earthy and a little metallic, it gives a composition a dry, soft finish and a kind of composure. Because natural orris is so dear, chemists have also found other ways to obtain irones, through enzymes and microbes, and producers have looked for ways to shorten the ageing of the root itself.

In our fragrances

In The Library, orris sits at the heart with cured tobacco leaf and papyrus, softening the smell of old paper and older bindings with its powdery restraint, before Virginia cedar, labdanum and benzoin settle the base. In The Orangery, a touch of orris butter in the base sits with white musk and blond woods beneath the bitter brightness of neroli, Seville orange and orange blossom: a dry, powdered floor under a glasshouse full of citrus.

To try them side by side, the Discovery Set holds all six of our fragrances.

All the notes