Guest Perfume Review: Orris by Andy Tauer

Review by Kelley Fresh out of the tester (the tester is quite generous I might add—thanks Andy!) the scent is all about iris. Iris or Orris, is in this case known to perfumers as orrisroot and is actually the tuber of an iris plant and doesn’t refer to the flower. Iris can be cold or metallic smelling and sometimes even earthy but not in this case…it’s a sexy iris. The iris here is a slightly powdery accord, which smells a little like violet, which is combined with rose and leather. As the Iris starts to fade after about 30 minutes on my skin, and the middle notes start to come forward, the smokiest rose accord I have ever smelled starts to shine. I should probably add at this point that I have traditional male skin that tends to gobble up/destroy rose notes for some reason. In fact, when I wear my bottle of Creed’s Fleurs de Bulgarie, the rose notes are almost gone before the alcohol dries! In Andy’s Orris, the rose notes last and last. At this stage, I smell rose and birch tar and sandalwood and it’s all breathtaking. This is my favorite part of the scent. For me, the middle notes carry the fragrance all the way until the end with smoky rose and sandalwood. The only thing I would like to add is that before the scent disappears there is a very strange marijuana odor (not that I have ever smelled pot, it’s what I would imagine pot would smell like, right?). I would guess that this is the expensive agarwood Andy mentioned several times as included in this fragrance. While testing this the other day, I had a good friend ask if I had roses for her and she was hurt when I told her I was testing a new fragrance! I was going to say that sillage is decent but not spectacular and stays pretty close to the skin after an hour or so…but, the last time I tested this I would get a whiff of it from several feet away even after having it on for hours. I don’t smell any spices or citrus. I don’t detect any ambergris or vetiver at all. For me the scent lasts a good 7 or 8 hours. Is this full bottle worthy for me? Nope. If he was making this for sale I probably would pass because I am saving for a bottle of his Lonestar Memories, which I would marry if it gave me a ring. Would I like to smell this on a woman…you bet! It’s a long lasting, beautiful rose and sandalwood fragrance that starts off with (I am sure) a very expensive Iris note. Andy, you are truly a genius. Where is this available? Well, sorry, it isn’t. The Orris Secret Formula (not so secret, I stole this from Andy’s blog) Top notes: Geraniol, Damascenone, Bulgarian rose absolute, Phenylethylalcohol, lemongrass, Linalool, benzylsalicylate, with black pepper and grapefruit and bergamot. (These smell like iris, rose, pepper, cinnamon, and citrus). Middle notes: birch tar, cinnamon bark, hydroxycinnamaldehyde, and frankincense. (These ingredients add smokiness, incense, and more cinnamon). Base notes: Amboxan, Sandalore, sandalwood from Australia, sandalwood from Mysore, Vetiverol, vetiver, methylcedrylketon, and agarwood. (These ingredients smell like ambergris, sandalwood, vetiver and finally agarwood). The image is by Kelley.