Iris

What it is

Not the flower but the root, dried for three years before distillation. That wait and the yield make orris butter the most expensive commonly used natural, so most iris is carried by synthetics.

What it smells like

Cool, powdery and faintly rooty, closer to makeup or damp clay than to anything floral. It reads as expensive and slightly severe, and it is the accord most often described as smelling like nothing in particular by people who have never noticed it.

How strongly it is worn

The average strength this accord is listed at, where 100 means it dominates the fragrance.

65 / 100

What builds it

How much more often than the catalogue average. 1.0x would be chance, so these are the things that genuinely travel with it rather than the things that are simply common.

Accords it sits beside

Same measure, with its own family filtered out. Saying woody turns up with oud is a restatement, not a finding.

When it is worn

Against the average fragrance here. The line marks that average, so a bar past it means this is worn in that season or setting more than most.

Houses that use it most

Counted across the fragrances here, which reflects what we cover as much as what a house makes.

Givenchy (12), Prada (12), Chanel (10), Lancome (10), Xerjoff (9), Al Haramain (8).