I want to start this post with saying “Thank you” to all of you who participated in the Month of Irises project. I had fun but without you it would have felt really strange to keep updating those posts on a daily basis. Special gratitude goes to Lucas for coining a great name for the month and supporting and promoting this project throughout the month, Tara and Ines for hosting two days on their blogs.
Daily updates… It was harder than I expected it to be but it was an interesting experience: I’ve never done it before for that many days in a row. Though I still like the idea, I’m convinced now that publishing the continuous updates to the same post isn’t the right format for WordPress: without a notification delivered through the channels readers used to get their updates, only the most persistent ones remember to come back regularly. I’ll have to think of a better approach next year for the Month of X project. I mean, we are going to do it, aren’t we?
455 Comments
I went through all the comments on the posts for the project on my blog and three Day of Iris posts hosted by others (455 comments, if you were curious) and got together some numbers.
22 Perfumistas
During this February 22 people participated in the project: I counted only those who reported on one of the participating blogs; I saw some people reporting only on the NST, and I was glad it went “viral” but I couldn’t possibly include those in these statistics.
100 Perfumes
Among all the participants, we wore 100 different perfumes, collectively on 212 occasions.
28 Days
I and at least three more people wore iris perfumes for all 28 days – hajusuuri, Chocolate Marzipane (though she cheated a little wearing the same iris perfume as her bed scent) and Lucas (if you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at his beautiful calendar).
9 Project’s Favorites
Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist and Atelier Cologne Silver Iris are two the most popular perfumes (reported by 6 people each). Infusion d’Iris by Prada takes the third place (5 people). Atelier Cologne Iris Rebelle, Chanel 28 La Pausa and No 19 EdT, Hermès Hiris, Prada Purple Rain and Van Cleef & Arpels Bois d’Iris got 4 mentions each.
Undina’s Top 7 Iris Perfumes
Since the idea of this project came from my blog’s seventh anniversary, I decided to conclude it with the list of my 7 most favorite iris perfumes based on my recent experience with the whole bunch of them (in no particular order):
Chanel No 19 EdT
Le Labo Iris 39
Armani Prive Le Femme Bleue
Annick Goutal Heure Exquise
Frederic Malle Iris Poudre
Prada Purple Rain
Ramon Monegal Impossible Iris
Result of the Month
Interestingly, I did not get tired of iris perfumes and plan to wear at least a couple of them again soon. I got myself a small travel bottle of Atelier Cologne Iris Rebelle. And I think I want to get more of L’Attessa once I’m done with my tiny decant – it grew on me. Oh, and I learned how to make “orrisgami” (© Lucas).
What is your best iris perfume (or three, or seven)?
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
Well done, and your stats are very methodical, as always. I stand in awe! February was a crazy month for me so I wasn’t participating, but if I had I would have added to your stats in wearing Prada Infusion d’Iris and the Van Cleef and Arpels Bios d’Iris. I don’t really have many iris prefumes in my colleciton, surprisingly, I have discovered.
LikeLike
Thank you, Cynthia. I do not think it matters whether we have all the notes or even genres represented in our collections – as long as we enjoy what we have and are open to trying new things to see if we might enjoy them (or hate ;) ).
LikeLike
Thoroughly enjoyed this theme and your stats breakdown, Undina!
LikeLike
Thank you, Richard.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a wonderful conclusion! And thank you so very much for posting your top 7 iris scents. I will be using this to purchase samples.
LikeLike
Let’s talk about it: I’ll be able to share at least a couple of samples with you.
LikeLike
It was a wonderful month and I love the information you just provided based on everyone comments. Your statistics posts are the best.
I very much enjoyed Februiris but now I’m happy to give more attention to fragrances that were set aside that month.
Thanks for coming up with this project, now we had rose and iris, wonder what might come next.
LikeLike
Thank you, Lucas. It was a great month! I do enjoy wearing other perfumes now. But I still want more iris :)
Let’s wait another 11 months and see if it feels like any specific note(s).
LikeLike
The statistics are amazing. I love hearing about that!. Also love seeing the top 7. A nice round up to explore.
LikeLike
Thank you, Doreen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a cute picture of Rusty! I know from where he got his love of irises!
It was a fun month for sure and Lucas was on a roll with Februiris and orrisgami!
As to my top iris perfumes, I’ll list some in alphabetical order by house and I’m sure I am forgetting some:
Armani Prive Iris Celador (i only have a decant but I am thinking of buying a FB)
Chanel No. 19 EDP
Chanel Les Exclusifs 28 La Pausa EDT
DSH Scent of Hope
Prada Les Olfactories Purple Rain
Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist
Sultan Pasha Irisoir
Favorites which I did not wear for various reasons (maybe too many iris perfumes?)
Frederic Malle Iris Poudre
Masque Milano L’Attesa
Van Cleef & Arpels Bois d’ Iris
No iris was harmed in making these favorites (but I could be wrong):
Huitieme Art Shermine
Mugler Oriental Express
Future Favorite (because iris and because Neela and Bertrand – good classic combo)
Neela Vermeire Creations Niral
LikeLike
That would be Iris CeladoN (not Celador)
LikeLike
I also look forward to that new NVC perfume (though I still haven’t tried even the previous one). And I agree with you on the Mugler Oriental Express – there’s no way they use real iris root in it.
If you go for a FB of Iris Celadon, I’d like to be on that split.
LikeLike
My favourite iris scents are Silver Iris, Oriental Express, ISM, Iris Poudre and Dzongkha. By the last week I was getting really sick of iris and will definitely be taking a break for a while. Wearing my heavy labdanum and rose scents this week.
LikeLike
I’m using these last colder days to wear some of my heavier orientals and ambers. But I’ll be back to iris perfumes very soon.
LikeLike
Ha ha! I did cheat! But I enjoyed it…and just about finished the bottle :)
I think it would be fun to do a wear a perfume for an entire month project…I find that you really get to know a fragrance and experience all its different nuances.
LikeLike
A couple of years ago I encouraged my readers to participate in a week-long project of imaginary signature scent (where I asked them to just think about the same perfume every day to see if they, theoretically, were up to wearing it). As you can see from the “conclusion” post, not too many people went for it.
LikeLike
It was a fantastic project and yes, can’t wait for next year. Huge thanks for hosting it. I agree I would have participated more had I been prompted by WordPress. A few days I wore an iris perfume and completely forgot to “check in”. I thoroughly enjoyed hosting a day and confirmed Iris Poudre is still my current favourite, though you reminded me to revisit Heure Exquise – I’ll let you know how that goes.
I was really impressed we wore 100 iris perfumes between us. That really is A LOT more than I would have guessed. We did good.
LikeLike
I was surprised by the number of perfumes myself. And I’m glad that many perfumistas participated, whether they reported it here or not.
Just a reminder about HE: unless you’re getting a sample to test at home, wait for my perfume mule’s next visit: you promised to compare a modern version to my older favorite and let me know how bad is the damage from the reformation since I do not have access to the current one to do my own comparison, and it would be strange to buy a sample while I still have a half of my bottle and do not plan on buying more yet.
LikeLike
Absolutely. Very happy to wait and report back.
LikeLike
I loved Februiris-thank you for being such a gracious, generous host :) thank you for the pictures of Rusty, esp with the paper flowers. Since he was such a good beast, can he be part of every series? February is one of our busiest times at work and so I could only chime in on the weekends. But I loved reading the comments everyone posted . And today I’m into Serge Lutens Fille en Auguilles. I loved the review you did on this, esp wher eyou and Suzanne compared it to Nuit Etoilee.
Have a great week,
Carole
LikeLike
Thank you, Carole.
As I was writing this post, I had one more point in the results of the month – the miraculous return of your cat. But then I thought that you might not appreciate such a spotlight on something personal and not perfumes-related and removed it. But I want to mention once again how delighted I was to read that news.
As to Rusty’s participation: in the last several years there were fewer posts that didn’t feature him than those that did – and I plan to keep it this way. If you’re curious, you can choose “Four legs good” category – it has all the posts that had pictures of Rusty. Or take a look in My Perfume Portrait page: somewhere mid-page, in the right pane are pictures of Rusty with my favorite perfumes.
LikeLike
What a successful month that was, with all those participants and perfumes and comments! And so many left field facts about iris along the way. And super cute Rusty photos and videos! I am suffering a bit from iris withdrawal as you know, but was very grateful for the reminder about Heure Exquise, which I enjoyed wearing one cold wintery day, and thanks to the project have also bonded even more with my beloved Volutes edt.
LikeLike
I look forward to wearing both Heure Exquise and Volutes – the former is my spring perfume and the latter is an all-year-round favorite.
I miss the project a little: it helped to plan in advance and structure what I’d wear. I should undertake more projects! (Even if I do not do it in the blog.)
LikeLike
Pingback: Iris Poudre by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle | A Bottled Rose
I was one of those who missed the month because of a lack of prompting with WP. I got the occasional announcement from Lucasi, and got his calendar, but no daily Iris. Thank you for the stats and the top Irises! Most I have not tried. Great project!
LikeLike
Thank you for participating! We all enable each other by “promoting” perfumes that we enjoy.
If I do it again, I’ll hire a flock of pigeons to deliver the notifications ;)
LikeLike
Pingback: Summer Iris – Undina's Looking Glass