Iris Ghalia

‘Ghalia’ traditionally denotes Royalty. Perfume made for kings and caliphs, where no expense is spared. Although I’ve added an Oud Man’s iris-inspired, blue lotus-heavy, drunk-on-too-much-musk twist to this revered tradition, Iris Ghalia lives up to this royal legacy ten times over.

No expenses spared, months and months of revision, tweaking, and back to the drawing board, and all of Earth’s most precious aromatics, bottled and showcased in our new EO presentation.

The savory sweetness of blackcurrant lavished with violet and peach is tempered by desert spices, vintage bakul attar, carnation, and Himalayan costus root.

Generous doses of orris butter and creamy olde Mysore punctuate each chord that went into the composition, each one uniquely supported by the cast of deer musk and ambergris. Each chord was designed like a movement in a grand symphony, with rare flowers & animalics supporting the irises.

A key difference between this edition and the previous one is that I cranked up the ambergris and musk as I axed the hyraceum, castoreum, and muskrat that went into the previous version.

A ghalia is at heart rooted in musk. So, to compose a grand ghalia, I played with the idea of even forgoing the ambergris altogether and have an entirely musk-centered iris showpiece.

But there’s no way—I cannot imagine iris without ambergris, and by now can barely imagine ambergris without iris. The harmony between these chords is just unmatched.

I also amped up the orris root in this edition—double the amount, to be precise! Ditching the urinal potency of the muskrat and hyraceum and upping the orris turned the fragrance into a smoother, more liqueur-like rendition. Combined with a lot more musk to enhance projection, sillage, and floral tonalities, the overall creamier aroma dances even more dazzlingly with one of the other stars of the show…

The buttery scent of iris wouldn’t be complete—nor the ghalia concept fully realized—without that rare potion olfactory mavens fight over every year come harvest time: blue water lily (aka blue lotus). Including this age-old narcotic works on so many levels, I’m surprised it’s never been done before. Hook up ancient Egypt’s favorite aphrodisiac with the pheromonal oomph of Siberian deer musk, the royal air of vintage Maroke filarias… and you know what to expect!

With the release of the previous Iris Ghalia, I explained how the price doesn’t match the product. When we ran the calculations, it quickly turned into a four-figure perfume, as I’m sure anyone experienced with these ingredients would appreciate. That’s why nobody uses the likes of blue lotus, musk, oud, or iris in their natural form—never mind with such abandon.

All these additions mean that this exclusive edition was even costlier to produce (the actual cost of the perfume puts it closer to Private Blend pricing), and so we only made a limited quantity.

But, from all my perfumes, there hasn’t been as much demand for an encore as there’s been for Iris Ghalia. So, to everyone in the audience who heard this song before… here’s the curtain call—with the volume cranked up! As for if you missed out on the first release, take a spritz and smell why the scent of iris has been the end of many a perfumer—why they’re willing to go mad trying to bottle its secret.