Gothic Silver Mist

In the spirit of getting away from the multiple perfume note "rundowns" that I like so much, I thought I would dig into one perfume in hopes of getting beyond surface description. Also, consider this the finale to my iris week on BlueSky, made possible by the samples graciously provided by @paperdress.bsky.social.

Background photo by Hannah Flemming-Hill https://unsplash.com/photos/a-road-that-is-next-to-a-grassy-field-pa9lqN5Hll4

It wouldn't surprise many, that my favorite iris (so far) has to be Iris Silver Mist (ISM) by Serge Lutens. Yes, it's a classic. Yes, it's a popular choice so I have to fight the urge to shy away from writing about classics and embrace. 

I think the first thing that makes this perfume special, however, is that it wasn't created by Christopher Sheldrake, who was and still is Serge Lutens's in-house perfumer. Instead, it was created by Maurice Roucel in 1994. Roucel is nothing but prolific. His long CV boasts: Hermes 24 Fauborg, Frederic Malle Musc Ravaguer, Gucci Envy, Kenzo Air, and Le Labo Labdanum 18. I'm not entirely sure how or why Roucel was given this project, but I'm glad that he was. While an early perfume from the brand, Iris Silver Mist was not Lutens's first release. He had Santal de Mysore, Ambre Sultan, and a few others under his belt by this time. 

What does Iris Silver Mist smell like? 

Well, as someone relatively new to iris perfumes, the first thing that jumps out to me in Iris Silver Mist is the carrot seed. I'm not sure who exactly first paired iris with carrot seed, but this has to be one of the earliest and probably the earliest to pair it with iris. Cruising Fragrantica's notes search (sorry) under carrot seed, I can tell that this creation seems to have had a big influence on the newer 2010s and 2020s iris creations. So much so that many of the irises that I reviewed this week contained this clever pairing to varying degrees. I'll add to that list Iris Cendre from Naomi Goodsir that I recently resmelled. 

It's cold and this late night frigid aspect is so evocative and to borrow from probably 1000 reviews, it's a "funeral iris.” Roucel is rumoured to have chucked in every orris material he had. Another legend is that it has an unusually large amount of real orris in it, maybe to justify the current $320 USD price tag. I do sense a lot of orris here, but I can't exactly distinguish all of the different aroma chemical characteristics. In addition to iris, ISM also relies on a sharp woody backbone, primarily cedar. This woody retainer keeps what little powdery orris space dust there is in firm check. 

Some have complained that Iris Silver Mist really isn’t a completed perfume. To them, I would say that they are partially right. What I think they are getting at is that it is lithe and spare without the rose and jasmine that so many vintage powdery iris perfumes employ, from No. 5 to Shalimar, just to name a few. Perhaps in 1994, it might come off emotionally dead and too cold, but it fits exceptionally well into 2025’s field of perfumes that embraces everything from vintage beauty to any type of mood or scene that you could think of.

ISM as a Gothic Fragrance

I've noticed an increase in goth or goth-adjacent folks getting into fragrance or perhaps them simply coming into my little corner of social media. In the past year, I've also seen a lot of people talking about their favorite perfumes or brands releasing perfumes that play up their darker sides. Perhaps the best example is the macabre turn that Heretic has taken after the release of their hit, Nosferatu. I'm not (or was never) a goth or even goth-adjacent so I can't really speak to anything other than an anecdotal observation. Too young for the new romantics/post-punk folks and a bit too old for the hot topic Nightmare before Christmas crowd, I never quite clicked with Sheena and her goth gang. I knew more about Ostrogoth Theodoric and the heroic age than I did about Bauhaus and anything about Bela Lugosi, but I really like the idea of a scent that speaks to the gothic tales of early the romantic period. Just like our varying ideas of what makes a “green” perfume, I think we all carry a different idea of what makes gothic scent (see also “witchy”).  

While it doesn't dress like a goth in its copy or packaging, Iris Silver Mist to me, is the epitome of a gothic perfume. It's more at home in the cemetery than in the makeup kit. It's decidedly unfriendly, like the Seattle Freeze, but without the small talk and empty promises. It feels like you're in a tomb or crypt. I've never been buried alive before, but if so, I would expect that it would smell pretty much like this. It’s rooty, cold, and almost clammy, but it’s not claustrophobic. [Sidenote: my friend has in fact been buried alive at a film festival in Austin, TX by Austrians so I'll have to ask him.] If not an actual coffin, then the mist in the title is definitely one that fell on a cemetery.

What are your favorite iris fragrances? What about gothic perfumes? Do you think Iris Silver Mist is a gothic perfume?