Iris perfume is one of the few fragrance families defined by a root rather than a flower. The material is orris, the rhizome of Iris pallida or Iris germanica, dug up, peeled, and dried for three years before it is distilled into a butter that yields barely 0.2 percent. What comes out smells nothing like the garden: cold, powdery, a little carrot and violet, closer to suede and skin than to any bouquet.

At Premiere Peau the iris perfume is Doppel Dancers, an extrait de parfum at 20 percent concentration composed by Claire Liegent. Two orris concretes are set against each other, Pallida from France and Florentina from Italy, then stripped to the cold bleeding root over a skin accord and toasted black sesame. It is an iris for people who find most iris perfumes too polite.

Worn in two or three touches it stays on skin for a working day. Try it first as a 2 ml vial in the discovery set, where the price of the set is credited toward the bottle you keep.