Orris Butter (Beurre d’Iris)

Orris Concrète Oil--not mobile

Iris pallida.

Our Orris butter is solid at room temperature and melts quickly when warmed. It has the scent of soft violets. 8% Irones Aged in Tuscany, Italy and Extracted in France

Orris concrete is not what we usually think of as a concrete—it’s actually a solid essential oil. It’s produced by steam distillation of Iris pallida rhizomes. The rhizomes are washed, decorticated, and dried. Then they are stored for three years, in Italy. Once ready to distill, these rhizomes are pulverized, and still practically odorless. The distillation takes place in France. The distilled oil solidifies in the receiver to a waxy, cream-colored mass, and this is orris butter.

It has a woody, fatty-oily, distinctly violet-like odor, with a fruity undertone, sweet-floral, warm and tenacious. It’s not soluble in ethyl alcohol at room temperature. There is a myristic acid presence here and this can make the oil slightly difficult to use in perfumery, but also has advantages where it acts as a fixative.

High irones for food, low irones for fragrance

Orris is one of, if not the most, expensive perfume ingredients—the only competition I can think of would be agarwood, and only some agarwood. One of the outstanding features of is the odor diffusion. The odor might seem delicate and even weak, but, on dilution, shows incredible strength and power.

Arctander describes Orris Absolute vacuum distilled from a petroleum ether concrete as:

The resulting absolute is a water-white, or very pale yellow, oily liquid, of extremely delicate, sweet-floral, yet somewhat woody odor which appears very weak at first, but later, or on dilution, displays its full and impressive strength and diffusion. Flavor experiments will easily convince the keen observer that this material has unusual diffusive power and “lift” in spite of its delicate note. In extreme dilutions, the flavor becomes sweet-fruity and reminiscent of raspberries, and it can be used in flavor composing for this effect.

2 grams come in a 10ml bottle. Add alcohol to dissolve.