Craft · 2 August 2026 · 5 min read
Three years to make a single note
Iris butter is the slowest, rarest material in the palette. This is how it is made.
The scent of iris does not live in the flower. It lives in the rhizome, the underground root, and only after it has been dried and aged for three years in cool dark rooms.
Fresh, the root smells of almost nothing: earth, a little green. Slowly, over seasons, a molecule called irone develops and the root begins to smell of violets, suede and cold stone.
It takes roughly a tonne of rhizomes to produce a couple of kilos of iris butter. We use it sparingly in Afterglow, a few drops that give the heart its powder and its hush.