Twisted Hearts, Velvet Iris, Aliksir: Three bottles that surprised me this week

If you still think niche perfumery is stuck in its feelings, try these three on skin. Testament London Twisted Hearts, Essential Parfums Velvet Iris, and Élisire Aliksir walk into the room with their own weather systems and zero patience for beige.

Let’s start with Testament London Twisted Hearts, a scent reportedly inspired by New York. On me it opens like a night in the Lower East Side, all spark and static. There’s a jolting brightness at the top that feels like a slice of citrus over cold metal, then a quick pivot into a sweet‑salty heartbeat that reads like lacquered cherry meets street steam. The “twisted” bit is real. Just when you expect romance, it throws grit, a dry wood accord, maybe a lick of smoke. The result is a neon floral-woody that captures city adrenaline without the cliché pretzel-and-subway-note trope.

Essential Parfums Velvet Iris is the antidote to lazy iris tropes. If the word iris makes you brace for powder, relax. This wears like a tailored cashmere turtleneck, cool at first, then warming to skin. The orris effect feels buttery and mineral at once, a soft-focus veil with a suede undertone that never collapses into makeup-bag talc. There is lift, there is hush, and there is an elegant persistence that makes me think of natural daylight on clean linen. It’s modern iris that doesn’t overcompensate with loud woods or vanilla. It stays composed and quietly magnetic.

Then there is Élisire Aliksir, amber-hued and unabashedly so. Think golden hour bottled. The first minute glows with resinous sweetness that slides into a satin amber, not syrupy, more molten. I get a thread of spice, a polished wood tone, and a slow-blooming warmth that reminds me of heated skin under silk. It is the kind of amber that moves, not the heavy winter blanket. If your wardrobe leans minimalist, this adds color without shouting.

Three different moods, three distinct signatures. Testament London Twisted Hearts wears like a night out you barely planned. Essential Parfums Velvet Iris is the immaculate shirt that fits even better an hour in. Élisire Aliksir is the afterglow. No gimmicks, no sugar coating, just solid character and enough surprise to earn space on the front row of my shelf this season.