#iris ph

[spiritedstars]

birthday fit for mrs. iris vanserra / happy birthday to my fictional princess ♥️

[the-red-thread-that-strangles]

I made a why you should read power point for Purple Hyacinth some time back that I think y'all enjoy :)

You should read Purple Hyacinth by the way. It's great.

[beforevenice]

How beautiful, how strange.

// Iris Murdoch

[unidentifiedmammal]

Current sample sheets and a couple pics of the liquid i've been using as watercolor, all extracted from purple iris or common violet in slightly different ways, and pH altered to give different colors due to anthocyanins (which i have been reading a bunch about and they ended up being a lot more complex than expected, and deserve their own text-heavy post, this is merely a pretty pictures post to prove i'm alive)

[the-froschamethyst4]

Bull Rider

𖤐Pairing: PBR! Price x Wife! Reader

𖤐Pronouns: She/Her

𖤐Warnings: fluff, smut, kissing/making out, language, children, married couple, nipple play, groping, P in V, reverse cowgirl,

𖤐Summary: You watch your husband John Price, a professional bull rider, but Price is a bit upset with himself because he didn't beat his own record and he let's Y/n help him with being a frustrated

————

————

John Price a Professional Bull Rider walked down the long hallway saddle over his shoulder as he was heading to the ring. He loved his job of being a Professional Bull Rider bring home the money for him and his family.

Y/n sits in the bleachers waiting for John, Iris her year old daughter sits on her lap and her 4 year old son Beau sits next to her drinking from whatever soft drink she bought for him.

"Mama, when is daddy coming out?" Beau asks.

"Soon Beau, it's his turn," she says, patting his dirty blonde hair.

Y/n looks down at Iris who's face was covered in cheese from the nachos.

"Iris," Y/n groans and Iris just laughs as Y/n grabs some wet-wipes and cleaned off Iris's face the best she could.

"And there's John Price's family, his lovely wife Y/n Price, little Iris with nacho cheese all over her, poor mama Price, and Beau, a little spitting image of John Price," the announcer says.

"And speaking of John Price, here he comes now." The other announcer says.

John came into the ring and heads to the shoot, where he'll be riding a bull that has sent multiple bull riders into the hospital. The bull's name is Cash. A 4 ton weighing bull.

John was nervous, Cash was very intimidating bull and if he's in the hospital there is no telling if John will walk away with a broken bone or bones or without his life.

Y/n watches as he gets on the gate and looks down at the black bull. He gets on the back of Cash. He takes a deep breath and wraps the robe around his hand and takes some more deep breaths.

"You ready!?"

"Yeah!" John yells.

Y/n was nervous for Price. She wanted him safe. The buzzer goes off and Cash was released from the shoot, Price on his back and Cash trying to buck Price off, Price just needed to last around 8 seconds on Cash's back, Price's record on the back of a bull was 14 seconds, it was considered a world record.

Cash keeps bucking but has a good hold on Cash. With one final buck Price was knocked off, Cash then goes up and lands on his back and Price quickly rolls before Cash could land on him.

"Holy shit," Price cusses as the cowboys started to move Cash back to the shoot. Price leaned on his knees and started to catch his breath, Price looks at the clock and saw his time 11 seconds.

"Fuck," he cusses again, he wanted to do better.

-------------

Price did end up winning he sits in the greenroom with a glass of whiskey in his hand, he had changed out of his gear and was now in jeans, a random red t-shirt, and black cowboy boots.

Y/n was coming down the hall with her kids behind her, she knocks on the door and opens it. Price sat alone in his greenroom.

"John? I thought you would be with the other guys celebrating?"

"I just wanna go home," John says, placing his glass on the little table next to the couch.

"Okay, come on," Y/n says, taking John's hand and they walked out of the backrooms.

John buckles his kids into their car seats, Y/n gets in the passenger seat and John started up the truck. One hand on the wheel and the other resting on Y/n's thigh like usual.

------------

John carried little Iris as Y/n held Beau, opening his bedroom door and gently laying him down on his bed, tucking him into bed. John came into the bedroom seeing Y/n kiss Beau's temple and telling him 'good night'.

Price held Y/n's hand as they walked to their bedroom together, Price was overwhelmed and stressed, he wishes he beat his own record, 11 seconds!? What kind of bullshit is that!?

Price changed into his pajamas, which was just sweatpants and no shirt, he fell on his back on his side of the bed. He looks at his phone as Y/n was doing her nightly routine.

"John, is everything okay?" Y/n asks, coming into the bedroom, moving the covers over her legs as she moves a bit closer to him.

"Yep," he says, not even looking at her.

"John, I know you, I've been with you for 7 years, I know when something is bothering you. Tell what's wrong." She asks.

"Fine," he turns his phone off and places it on his nightstand. "I wish I did better. I wish I was able to beat my own record. I...I feel like I let you down, I feel like I let the kids down, I didn't do that good tonight-"

"John, John, John, I understand but you didn't let anyone down, not me and not the kids, you did your best, it's not like...I was gonna leave you because you didn't beat 14 seconds, who cares? You have plenty and more opportunities to beat it, just the one time you didn't shouldn't matter," she says, cupping his face, making him look at her.

"Love-"

"Don't love me, I know what you are going to say, and I you're right, I won't understand because I don't do your job, but come on, Price, it's one time...don't let it get to you, I'll still be here for you, the kids will still be here."

She then kissed his lips, once she pulled away, John gave her a soft smile, his hand moving hair from her face, kissing her forehead and then her cheek, then kissing her neck.

"I want you," Price mumbles close to her ear. Price's hands then started moving up her shirt squeezing her breasts, pinching at her hardened nipples.

His lips were rough and dry, but he licks them getting them wet as he kisses her neck again, and then kissed her lips. He managed to take her shirt off tossing it somewhere in the bedroom and then pulled her shorts off next. She was just in her panties now.

Price puts her on her back as he leans over her, removing his sweatpants, he messes with his dick in his boxers, kissing her neck and then started kissing her lips.

He pushes his bulge against her wet panties.

"God you make me so fucking frustrated," he mumbles against her lips.

"Good," she teases.

Price pulls her panties off seeing her slick on her pussy. He puts two fingers against her slick and starts moving his fingers watching the sticky slick string between his fingers. He brings it to his mouth and starts licking his fingers clean.

He pulls his boxers off and lines himself at her entrance and slowly pushes into her, she moans but muffles them by covering her mouth. She didn't want to wake the kids up.

Price laid on his back hands on Y/n's waist pulling her to sit on top of him.

"Bounce, baby," he demands.

She tries to get use to his size and then placed her hands on his lower stomach, and slowly started to bounce, her breasts bouncing with every slight movement, Price smirking leaning his head back and his right arm behind his head, and left hands resting on her hip.

Y/n's head goes back as a few soft moans escape from her lips, she looks down at his bare chest, her nails slightly digging into his chest, he groans but loves the feeling.

She squeezes around his dick. He moans and then places his hands on her waist helping bounce a bit faster.

"Keep going, baby," he says.

She moves a bit faster now, but then starts moving up and then watching as Price dick spit out cum, she moves his dick to lie against his stomach, she then sits on his dick and starts slowly grinding against his dick.

She moans and he does too. She then could feel her high coming on, she starts grinding a bit faster, then with one more grind she felt herself start to cum. She sits up and watches as cum leak from her and land on his dick.

"Fuck," they both moaned.

----------

Price held Y/n against the bed as he starts pounding into her, Price has made her cum at least 3 different times, this was the last time, she ended up coming all of his dick.

Price smirks and looks down at her, kissing the back of her neck and pulling her up off the bed and letting her rest against his bare chest.

"Price, I'm all sticky and I stink."

"It's okay, baby, I'll start a bath for you."

Price left the bedroom and started to run a nice hot bath for her, grabbing a bath bomb and putting it into the bath, he plugs the tub drain and goes back into the bedroom and picks Y/n up off the bed and placed her into the hot bathtub.

Price sits behind her as she leans into his touch and Price starts washing Y/n's body.

Beau had woke up to the sound of laughter, he removes his covers and went to his parents bedroom, he peaks through the small crack of the door seeing Price mess with Y/n's damp hair.

Y/n had on one of Price's shirts and panties as Price was in a pair of boxers, Price kissed Y/n and Beau opened the door.

"Beau?" Price says.

"I can't sleep," Beau says.

"Come here, baby," Y/n says opening her arms and letting Beau come rest in her arms. She starts running her finger through his dirty blonde hair and kissed his temple.

"Mama, why is your hair wet?"

"Just took a bath baby."

"Oh, you smell good, mama," Beau nuzzles his head into her arms.

"Well, I'm glad," Price looks at his wife and son and smiled at the both of them.

"Let's get some rest," Price yawns.

"Right."

Y/n starts moving the covers over Beau's shoulder and holding him messing with his hair and kissing his forehead.

[kommandonuovidiavoli]

How's Rudy in the Teen and Adult AU? Does Wally eventually meet him?

Wally actually met Rudy when he was 6 years old, when they all went to Australia after Charlie's mother's passing. He was supposed to stay with Syd and his mother while she went to her family and took care of some stuff, but the kid wouldn't leave her side, so she took him along with her.

There, he met not only Rudy (whom he was really afraid of, for some reason) but also his grandfather (again, he didn't want to be around him) and Irwin, the only other adult he realized he could trust because he knew about Yipper Cards (which is all it takes to win Wally's heart at this time).

The visit was rather short, so Wally knows he has another uncle on his mother's side, but doesn't remember anything except for the fact that "he was an evil adult".

During the showtime, Rudy tries to bring Wally to his boarding school to make him "a perfect little lord", but Charlie manages to send him to other schools so Rudy won't have him. Yes, one time she sent him to an all-girl school but in her mind, it was still better than Rudy's (spoiler: it wasn't >>> operation: F.U.T.U.R.E.).

In the Teen AU, we don't have much info about him.

He lives in Sydney with his family. His wife is named [REDACTED], and he has one baby daughter named Irene and another 8-year-old son daughter child daughter Iris.

He still runs his boarding school and is a renowned Villain in the Australian KND space (known as "Mister No Smile"), able to take down two sectors (Sector PH and Sector VC) all alone, turning all 10 members into little perfect, educated lords and ladies. It is called the "smiling accident", because it's said they could see him smile before being taken down.

He could be considered the "Father" of Australia. Sector SY is always at war with him, and the only one specifically trained to go against him since the "smiling accident".

Wally has no contact with him at this moment.

In the Adult AU... oh boy... where to start?

Wally knows about him, and since he returned, he's even more afraid of him.

Rudy's also one of those villains trying to get Lou, and he knows Lou won't go hard on him because he's Charlie's little brother. Which gives him an advantage.

His family grew up to three daughters dolls. Iris is the older. She's 18 but still under his influence. Irene is 10 and the youngest one, Iresine, is 4.

Rudy has a strange fascination for dolls, especially vintage, porcelain ones, and creepily applied it on his daughters, who need to follow his rules. They don't talk, they don't smile, they sometimes just sit next to him as he works, doing nothing but... looking pretty.

The only time they are "alive", it's when he has them fight KND, every time those annoying kids try and attack his boarding school.

Their mother?

What's a "mother"?

In all reality, their mother Garbielle actually loves all of them a lot.

She managed to convince Rudy to let them attend public school, and that's when they are finally able to be themselves and enjoy life.

Iresine is very active, loves to run, jump, dance and play sports! She's actually very good at dancing!

Irene has a strong desire to join KND, not to fight them. She loves what the kids do, and knows her father is... not good. That's how Sector SY sometimes gets some infos about Mister No Smile's future plans...

As for Iris... Iris...

...

that's not her... his name. His name is Michael, and he is actually best friends with his cousin Joey. But there's NO WAY Joey will ever know about his real identity. He doesn't want to lose him or that fun side of his family. Even if... Irwin is a bit suspicious.

Also because he has too much fun with Joey!

Also, to clarify, Michael is not trans. He's a cis male. His father wanted all girls, so he's forcing him into being one. Which... is still not ok AT ALL.

[giresthoughts]

‘High Summer’, July 2015, model Iris, ph Erik Gigengack

[venusimleder]

Vogue Italia, October 2000.

Ph. Iris Brosch

[greenhorn-art]

World Champions | Artwork for World Champions by TheDefenestrator by TheDefenestrator, art by Blurb_brain

Fandom: The King's Avatar | 全职高手

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Words: 71 944

At the end of season 4 of the Glory Pro Alliance, the government finally receives the information it has been waiting for: The other players have caught up. Or, In which Glory has been a government recruitment ploy for remote-piloted mecha operators all along.

About the Book

FONTS: Mundo Serif, Azonix [dafont], Segoe UI Symbol

IMAGES: Illustration by Blurb_brain [AO3]; cover image by NASA ID: 440611 [Rawpixel]; Planet Earth background ID: 6331593 [Rawpixel]; Circuit lines background ID: 3117935 [Rawpixel]; endpapers' image by Eric Eastman [Unsplash]; Swoksaar, Desert Dust, Lord Grim, Vaccaria, and Cloud Piercer [The King's Avatar Wikia]

MATERIALS: regular printer paper (8.5"x11", 96 bright, 20lb), 80pt bookboard, Iris Bookcloth (colour: Black Pearl), Neenah cardstock (8.5"x11", bright white, 65lb), waxed linen thread (white, 30/3 size), embroidery floss (shades 3750, 350, 3845, 370), leather cording (1.9mm diameter), Reeves’ acrylic paint (Mars Black, Phthalo Blue, Titanum White), Americana acrylic paint (glow in the dark), ph neutral pva glue (Books by Hand)

PROGRAMS USED: Typeset in Affinity Publisher, cover/title page/endpapers designed in Affinity Designer/Photo, QR codes generated with LibreOffice Writer, PDF arranged for printing with Bookbinder-JS

BINDING STYLE: quarto, case bound (slightly rounded, with oxford hollow, forgot to use tapes)

.

Fenes' "Glory's tech isn't handwaved" AU. This was great! Funny and creative, and I'm both amazed and full of admiration for Fenes' ability to juggle so many characters.

I was feeling excited and ambitious with this one. Tried some new fun things (double core endbands, painted edges) and used some new equipment (a lying press).

The Text

TITLE/HEADINGS FONT: Azonix says 'SciFi' to me, it's a bold, non-serif, sleek font.

BODY FONT: Mundo Serif, it's a decent serif body font I haven't used before. Felt like it worked with Azonix.

SCENE BREAKS: a special character in Segoe UI Symbol of a black & white icon of Earth, the globe showing Asia.

TYPESETTING: Finished typesetting the fic, left document open on my laptop, laptop's battery failed, file now crashes immediately upon reopening, issue persists with copied versions of file (；￣Д￣) . Thankfully I had a backup file for the typeset with the barebones of the text, so I didn't have to restart from scratch...

Title Page

My thinking: it takes place in space, the world's at stake, and it's the dawn of a new horizon for Earth. Glory and the titular champions are represented by Swoksaar, Desert Dust, Lord Grim, Vaccaria, and Cloud Piercer – the captains of what I'd call the 'big 5' teams. A circuitry board background element hints at the tech/mecha nature of the story's competition. It may not match Blurb's art, but I hope I was able to convey some of what the story is about.

The circuitry image is used as decoration throughout the book. I only used the avatars of the top five teams' captains because too many silhouettes would lessen their impact and readability. (Removing the backgrounds was tedious, but worth it.)

Here's what it should have looked like. The test prints for this and the BB art were fine, but I think my inkjet started running out of ink just when I printed the final copies and I didn't reprint them. (Too impatient, really wanted to finish up and read the book)

The Cover

World Champions is another Big Bang fic, and once again I based some of my design choices off of the accompanying artwork. The dominant colours of Blurb_brain's illustration are red and blue-green.

COVER PAPER: For the decorative cover material I used NASA's ASTER image of Poyang Lake. NASA has some really interesting photography some of which remind me of marbled paper, thought it could be interesting. I chose this image of Poyang Lake because 1) it's in China, 2) the colours were similar to Blurb's awesome illustration (fate strikes again, dropping matching images and artwork into my lap!), and 3) NASA is tangentially relevant to the fic, which takes place in space.

BOOKCLOTH: Verona bookcloth in the shade Black Pearl, a lovely dark navy blue colour. Thought it suited the cover paper and title page. (Bought it for this fic specifically, but the colour goes well with almost all of my decorative papers so it should see a lot of use in the future!)

Endpapers

The final decision that held this project at a standstill for two months. In the end I drew inspiration from the matchups against the final opponent in the story. The image I used is a little chaotic and a little too unrelated to identify why I picked it without an explanation, but this book is for me and I know why, so there. (Note that I played around with the colours and cropped the photo.)

Endpaper inspiration: the maps for the matches against the Infilhites

"a long bridge through an enormous tube-like hall, where light seem to come from every side through stained glass windows. It was visually confusing, limited lateral motion" "a warehouse, crates stacked on and beside metal racks that went all the way to the ceiling." "a house of mirrors, fully enclosed to be sure the Infhillte couldn’t fly out of it." "like a volcano, rivers of lava moving sluggishly down a slope, occasional vents of overheated air nearby." "a series of overlapping bridges between halls and stairways, level after level layered over an open abyss."

Trimming & Painting the Edges

Going all out, a 2-for1 deal: the opportunity to use my lying press for the first time and learn a new technique!

TRIMMING: Used a paring chisel and lying press.

CHISEL: The 1.25" wide paring chisel I used was form a modern manufacturer. (Vintage paring chisels are very thin, enough so that you can bend/flex the blade. But don't do that.) It's long and wide blade made it easier to register against the surface of the press for consistent cuts. Looks like this one below from Lee Valley.

LYING PRESS: My dad's project. Solid black walnut, hand carved screws and internal threads — he even made the tools to make the threads too! The jaws of the press are each 3 7/8" wide. It's big and heavy (though much smaller than full-sized professional ones omg), but there's enough of a flat surface to register the chisel against. A thicc boi, much like this one below from Bookbinding Supplies.

PAINTED EDGES: The idea was to have dark navy edges, speckled with white stars. I used acrylic from a tube to paint the edges — tutorials recommended it over liquid bottled acrylic, and I had an old set hanging around. Had to water it down because otherwise the paint just flaked off.

My test of trimming and painting went well. Then the trimmed book itself came out slightly crooked, the paint required significantly more watering-down than before, and the white paint did not want to be both opaque and speckle-able. Unfortunate, but still book-shaped! And now I have an idea of what to do differently next time.

Also, did not like the glow-in-the-dark paint. Looked too translucent in the light when compared to the white acrylic, and needed a thicker coat to be visible in the dark. (The thickness combined with the translucence and base colour kinda reminded me of boogers... Ended up scrapping most of it off, so there's not much left to glow.)

Endbands

Still in the mood to have fun and go all-out, I attempted double-core endbands for the first time.

TUTORIAL: YouTube @ BookbindersChronicle: Bookbinding 101 Sewing Headbands Session 2. Also watched @ DAS Bookbinding's Double-Core Endband // Adventures in Bookbinding, but I personally found Chronicle's closeup video easier to follow.

I used embroidery floss from a 100pk of assorted colours off Amazon, wrapped around a core of 1.9mm leather cording from Michaels. I drew from Blurb_brain's art for the general colours, choosing a dark base, with red, blue-green, and gold. The specific shades were picked to go with the cover.

[sachermorte]

what’s your favourite flower? :D

Gladiolus!

They're also called sword lilies. When flower language was in vogue, they were used to symbolize integrity and strength of character. I more or less developed the second over time. I'm still working on the first. I just think there's something about them. They're much bigger in person, standing tall and proud. I'm actually fond of many other flowers that grow in spears like this (foxglove, lupine), but gladioli are my favorite. I like them so much I have a tattoo of them. They're expensive and hard to keep (I don't have a garden and if I did I probably couldn't maintain it) so they feel even more exclusive to be for that reason.

Other honorable mentions:

Roses. "Ah, but everyone likes roses", you say. Not like I do. I'm a certified Rose Enjoyer. Ours tend to last through the winter so I have even more time with them. I love them. I love how they stab me when I'm arranging them. I love their different colors and shapes. I spent a whole summer crying my eyes out in the rose garden at Volksgarten pretty much every single day and you know what? It helped. If you're going to cry do it somewhere aesthetically appealing, at minimum.

Hydrangeas. Like clouds in the sweetest pastel dream I never have. They're either pink or blue depending on the pH of the soil, which I think is very fashionable of them. There's a church in the sixth district that plants them every year in giant, sprawling bushes and I always battle the bees every spring to go and sit with my nice beverage and just be around them. When I finally find the place where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts, hydrangeas will be planted there.

But really, I just love flowers. Larkspur, peony, begonia, snapdragon, pansy, forget-me-not, snowbell, lily, iris, morning glory, and it goes on and on and on. I love flowers so much I could cry. The next time I go through a big dramatic breakup I'm leaving it all behind to go be a florist for a couple years until I'm forced back onto the path fate has written for me.

[spiritedstars]

birthday fit for mrs. iris vanserra / happy birthday to my ficitonal baby girl ♥️

[vacantgodling]

some meta shit about timeline and gender

started poking this idea yesterday when i was explaining this to my partner but ph’s cultural concept of gender is broken into 4 (technically there is a secret fifth one) parts: higher feminine, higher masculine, lower feminine, lower masculine, and then god*

god* is the secret fifth gender because in their society does not refer to “god” as a single entity, or a triumvirate like Galeré’s Shepherd/Savior/Judge. to the Kajengans/Kajegans (i can’t decide which i prefer), being the birthplace of what we call magic in this world (and the origin point of witches in Alizath), their concept of nature and magic and the alive “universal energy” around them is “god”. “god” to them is a force, and cannot be gendered. to be degendered in their society is to claim that you Are this universal force—and that’s just. not a thing lol.

this isn’t to say that people don’t have complex gender identities—no. it’s just similar to societies such as ours that have extremely gendered languages and cultures; you exist anyway and find your own workarounds. i should also mention that, chronologically, Smite’s story takes place hundreds, if not thousands (guess who hasn’t decided) of years before Paramour+The Fall of Galeré series as a whole to account for Galeré’s technological advancement lol.

n e w a y tho—higher feminine (kori) and higher masculine (iri) refer to several things.

the blood of the person in question: ie, is it “royal” or “common”. royal blood, unsurprisingly is found in the leaders of any tribe or clan, as well as any of the more well off and nobility. (though they’d use different terms and it’s not necessarily in the way we think of royalty given this is a nomadic/steppe adjacent culture but i haven’t gotten into the weeds of that yet)

the “attunement” to god*. or basically; higher feminine and higher masculine people have a slight affinity for magic—not as developed as later cultures (ie: Alizath’s witches for instance)

and then a third thing i haven’t thought of yet that is more around their determination of gender bc i don’t really want it to be associated with the biology of the situation but i have yet to decide or figure out other determining factors.

and lower feminine (suffix -ko)/lower masculine (suffix -i) are just pretty much not the first two, but all determined by the third thing i haven’t decided yet.

i do know on his journey to save song, as smite is more exposed to both being alone and away from his clan/tribe and begins to experiment and understand his own gender, that he is Also going to run into others: other clans sure, but also, those who live as outcasts in their society. haven’t decided on who he/they are yet specifically but ik smite is going to meet someone i’m currently placeholder naming “bird” but he’s interesting because in a traditional name bird+(gendered suffix) is how you’d name someone; as it’s seen as an affront to god* to not gender yourself p much. however, he/they obviously don’t view things like that and live on their own in the wilds bc of this and other reasons 🤷🏽‍♂️

also ALSO last thing, the northern band that still is from is much looser with their idea of gender Because the north is where “magic” is thought to have originated from and they have a higher attunement to god* (aka ability to actually Use magic versus being attuned to it) so the concept of lacking gender/nb/third gender originates from the northern band and spreads south eventually into regions like galeré and alizath :)

finally finally the end of this ramble is ig this giant northernmost steppe has a name kinda which is whenever i decide if this place is called kajenga or kajega 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️

[myduckieworld]

Yellowjackets perfume headcanons:

Shauna: Safari by Ralph Lauren. It's a bold scent for someone who thinks herself to be invisible. The hyacinth and galibanum are fresh and clean at the begining but a little later, as it dries, you can't escape the woods: sandalwood, cedar and amber. Her ph brings those out even more and it smells like strenght and sturdiness in a way that can be too addictive.

Jackie: Shalimar by Guerlain. It's a powerful an sensual fragrance.  Extremely alluring, first with the bergamote and then the iris, jasmine and rose. It's made to stand out and turn heads. She was first attracted to the woodsy notes she thought she'd find but the ph of her skin hides them and brings out instead the touches of vanilla, which makes it much sweeter without being cloying. Mostly, though, Jackie became obsessed when the lady at the counter told her that this perfume was inspired by the tragic love story of emperor Shah Jahan and the lost too soon princess Mumtaz Mahal, and how Shalimar means "temple of love" in Sanskrit and symbolises "the promise of eternal love forevermore".

Nat: Eau de Cologne Lavanda Wally.  Nat was mostly looking for a scent that could cover the smell of pot but she liked the strong smell of the lavender and the touch of cinnamon. When you add the scent of her leather jacket and the faint touch of cigarrettes, it's just all quite an attractive mix. Her jacket already has that mix fully impregnated so that's become part of Nat's natural scent even when she's not wearing the cologne.

Lottie: Poème by Lancôme. It's fancy and exquisite, imposible to miss but soft all the same. With the peach and flowers making it so unabashedly feminine. If you concentrate, you can find the heliotrope among the tuberose and narcissus. Lottie smells expensive and alluring, in a way that is always intriguing.

Taissa: Youth Dew by Estée Lauder. It's warm and spicy, an imposing scent that it's hard to describe but your nose willingly will follow, with a balsam heart that feels like a strong hold. There’s a touch of everything, frim vetiver to Ylang Ylang, to insence to coca cola. It's like she can do anything, try anything be anyone. And she will.

Van: Old Spice. It smells like freedom to them.

Laura Lee:  Woods of Windsor's Lilly of The Valley, powder talc. It's fresh and clean in a way that is surprisingly not overly sweet.

Misty: Anaïs, Anaïs by Cacharel. Her PH brings out the pears, peonies and cocoa. Not the mix she wanted when she cot a wiff of one of the girls in the varsity team when she was a junior but its still really nice. Her mom said so.

[nemosisworld]

L'amour d'un être humain pour un autre, c'est peut-être l'épreuve la plus difficile pour chacun de nous, c'est le plus haut témoignage de nous-même ; l’œuvre suprême dont toutes les autres ne sont que les préparations.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Ph. Servan-Edern Ilyne : Iris Jodorowsky.

[unidentifiedmammal]

I've been meaning to make more posts about this, but there's so much i have to say/images to show that this will be a part 1 out of ??? and this one focuses mainly on the first batch of Purple Iris watercolors and the pH mystery they made me unravel through chaotically-organized researching.

Basically, I've been messing around with anthocyanins, a common class of plant pigments that are pH sensitive/can be used as a pH indicator. The first source I've tried has been purple irises, which i've only vaguely been familiar with in the past. The ones I picked were the ones that had begun to shrivel slightly, to the point where they were still a deep purple but picking them they would almost be leaking a purple liquid that stained my hands. I put them in a thing of hot tap water (not boiled, just the hot setting on the faucet), enough to cover the flowers, and let them steep. they began changing the color of the water almost immediately, with the fresher ones not losing their color as quickly as the ones that had begun to wilt on the plant. within 30 minutes i decided it was extracted enough.

This left a strong purple in the water, which i then poured off into three other containers, two of which i would alter the pH of.

The purple is due to delphinidin, a type of anthocyanidin that forms the building blocks of anthocyanins. Note i italicize the word anthocyanidin just so it's easier to tell apart the two.

there are anywhere from 16-31 anthocyanidins depending on what source you find, but they are basically the backbone structure of anthocyanins, of which there are over 600 something. The main thing that turns an anthocyanidin (aglycon) into an anthocyanin (glycoside form) is a sugar attached to it.

Realistically, that distinction isn't useful when simply extracting things from flowers in hot water, but i thought it was a fun fact to note. Anthocyanidins also come in handy for knowing what builds the anthocyanins in your flowers/plant part;

cyanidin (30%), delphinidin (22%), and pelargonidin (18%) make up the base for a good majority of all the anthocyanins in plants (~60% collectively),

peonidin, malvidin, and petunidin being runnerups (20% collectively)

the 20-something remaining anthocyanidins make up the rest

So basically, they all have slightly different colors that are pH reactive, and can provide anything from red to pink to orange to purple to blue. But, for our purposes, if you have a blue/purple flower, that likely means it has some amount of delphinidin-based anthocyanins in it! there can also be more than one anthocyanidin type present in the same plant.

Other well-known sources of anthocyanins are grape skins, red cabbage, red onions, butterfly pea tea, and purple violets. However, they're also very abundant in many many other plants, these are just the common ones i can think of that lots of people are probably familiar with to some degree.

Fun fact, grape skins are actually really well-studied as far as anthocyanins go (i believe they mainly have malvidin-based ones) because they're so important for the coloration of wine! Anthocyanins as a whole are also studied as a natural source of food dyes, along with other flavonoids such as carotenoids.

As for why it turns colors, this is because of the way the anthocyanin changes structure in different pHs. The short answer is it turns red/pink in low pH (acidic) conditions, purple in slightly acidic/neutral conditions, and blue/green in slightly high pH conditions.

The long answer is something I'll explain in a moment, but for now here's the acid/base colors:

(on the left, i altered it with vinegar and it became a bright magenta color; on the right, i altered it with baking soda and it became a sea green/blue cyan that refused to show up accurately on camera). That's one thing I've noticed, and others have too, is that when working with pigments (especially natural ones) the color accuracy of the camera often just completely fails. there's only so many colors a digital camera can capture!

Here's a slightly more accurate color due to different lighting, note how it's more a malachite green than a pure blue. off the bat this was interesting becuase I wasn't expecting as green of a liquid as i got.

Anyways, the first thing i did with them was use them as-is, no alterations past the addition of the respective vinegar and baking soda. I painted with them just as one would paint with watercolors, and interestingly enough, when i put them onto paper, they began to change from their pink/purple/malachite colors to a teal/indigo/emerald set instead.

This seems to be the result of something in the paper itself, likely calcium carbonate (which i only recently learned is added to "buffer" paper against acidic substances; the cellulose in paper is more stable long term when there's no acid present, and the calcium carbonate neutralizes any acids applied to a degree).

It's still interesting that even though the acids are neutralized, they give a unique color when compared to the basic paint.

I also tried soaking some of the same paper in vinegar water, which got rid of that buffer and let me paint with the pinks intact, but that's for another post.

Also, note that i said "neutral" for the middle, this is just what i wrote down for the tap water sample; in actuality the tap water is actually a bit closer to pH 6 instead of a true neutral 7, which i only found out after i had gotten this far. So whenever i say "neutral," i mean "tap water that's slightly acidic"

Here's something interesting that happened, though. Overnight i left the jars on my desk, and while the acid and neutral colors were the same when I came back ~24 hours later, the basic had degraded into a murky brown. this was interesting since that meant the instability was pH-dependent.

So, i made another color swatch with the acid/neutral/base, and used that as a comparison to look at how it had changed. Surprisingly, it painted out a yellowy-green instead of a murky gray-brown

here's the murky water that the once-malachite-green turned into:

I also poured off a bit into another container, and shifted it back into a low pH with a bit of vinegar to see if it would still change color. Surprisingly, it turned a slight pink, like pink lemonade, which means there were still anthocyanins in there but they were likely a lot less concentrated than they used to be.

Here's the pink, with a few leftover bubbles from the baking soda/vinegar reaction:

Here's the results of painting with these:

the acid was basically unchanged after sitting in a jar for 24 hours, the neutral had lost a bit of its purple color but was still about the same, and the base was now a lot yellower/tanner with a bit of green still showing through. The shifted sample was a pale stormy gray that ended up taking on a green color as it dried, as though following the trend of pink shifting to a bluer color but on a much more muted scale.

Now obviously, i wanted to figure out what caused this, so i dug around both on wikipedia and other sites but found myself eventually reading into scientific papers on the topic, at which point it became very clear that i would need to learn like, organic chemistry and such to be able to say for sure what was happening.

I did eventually manage to figure out a few things despite the dense terminology; for one thing, anthocyanins are more unstable than other plant pigments such as carotenoids. there are plenty of things that can affect their stability, including the pH of the substance they're stored in. Any higher than pH 7 (basic pHs) and theyll begin to degrade. This explains why the high pH sample lost its blue/green color, and why there was very little left to be shifted back to a pink color.

I also found out that the pH color shift isn't as simple as it seemed. Rather, there are multiple chemical forms of anthocyanins.

At the lowest pHs, basically all of them are in the "flavylium cation" state, which basically means it's positively charged and this is what gives a red color

still at a low pH (2-4), there's anothe chemical form that appears, the "quinoidal" structure that gives a blue color. Note that the red cation is still present, just no longer the only form

the more the pH rises, the more forms start to coexist, with some of those forms being colorless (one of which is a "colorless carbinol"

so, between 4 and 6 there are the cations (red) quinoidal (blue) carbinol (colorless) and something called a chalcone that gives a pale yellow

and then past that, I'm unsure, but of course that's around when the anthocyanins begin to degrade

There are also a lot more than these that i've encountered in various contexts but these seem to be the basic ones.

Do note that i do not fully understand these terms (flavylium, quinoidal, carbinol, chalcone, etc.) and have only recently begun to actually try to learn what they mean and the context surrounding them as i only had a class of basic high school chemistry under my belt prior to this. The main paper i combed over to try to find info on it seems to be behind a paywall but the DOI is:

doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.09.001

for anyone curious and able to access it, whether through legit means or what have you.

That being said, to me, the takeaway here seems to be that there's a yellow form that appears around the time that other color forms begin to disappear, and as those degrade it makes sense that the resulting degraded forms also contribute to a murky color. This helps explain why it changed color in the jar and also retained a bit of yellow and green.

This also explains why the blue form seems to also be slightly green, it's got the blue quinoidal chemical form as well as the yellow chalcones.

There are also interesting things of note that I will get into at a later date, such as the texture/reflectivity of the way it dries, the differences in extraction ease between this and purple violets, the addition of a genuinely neutral/pH 7 sample later, a sample from a plant that doesnt seem to have delphinidins, and sample the seems to genuinely sparkle??? Much more of interest to come soon!

[letzternachtzug]

IRIS LAW ph. by Dominique Maitre, Christina Fragkou and Lyvans Boolaky - taken during the Saint Laurent Men's Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection fashion show on January 28, 2025 in Paris, France