Serge Lutens Un Lys

Nose: Christopher Sheldrake

notes: lily, musk, vanilla

Lily is my favorite flower, both to look at and to smell. Sometimes, I just want a real lily: that heady, strong, heavy sweet-swooning scent that so many people find off-putting but I find richly satisfying.

Despite their churchy associations, lilies are classified as "white florals" in perfumery along with tuberose, gardenia, jasmine, and orange blossom: flowers with rich nectarous indole-heavy scents, which many people find "sensual" or "sexy". A real lily smells honeyed, dense and slightly spicy; not in the least prim, fresh, or "virginal".

Un Lys is one of Lutens' playing-it-straight florals: pure, intense lily juice, sweetened with vanilla until it borders on overwhelming. It has an interesting little shifting palette of pearlescent white-on-whites, ranging from bell-clear brightness to warm swoony softness.