Un Lys

skip to end for quick take have you ever had a scent change drastically on you after some time (years)? i don’t man has your opinion of a scent ever changed drastically but literally if a scent has completely changed on your skin/to your nose. because that’s what’s going on with this. i have a sample that i bought years ago, that i was underwhelmed with at the time because i found it rather simple and not complex enough. pretty, but wasn’t the lush, fleshy, “alive” lily that i was looking for. on top of that, sillage was almost nonexistent it was a skin scent pretty much from the very start, and longevity was no more than 3 hours. it was just kind of weak and lackluster in every way, albeit pretty, but pretty can still be boring. just today, after many years, i retried that very sample and was shocked to be hit with a completely different scent! it’s not off, it actually smells incredible now, but just totally, and i mean totally completely different. you know what it smells like now? two words: vintage diorissimo. the edt. not an exact dupe but seriously close. the main difference is that vintage diorissimo edt has a gorgeous lilac scent that to me, is characteristic of and integral to the perfume; it just wouldn’t be diorissimo without it. but perhaps it would be un lys? this “version” of it at least (or maybe i should say this “version” of my skin chemistry? lol). i now feel like i get a gorgeous lush non-soapy, possibly slightly indolic lotv, though it could just be that the lily here is so bright and joyous smelling that it’s making me think there’s lotv in there too. the vanilla is soft and not in any way the sugary variety, and doesn’t actually read as “vanilla” as much as it reads as the creamy, vanillic aspects of the scent of certain types of lilies (the types that happen to be my favorite; i love this scent profile) and somewhere in there is a very soft, very airy base of soft spice tying everything together and keeping it grounded (diorissimo has something like this too) but again it reads more as the intoxicating soft spicy notes that you smell when you stick your nose in certain types of lilies (sorry i wish i knew the names of the different lily varieties. i know how they look and smell but just can’t remember the names right now maybe i’ll update them later). diorissimo is still a bit brighter and more joyous and sparkling than this, but this plays gorgeously on the creamy vanillic and soft spicy aspects of lilies and you get an overall effect that is still bright and full of life but also a little quieter, softer, more grounded, a tiny bit oriental. also, another really crazy thing that changed is the performance! it actually got better! and this really is weird because if anything, my skin is much worse at projecting perfume and preserving longevity than when i was younger, and my nose is less sensitive too, and i distinctly remember this being so weak when i first tried it. can performance and strength increase drastically like that with age? in any case, this sample vial is amazing now, but i would have to try another one before i’d consider buying this to rule out a fluke. even still, should it end up being the same as this sample is, i’m not sure this perfume would be a priority for me to buy, simply because i still prefer vintage diorissimo edt and they’re similar enough that it would be very low priority to own both. though who knows, it might grow on me in its own right too and in all fairness, diorissimo is a really tough one to compete with and be compared to. final thoughts: a great take on lily and should be a standard perfume to try for all lily lovers. it might not be the ultimate greatest but it’s one that anyone who’s into lilies, or cold white flowers in general, should smell at least once as part of their perfume education, could see it being a true love for some. edit: as it dries down, i find myself falling more and more in love with it. ok, this is definitely a love after all. the vanilla really comes out to play at some point in the heart as it starts to transition to the dry down. it’s nothing like diorissimo at this point, but it is delicious. it’s turned into much more of an equal parts lily and vanilla perfume and seems like it’s heading towards becoming a vanilla scent primarily. a scrumptious cold vanilla bean with soft spice and a soft warm and cold lily. mmmm...

(Review of a Palais Royale era bottle) My mother loved lilies. She grew all sorts. Lily of the valley, stargazer, casa blanca, muscadet, trumpets, day lilies of course, and many others I’m not going to be able to recall. There was always a vase full of lilies on the dining room table. It’s one of those aromas that’s inextricable from my early life to such an extent that I recall to memory the precise aromas of different lilies, and my mind instantly replays early memories whenever the aroma of a lily hits me. Un Lys is quite odd for me, mostly because it does engage instant recall but yet I find myself saying for most of the time I wear it “this doesn’t smell like any lily I know of.” That statement is purposely a bit exaggerated because there is enough “lily” in Un Lys to make one say “yes, lily” but there are other facets pushed so far to the foreground that I dubiously shake my head. The soft white floral quality is there, heady and very intense, creamy and unctuous, soapy and powdery, musky, soft and sweet green pea borders. Check, check, check. But then there is a vanillic/coumarin-ic under-layer that doesn’t sit quite right. It’s very reminiscent of an old school masculine fougere with the vanilla, clean musks, perhaps a bit damp mossy, highly refined patchouli, and very soft floral tobacco qualities. It’s strikingly beautiful, but I’m not convinced of lily. The final skin scent is more of the musk, patchouli, and a calmer vanilla note, that carry us through to the end. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to me or anyone very familiar with Serge Lutens that he isn’t going to give us something as straightforward as a lily soliflore. For the fact that it’s called Un Lys is a sure indicator that Lutens is not going to give strictly un lys. The perfume is all the better for it. Its unusual detours through the body of what makes a lily a lily - even if the stopovers aren’t quite lily at some points - makes it very memorable and pleasing to wear. Beautiful work.

I have now resumed my relationship with Serge Lutens perfume house. In the past , the samples I had tried, adorned the fragrances with way too many spices , hard hitting, resinous , edgy , or quirky notes for faint hearted me. I just couldn’t pull them off despite appreciating their craftsmanship, complexity and uniqueness . I, then found in Serge Lutens perfume house , a group of simpler, quieter and more linear florals which I have now amassed 8 bottles . I believe there is a market for those who love his creativity and quality ingredients but prefer more wearable perfumes. Simplicity done perfectly is outstanding in itself . Saying that , Un Lys is indolic and has an underlying spice that is predominant throughout the scent’s journey . Un Lys is real Lillies, honeyed lilacs, fresh dew and a hint of vanilla . The right amount of vanilla to merge with the warmth of the subtle golden musk as it shines through . The drydown earthens it a bit and you get the full effect of the Lillies with the vanilla . As one reviewer commented - “ you get the petals , the dew on them , the air around them , the stem and grass beneath them and the breeze that carries their sweet , beautiful aroma “. How beautifully said and exactly what I experienced . As with all SL’s perfumes , the initial blast on first spray, is quite scent explosive but this is predominately a skin scent on me . After 5 mins , the notes settle and they start to weave their captivating and hypnotic notes. Un Lys is not what I expected . It’s very heady/ indolic for me and being a white floral lover I would have preferred the lilies to stand out more but the underlying spices ruin it for me . I won’t be getting a bottle but still appreciate its beauty .

It happened. I finally own it, it's mine. My perfume is not in a bell jar, it's in regular clear "coffin" bottle with an old small black label with Palace logo, and batch code dates it back to 2006. By the way, there is a mistake here on Fragrantica. It was launched in 1994, not in 2007. It has not spoiled one bit (this is always my fear with older bottles) after almost 20 years. Before today I only sampled it from a tiny 1 ml dabber bottle. And dabbing it is not the same as spraying. I thought it was quite weak and intimate scent, and it certainly is not. Un Lys to Lily is like Tubereuse Criminelle to Tuberose and Iris Silver Mist to Iris. This is The Lily. But only in the beginning! The opening is pure Lily. After about an hour it transforms into lilac + lily. How does it do that? I don't know! But by God, this is the most realistic fresh blooming lilac known to perfumery. My old dabble sample did not do that, it remained Lily only. At the same time hints of lightly charred vanilla pods also appear. One word I would use to describe the entire experience is mesmerizing. As always after experiencing something breathtaking by this house I question why do I have all this other stuff from other brands, why even bother... do I really need it all?

The second you pick up the bottle of Un Lys invisible string instruments start to warm up. Why? Because the very moment that you depress that atomizer and release this parfum into the atmosphere a symphony begins. As you move through your day you will be imparting beautifully scented music wherever you go.Sound corny and over the top? Then you've never tried this parfum. Un Lys is a stunning full bodied lily that wafts and kisses the air w/her lushness. She's the star of the show and allows you to be noted for your exquisite taste. She's a true diva who takes all the credit for something that's built to let her shine. Holding her up is a soft, deep vanille and blurring her edges is a gorgeous almost imperceptable musk. These ingrediants are layered in perfectly and create a truly creamy,almost wilting quality to this compositon. As if the lily has been in her vase for a few days and the whole house has now taken on her aroma. Fullness, decadence, excess, are words that come to mind when thinking of Un Lys. She is delicate passion in a bottle. Seriously,look her up and see if she won't seduce you. (Please forgive me for the dramatic review. This perfume does that to me. I hope she's able to do that for you too!)

My tastes change from time to time, but I think I may have discovered my "signature scent". I've been searching for my perfect lily for a while now. I already own what is considered one of the two best ever, Lys Mediterranee, and I love that too, but the simple elegance of Un Lys - the other "best ever" - is heartbreakingly gorgeous. The scent is like nectar, and really the only note I smell. The musk and vanilla just elevate the scent of the lily? And if I try hard enough, I can detect some some vanilla, but only when I press my nose to my wrist. The sillage is where it's out. It's a slightly spicy, slightly indolic white lily. I do not know enough about lilies is general to say what type or types are used here, but it doesn't bring funerals to mind. On the contrary, it's seductive and luscious. I imagine some may find it headache-inducing, but it's not a huge blast of white flowers when first applied. It is dab on, and it works on this occasion, but I am going to decant some into a spray bottle to see how that works. The word is tossed around a lot, but I truly think this is a masterpiece.

Un Lys is the most sublime creamy floral - lily and vanilla join forces to produce a delicious feminine scent. It radiates from warm skin. There is zero harshness in this scent, it's beautiful from the first spritz. Lutens and his perfumer, Sheldrake, disguise that initial alcohol blast with clever top notes. Unlike some reviewers, I wasn't overwhelmed by Lily of the Valley - there maybe one or two tiny nodding white bells - but nothing akin to Diorissimo. However, their purpose is only to ring in the glorious trumpeting lily - a huge white one with powdery stamens. Personally, I prefer Serge's lily to the real deal, which I find overwhelming and would not have in the house! A creamy vanilla cloud carries Lutens' lily. While Un Lys doesn't develop and change radically over the hours (like so many of Lutens perfumes), personally, I am glad. It's beautiful. For some reason, I imagine Marilyn Monroe might have worn this if it had been around. It's so soft and feminine. Note: this is only available as a Bell Jar now.

I have a decant of this which is ample because it's too beautiful to wear. I don't mean I'm saving it for a special occasion and my life's not filled with enough of those so it sits around unused. No, I mean it's actually too beautiful to wear no matter the occasion. It's almost like it violates the concept of perfume because it smells like an unexpected moment that isn't intended to last. The scent itself recalls the sweetest days of Summer when the air is soft and honeyed and you want to just drink it. This scent should have been a fleeting glimpse carried on the breeze of a late summer afternoon. Instead it's in a discontinued bell jar. How many Summer breezes were murdered to fill that jar to the brim? Probably quite a few... My favorite way to experience Un Lys is to spray some on my living room fan. No matter the season, the room transforms into a thousand perfect summer moments. Such a powerfully blissful sensation, it swings the dial all the way around back to melancholy. Too beautiful to wear...

"Un Lys" - oh really. "*A* Lily?" Why the understatement ? Should really be called LE Lys, because it is THE Lily. Lily of all lilies, the Platonic one, the perfected formula. It just *IS* lily, in the way that Iris Silver Mist *is* iris - superlative, stark, breathtakingly assured and leaving most other contenders in the dust. Just for comparative purposes: as a habitual Lys Mediterranee lover, to me, Un Lys doesn't have the fresh-air, outsidey, original edge that LM has - but the Lutens treatment is far more luxe and pillowy in effect. Its vanilla and musk are so artful that they barely register as themselves (whereas Cartier Baiser Vole and most others seem chokingly fake to me). Here they magically work only to evoke the flower with even more charisma - both cool and crisp, and warm and alive all at once. Absolutely masterful. So realistic it may be unsafe to wear around cats. Pure, white, clean-yet-rich, relentless, magnetic beauty. I simply have no more to say. Grovel and surrender.

I love lily as a note. It is by far my favorite floral note in perfumes. Out of all the perfumes I have with that note, this has to be the best rendition of a lily in any fragrance I've ever smelled. Just lily with a touch of musk and vanilla to enhance the scent of the lily. In no way are those notes even obvious - they just smell part of the whole. The Lily here is just the flower with all the natural facets of that flower. It is not muddied up with other floral notes, excessive green notes, or heavy spices. It doesn't need them. It's simple, and elegant, and wears as creamy white lily flowers. This really is simplicity at its finest. There is no better lily fragrance on the market, and I doubt there ever will be. Pricey, but worth every penny. I will own a bottle one day - hopefully soon. Thanks, Lisa, for the generous decant. 💝 Edit - Managed to get a bottle of this on discount on Luten's site and they tossed in a free travel sprayer of another fragrance too. What luck! 😊

I have had Un Lys in my collection for nearly two decades and I believe this is my 3rd or 4th bottle, which I fortunately snagged 3-4 years ago (before Serge Lutens' fragrances started being very hard to get in the US). The formula has changed only very slightly to my nose and that's mainly up top where I'm now getting a tiny hint of a lily-of-the-valley note in tandem with the traditional white lily and greenery. This is a must for lily lovers. I've never smelled a better or more realistic version of lily in a fragrance. The vanilla and musk drydown is outstanding and keeps the lily from getting too heady. This is clean, soft, and pretty – with a hint of spiciness akin to the feeling one gets from setting foot in a flower shop. I generally prefer this scent in spring and summer, but was craving a touch of warmth in the brutally cold winter we are having. I absolutely love this and hope to always have it in my collection...even if I have to go abroad now to get it!

Would it be an exaggeration if I said that this perfume is one of the most beautiful creations ever made? I got a semi-religious experience the first time I smelled it. Got both tears in my eyes and shivers along my whole body as I couldn't believe that such a beautiful scent may ever exist. You can really sense Christopher Sheldrake's craftsmanship in this one. The composition is quite simple as it seems that it consists only of one single element - The Lily - yet it still feels very sophisticated. From the first spray and until the dry down this perfume is pretty linear. Green and crisp as many others wrote but one can also feel a very pleasant sweetness to it. Without any doubt this is the scent most true to the real lily flower but without the nasty indole element to it. I have two back up bottles of this beauty as I am afraid of the day this might get discontinued. Un Lys may be on the pricey side but I swear it's worth every penny.

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. Smooth, strong lily, all day long. Does what it says on the tin.

This is probably the only scent I've tried that I thought, "I could just bathe in this." So delicate and so life-like white Casablanca lily. For some reason this is one of the synthetic flower scents that seems real to me. I don't think anyone has been truly able to mimic a good tuberose or gardenia, two of the most beautiful natural flower scents in the world. But in this and in Malle's Lys Mediteranee I really feel as though I have my nose in a vase of these flowers. I just wish this lasted longer. It's so fleeting and has such low sillage. Really becomes just a skin scent after a couple of hours. It's too bad that it's been relegated to the bell jar, because I think it's a perfume that needs to be sprayed. I have to carry a purse atomizer to refresh, but to me it's worth it. A special gift from my husband for our anniversary.

Wearing this makes me feel delicately beautiful and sophisticated. I believe this perfume is a masterpiece. The lily is very realistic, and although I don't typically love gourmand scents, I do enjoy a good vanilla, and the blend of vanilla and lily is genius. It does have a vintage smell, but I think any modern person can wear this as it is timeless. I find that it has medium to soft sillage but excellent longevity. I'm savoring my bottle because it is so expensive. EDIT 12/26/2025: I still love this perfume, but I can understand the baby wipe comments. I don't reach for this as often anymore. It does smell like a realistic lily with a large dose of vanilla, but the lily I reach for more often is Lys Mediterranee by Frederic Malle.

A magnificent Lys, full of depth and density. In 2007, Lutens released a corpulent flower that will make you sneeze with realism, because he seized lilies from royalty, the most expensive in the Kingdom, and bottled them by force and with brutality. It expresses itself by all means, it's merciless. A cold, white solinote, as overwhelming as it's polarizing, not intended for everyone. When they brought out the Louis and Catherines to behead them, this is the trail the kings and queens must have left behind as they were dragged to the French guillotine. The smell of torpor, of the shattered Monarchy. The lilies of the Revolution, of the Reign of Terror... 🖤 8/10 🖤

Kchild's review is right on the money. Un Lys is heaven in a bottle. Sure, you need to be a fan of big, strong florals but even without this affinity you should try Un Lys. It is not as heady and overwhelming as most tuberose or jasmine perfumes are. It is warm and feminine but without being too sexy. In short: it doesn't screem at you, it sings. If you want to know how this one compares to Lys Mediterranée (Frederic Malle): Lys Mediterranée is a lily on the sea - salty, a bit aquatic, natural and summery. Both are great perfumes but I prefer Un Lys, the angelic, creamy lily. Lys Mediterranée has never sung to me.

This is the most beautiful Lilly/ Lilly of the valley scent I’ve ever smelled. It’s absolutely gorgeous, is I had another wedding I would definitely wear it as my wedding scent. It’s so under rated, I can’t believe it’s not talked about much, it’s so much more prettier than Diorissimo. Diorissimo has very synthetic note while Un Lys is so fresh and creamy green beautiful lily, I know I said beautiful many times, but it’s the word that truly describes it. I’m in love. Side note, if you have headache from white florals this might give you a headache too, little goes a very long way.

Yes, as other reviewers state, Lys smells like pure, unadulterated Lily. I caught a whiff of a wilting flower as I was walking by and had to ask which beauty in my bouquet smelled so sultry. It turns out that when Lilies are fresh they barely show, but as they start dying the fragrance is intoxicating. A kind soul here on Fragrantica messaged to tell me where I can buy a decant. I considered it for a few weeks but decided to pass. I still love it, but there are only 2 discontinued bottles on the internet and both are priced shamelessly. Lovely, but unnecessary.

This is the most beautiful lily scent I've had the pleasure to smell. More than that, one of the most beautiful florals I've experienced. It's serene and sexy at the same time. Fresh yet lusciously deep. I came home after testing this, Tiempe Passate and Fracas and my SO said, “You smell lovely!” I thought it was the Fracas, assuming it was the strongest, but no... it was the Un Lys! And four hours and a shower later, it's still there – albeit very softly now. My man sniffed my arm again and tried to eat it. It's just that deliciously gorgeous. Oh, I want this.