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Un lys Serge Lutens 1994

7.7 / 10 94 Ratings

A popular perfume by Serge Lutens for women and men, released in 1994. The scent is floral-sweet. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Floral

Sweet

Powdery

Green

Fresh

Fragrance Notes

Lily

Musk

Vanilla

Perfumers

Christopher Sheldrake, Serge Lutens

Ratings

Scent

7.794 Ratings

Longevity

8.065 Ratings

Sillage

7.658 Ratings

Bottle

8.267 Ratings

Value for money

7.116 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 06/07/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Baiser Volé Eau de Parfum

Lys Méditerranée

Lily & Spice Eau de Parfum

Diorissimo (1956) Parfum

Reviews

8 in-depth fragrance descriptions

12/25/2012

10Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

FloraMilena
47 Reviews

FloraMilena

Very helpful Review 8

Un Lys

Simply the most beautiful lily scent I've encountered. On my skin, it's clean and transparent, with a subtle green freshness and just the most delicate hint of musky spice. Thank goodness it's not weighed down by jasmine, tuberose, gardenia or any other big white floral. It's got just a touch of vanilla, but not drowning in it, so the effect is softening without being sickeningly sweet. It's creamy without being cloying or foody. Classically beautiful and sexy, sensuous, unapologetically cool and elegant, I love it.

03/06/2015

10Scent

Flavorite
241 Reviews

Flavorite

Helpful Review 4

Sexy Funeral

My husband just shocked me by stating that he found Un Lys to be "much sexier on" me than a tuberose scent which I have been coveting for my va-va-voom night out on the town seduction list for some time. First time in over decade I have heard one of my 50+ perfumes described as "Sexy"... I have a generous sample of Un Lys from my local Niche boutique and I have sampled it twice. The first time I found it too sweet and cloying and the second time, after adjusting my Spring allergy meds, I am able to discern the blooming of the flower and the luscious true white Lily. Not to be mistaken for Lily-of-the-Valley. Rather, Stargazer Lily or Large White Lilies which have always been my go-to elegant statement for deepest sympathies for the departed. So it is indeed kind of creepy and intriguing, at the same time, that Un Lys was such a erotic scent for my DH. Having tested Yosh' Stargazer 7.71 and found it an insane cacophony of naturally toxic lily oils, spicy white ginger and other various hallucinogens, I was just about to order a sample of Frederic Malle's Lys Mediterranee, in my quest for a dry, not too vanillic- Lily with a slight bit of spice...I find Un Lys to be true to the flower but the base is still a bit too cutesy-sweet for my nose. Anyway, seeing a golden opportunity to discuss fragrances... I batted my eyelashes and casually mentioned that it was another artful creation from Serge Lutens-"Ohhhhh! Really?!!!" He was not kidding at all- I dare say- I would guess he has already secretly purchased a FB for himself!

02/02/2012

8Scent

Lola82
361 Reviews

Lola82

Helpful Review 2

Fresh Cut Lillies

With first appliance to my skin it opens
with a sweet acidic note which you find similar to tuberose then dries down with a
bit of amber with patches of musk i can detect a hint of tuberose which is harsh at first but becomes softer and more wearable as it dries down.
With one sniff Un Lys conjures an image
of a early summer afternoon on a Sunday
around the early 1900's in a small town in northern France Laziness ruled the day not much work to be done so sitting in their armchairs basking in the sun
thinking their idle thoughts;
a young lady tall and slender with dark
brown hair with a white cotton gauze gown walking around a field of white Lillies wet from from the early morring rains reading a note that her lover had sent her do you think she'll be to biased to turn down his offer for marriage?

this is one of the most romantic and brings out delicate feelings when wearing this masterpiece.

06/10/2023

Ostara
61 Reviews

Ostara

3

Full-Spectrum Lily

Upon application it smells sort of lotiony: velvety soft, fresh white lily and a bit of musk. As it warms up on the skin the heart is revealed as the lily suddenly blooms. What I thought was a delicate white lily now seems more vibrant, spicy and full bodied. It's warm, intoxicating and bright with a nectar like sweetness underpinning the spice. This phase is slightly animalic. Dried down the scent settles into something in between the opening and the heart, it's a softly spiced lily with a gentle sweetness from vanilla and a rounded creaminess from the musk.

Overall Un Lys strikes me as gorgeous, tasteful, classic and chic. It is impeccably constructed. While it in no way smells like Chanel No 5, I could see ladies who love No 5 EDP loving this as well. They share a similar feel and je ne sais quoi. Like No 5 EDP, I love Un Lys but just don't know when exactly I'd reach for it. I'm not polished enough to do it justice...yet.

06/30/2015

7Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

loewenherz
916 Reviews

Translated · Show original

loewenherz

Top Review 13

'Gabrielle d'Estrées and one of her sisters'

This is the name of the portrait by an unknown artist - painted in the late 16th century - depicting Gabrielle d'Estrées, the Duchess of Beaufort, a mistress of Henry IV, and presumably her sister, the Duchess of Vilars. I don't quite remember when we first met - the mysterious Gabrielle and I - but I know this was the first painting I heard that held a secret within it. 'Secret' may be a bit of an exaggeration - but this is a painting full of allusions and 'codes' that are still discussed and debated today.

The painting shows two nude women in a bath, one (Gabrielle) holding a ring between her fingers, and the other (her sister) cupping her right nipple with her fingers. In the background, another (dressed) woman is seen doing needlework, as well as a portrait hanging on the wall depicting the exposed and only partially concealed lower body of a man. The most common interpretation suggests that Gabrielle accused the king of fathering her child through the commissioning of the painting (the nipple, the servant sewing children's clothing, and the half-exposed male lower body as symbols of her motherhood or pregnancy) as well as an unfulfilled (marriage) promise (the ring) - and that Henry IV, by tolerating the painting or its display, acknowledged the paternity. César de Bourbon, Gabrielle's and Henry's son, would later become the Duke of Vendôme.

The lily, in French 'Lys', is one of the key symbols of the House of Bourbon, which has produced eight French kings as well as the current ruling houses of Spain and Luxembourg. And to this lily - the flower, not the Bourbon - the gentlemen Sheldrake and Lutens dedicated this honey-colored, massive, and intoxicatingly arranged fragrance. Lily scents tend to be a priori intoxicating and dramatic - full of weight and sweetness, breathtaking in the most literal sense. Serge Lutens' Un lys is all of this: expansive and self-assured, at times almost lustful. The vanilla gives the sweetness a vibrancy and a kind of echo, while musk adds something very corporeal, something almost raw, pulling the lily into the realm of the inappropriate, the dirty. Gabrielle d'Estrées was merely Henry's mistress and not his wife - even though her son was a Bourbon and was destined to establish a royal line.

The lily at the center of a perfume - I recall Tom Ford's Lys Fumé as an example - usually results in substantial, often polarizing scents. Thus, Un lys is also a soliflore that is likely to delight those who love the lily and its sultry, overwhelming, and dramatic nature - and literally takes the breath away from those who do not. This is a scent full of voluptuousness and presence - more suited for evening than for day - and if for a man, then only for a very bold one. Or for a king.

Conclusion: a fragrance that invites, almost compels, introspection. It is capable of telling wonderful stories for those who wish to follow it. Others will find 'Gabrielle d'Estrées and one of her sisters' in the permanent exhibition of the Louvre - Gabrielle, the other lily.

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