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A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

Aroma M Geisha Rouge

Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem

Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

Caron French Cancan

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Tubereuse

Caron Yatagan

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon

Chanel Bel Respiro

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 5 (vintage)

Chanel No. 22

Chantilly Dusting Powder

Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca

Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea

Coty Ambre Antique

Coty Chypre

Creed Acqua Fiorentina

Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie

DSH Perfumes Quinacridone Violet

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

Fragrances for Sweden

Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Guerlain Jicky

Guerlain Parure

Guerlain Vega

Happy Solstice

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Caleche (vintage)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris

Histoires de Parfums 1740

Histoires de Parfums 1828

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

La Via del Profumo Balsamo Della Mecca

Le Labo Patchouli 24

Little Lists

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

Miscellany 

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Montale Intense Tiare

Montale Patchouli Leaves

More Roses (rose cookie recipe)

My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)

My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

Nasomatto China White

Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery Ormonde Woman

Oscar de la Renta Oscar for Men

Parfum d'Empire 3 Fleurs

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums DelRae Amoureuse

Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars

Pascal Morabito Or Black 

Perfume Quotes - The English Patient

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Puredistance I

Recipe for Socca

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within

Scented Reading

Scentuous Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Chêne

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre

Serge Lutens Miel de Bois

Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Snow Days

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio Jour Ensoleille

S-Perfume 100% Love {More}

Sweden Is For Lovers

T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

Tightly

Unlocking an Unknown: Webber Parfum 6T

Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

COMING OUT OF THE DARK: Serge Lutens Un Lys
 

Every year at the start of Daylight Saving Time, a very specific memory from my childhood comes back to me:

 

I have been outside playing all day in the fields, in the barn, in the yard, next to the pond—all of the wonderful places there are to play when you’re a kid growing up on a farm—and then my mother calls us into the house for supper.  My sisters and I eat hurriedly and ask to be excused from the table because, after all, there is still daylight—enough to play outside for an hour or so before the stars come out and blanket the evening sky.

 

My mother, however, doesn’t give us the “yes, you’re excused” nod that we are expecting.  Instead she gives us the up-and-down look, with one eyebrow raised, and informs us it is time to take our baths.  “We’ll take them later, when we’re done playing,” we promise, pleading with her until a deal is reached: we must take our baths first, but afterward we can play outside for half an hour if we keep to the front yard and promise to stay clean.

 

And so, bargain kept, an hour later three formerly grubby but now freshly scrubbed little girls go running headlong into the twilight.  And it is precisely this moment that I remember so well: the feeling of every steamy-clean pore in my body being open to receive the rush of the cool evening air!  It’s a sensation that somehow becomes linked to the idea of love for me.  I was in love with the season; the lengthening of the days and the way the warm Spring weather had released me to the outdoors.  Later, in my life, when I fell in love with a person or place, this same feeling came back to me, and I would think, Every pore of me is open to you.  It sometimes felt like I was all nerve endings, but it felt incredibly good, too.

 

It is not yet Spring here in central Pennsylvania—not by the calendar and not by the weather (yesterday started off at a frosty twenty-two degrees); still, I feel it in my skin, which really is all that matters to me.  Even if we have to endure one of those surprising whopper snowstorms that sometimes happen in March, I will not be laid low now.  The lengthening daylight, the brilliantly sparkling mornings we’ve had lately—full of birdsong—are true signs that we are coming out of the dark of Winter.  Yes, there are still dark shadows to dance around, but I am in a dancing mood, ready to tango those shadows into a corner.  Every pore of me is open to you, Spring.  Bring on the light!  Bring on the grass and the flowers!  Bring on the soliflore perfumes!

 

A soliflore fragrance is one that, while it may employ a number of perfume notes, is focused on expressing a single flower.  Today I am wearing Serge Lutens Un Lys, which focuses on its namesake (“a lily”) in such a realistic way, I feel like I have a fresh bloom on my wrist.  At first spritz, the extravagant smell of lily fills the air, but it becomes considerably more delicate in a just a few minutes, because this is not a bunch of lilies, but one single bloom—one that is lush and so very pretty, but also tenderly soft.  In addition to lily, sandalwood and vanilla notes emerge in the dry down, subtle enhancements that extend the bloom of the flower on the skin.

 

I love the fact that Serge Lutens and his perfumer, Christopher Sheldrake, decided to represent the lily in this fashion—purely, realistically—because in doing so, they pay homage to the lily’s mythology as a symbol of purity.  I’m not sure if that was their intention or just a happy coincidence, but it adds to the allure of the fragrance for me.  Un Lys is not only a perfect fragrance to wear in the pure, fresh light of early Spring, but I imagine it as the perfect wedding scent (its dewy sweetness seems fitting with such an occasion, and of course, lilies often show up in wedding bouquets, which is why that association comes to mind).

 

Of course, not everyone loves lilies: for some they are a reminder of church services or funerals. I, however, have always loved them and was delighted to learn that my given name, Suzanne, is a French derivation of the Hebrew name, Shoshanah, which means “lily.”  When I first purchased Un Lys, I thought it might become a personal scent for me, but, alas, my heart is not so devoted and pure, especially when it comes to perfumes.  Un Lys’ delicacy and linear quality is beautiful, but not something I can reach for day after day.  I love it in the Spring—it is Spring’s first light in a bottle.  But eventually I dance my way back into the shadows again—the perfume shadows, at least—wearing more complicated scents that couple the sweet with the dirty, the good with the beastly.  Because to know the light, you have to have an appreciation for the darkness, too.

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Serge Lutens Un Lys can be purchased from BeautyHabit.com, Aedes.com, and LuckyScent.com; $140 for 50 ml.  Decants of Un Lys are available from my website.  See Perfume Catalog & Prices.

Photos: (top) actress and dancer Ginger Rogers, photographed by Horst P. Horst for the November 1, 1936 issue of Vogue, is from CondeNastStore.com; (bottom) "Lily" by British photographer Michael Banks is from AllPosters.com.

Posted by Suzanne Keller, 3/10/2008.