Van Cleef & Arpels
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Pink pepper ignites immediately, delivering a bright peppery snap that dances across the lily's waxy petals—the lily itself is surprisingly green and slightly herbal, lacking the heavy sweetness of true soliflore interpretations. The opening feels fresh and almost aromatic rather than purely floral, with the spice preventing any immediate descent into powdery softness.
As the pepper fades, ylang-ylang blooms into a creamy, almost tuberose-adjacent floral heart, intertwining with those powdery accords to create a tender, skin-like quality that's wholly intimate. The composition settles into a soft, dusty florality—feminine but measured, sweet but never saccharine—with vanilla beginning its gentle emergence from the base.
The sandalwood and vanilla become increasingly prominent, creating a warm, creamy foundation that transforms the earlier florals into something more subtle and powdered. What remains is a gossamer-thin skin scent, barely projecting but maintaining a tender sweetness that lingers softly rather than lingers persistently—by this stage, Lys Carmin has become almost a second skin.
Lys Carmin arrives as a distinctly feminine floral despite its unisex classification, though the fragrance possesses enough spiced restraint to prevent it from tipping into purely romantic territory. Nathalie Gracia-Cetto has constructed something unexpectedly nuanced here: the lily opens with genuine brightness, its green indolic character immediately tempered by pink pepper's peppery bite—a clever pairing that prevents the florals from becoming cloying or overly powdery right out of the gate.
The true genius emerges in the heart, where ylang-ylang takes centre stage. Rather than amplifying the floral sweetness, the ylang-ylang interacts with those dusty, powdery accords (88% according to the composition) to create something almost creamy, almost creped—as though you're smelling white flowers through silk fabric. The vanilla in the base doesn't dominate but rather softens the lily's sharper edges, offering subtle sweetness without veering into gourmand territory. Sandalwood provides structure, preventing the composition from floating away into pure abstraction.
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3.6/5 (83)