Lys Carmin Van Cleef & Arpels for women

I’m not one to throw out fragrances when they become associated with a relationship that’s run its course. I just sprayed what’s left of my 2009 bottle of this and it’s every bit as gorgeous as it was then. Just harder to find. Lys Carmin and I aged in many of the same ways.

It’s an amazing lily interpretation, so realistic with peppery edge. I have lilies at home at the moment, and they both go hand in hand. Unfortunately, hard to find nowadays

Please read this: I value my perfume collection very much, but some of the perfumes are missing the cap - so if you have emptied your perfume, I will be very happy and grateful if I can ask for your cap (size 75 ml)
Please send me a PM - Thank you.

Don't we all hate to fall in love with a discontinued and impossibly hard to find scent? It just happened to me with Lys Carmin.
This is one of the most perfect lily scents I ever smelled. A creamy, fluffy cloud of blooming white lilies with a subtle peppery zing and a delightful powdery vanilla base. Just the right amount of sweetness and warmth to keep the lily from being screechy and sharp without ruining its pure and cool beauty. Thankfully there are no green stem notes to disturb the floral dreams. Elegant and clean, but inviting. Simple and suitable for any occasion, but never boring.
No idea why they called it Lys Carmin, to me this is 100% a white scent, not red.

I find this even better than Baiser Vole, another lily I have in my collection and love. It reminds me a wee little bit of L'Artisan Oeillet Sauvage, if they removed the carnation and replaced it with more lily and vanilla. I'm so sad that I will most likely never have a full bottle, but I set some alerts on ebay and other sites in hope of finding a used one someday.

Beautiful creamy Casablanca lily! Lily’s creamy sweetness blended well with the spices added by cinnamon and pepper, gave it a holiday season vibe. I always loved this gorgeous flower: Casablanca lily, and this is one of the best perfumes made to this flower. It’s quite a strong perfume, so I usually wear it in winter. And the longevity is super good, almost lasts forever.

I love this one for the lily and the spiciness and reminding me of this cheap cologne we put on in my childhood to repel mosquitos:) Cologne Carnation it was called. I seriously smell carnation in there. For me this is spicy but not too spicy like Kenzo, the elephant one, which I had to swap, too much Christmas wreath for me.
My bottle came in leaky and after about a year started evaporating. I think at least 15-20 ml got in the air. when I enter the room where my perfumes are, I smell it. It's nice but I don't want it just lost like that so I decided to wear it every second day to use on me and not as an expensive room freshener:) That way I would still wear different other perfumes but won't waste this beauty.

A perfectly average lily perfume but not particularly bright or sparkling - the odd cinnamon note dulls it somewhat with a dusty bite. Reasonably safe blind buy and work-appropriate. For lily fans out there, though, Isabey's Lys Noir is much more beautiful.

Lys Carmin is AMAZING! Sweet, strong and very lady-like. One of my best-behaved scents. Also it is utterly beautiful. So well blended I can only make out the lily. Very realistic, and lasts forever.

The whole Extraordinaire series is exactly what it claims to be: extraordinary. I still have to find a single scent from this collection that I do not like or even love.

A sweet pollen-filled and over bloomed lily with a bunch of heady warm spices, specifically cinnamon. You can almost feel the gritty pollen covering the waxy smooth petals. This isn’t your fresh prim and proper white lilies with carefully cut stems, delicately arranged in an elegant vase. The warm cinnamon takes away any coolness you'd associate with a fresh bouquet placed in cold water in a cool glass vase.

The intensity of the lily note reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom would go overboard when eagerly buying these huge lily bouquets for a good bargain. She would always buy them unopened and you wouldn’t be able to smell them at all then, totally unassuming. But then the buds would all bloom at once during the night and you’d open your bedroom door in the morning (two separate rooms away from the flowers) and just be HIT with a scent cloud of lilies. Then you’d eat your breakfast cereal and not be able to smell anything but lilies lol.

Lys Carmin isn’t lilies from afar, it’s as if you’ve burrowed your nose in the flower and got covered in pollen. Like a bee with munchies discovering that said bouquet.

Unfortunately, my nose has gotten sensitized to this. :( Like Emma0714 mentioned before the olfactory texture I experience is very waxy, it’s as if the inside of my nose is covered in lotion. That, paired with the warm and dusty spices, is too heady and overbearing for me.

Recently I’ve discovered that I love lily based scents, with Cartier Baiser Vole Essence being a favorite. So no surprise that I would also love this Van Cleef Lily, combined with cinnamon, vanilla and yang, it’s the tropical gourmand lily version. Soft but persistent for several hours, another great fragrance from this up market VC&A line. It’s become increasingly dangerous for me to sample anything from them.

Both a blessing and a curse as Van Cleef & Arpels Lys Carmin has been discontinued. Bad because I was ready to add it to my growing perfume collection, but good as I’ll never get through what I have already.

4213 Lys Carmin vanCleefandArpels CollectionExtraordinaire

wow ! the first impression upon spritzing the perfume is one hell of a tigerlily. the sultry, nearly 'dirty' sexiness of the lily with peppery until burning, smokey undertones or, uppertones. the dirt also yes, this makes me feel as if I put on a JAR perfume. Diamond Water, Golconda, Jardenia. there are other examples with heady indoles foremost: Giorgio although its sheer ballistic aldehydic opening blasts away all limpid tendencies; Tubéreuse Criminelle and Vitriol d'Oeillet; Dusitas Mélodie d'Amour; the density of the veritable sister of Giorgio Poison; Ylang Ylang Nosy Be of Perris Monte Carlo. this is a junglist indole kingdom or, queenery.
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[Indole is an aromatic heterocyclic organic compound with formula C8H7N. It has a bicyclic structure, consisting of a six-membered benzene ring fused to a five-membered pyrrole ring. Indole is widely distributed in the natural environment and can be produced by a variety of bacteria. As an intercellular signal molecule, indole regulates various aspects of bacterial physiology, including spore formation, plasmid stability, resistance to drugs, biofilm formation, and virulence. The amino acid tryptophan is an indole derivative and the precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Indole is a solid at room temperature. It occurs naturally in human feces and has an intense fecal odor. At very low concentrations, however, it has a flowery smell, and is a constituent of many flower scents (such as orange blossoms) and perfumes. It also occurs in coal tar. wikipedia]
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this is what we smell in oudh, white flowers, is consistent with the animalics in perfume: civet, castoreum, ambergris, genet, deer musk, hyrax; is what you smell if you have left the flowers for too long in the vase. it is not everyones cup of tea. it is mine. once I came home and was immediately stuck in a fatty, unbelievably strong smell,stench and...I liked it. it was a gardenia and as I came home from work (towards evening) the flower had opened and smelled its innards out. it was sweet but also the kind of sweet that is sweaty. so the mystery of these smells lying close to each other is intruiguing. a friend on Facebook explained: the sweet is for the bees to pollinate, the piss and fecal component for the flies. I had lilies on the balcony and when I entered my balcony in the evening there was an expanding strong smell of smokey narcotics. these are the best scents for me. roses have this too and in an even more complex, sinister dynamic. so Lys Carmine is a top predatory perfume and I love it.

Soft and sensual flowers, so velvety smooth. The spice is fluffy and clean and blends so well in this creamy concoction.

Lys Carmin is airy yet rich at the same time, a beautifully warm lily with some heat but no sharpness or syrupy sweetness. The musky, woody backdrop is gorgeous. Somehow this sits smack dab in the middle of Penhaligon's Lily & Spice and L'Artisan's Passage d'Enfer on opposing ends of the spectrum.

The ylang ylang is delicately sweet and alluring, not a feeling of tropical vacations but one of elegant seduction with its subtle indole. A little aloof, classy, enhancing the concept of sweet, lush, stylish lilies with a slightly minimalist approach.

For an animalic/indolic lily I enjoy L&S more as it is a bit deeper and has more animated facets, but this comes quite close. It's an absolute shame that both discontinued scents are so hard to find.

Lys Carmin - finally I found a bottle online. Very spicy flower, not a white innocent lily at all. Strong and very feminine. Not a safe office scent but great for special occasions.

This perfume reminds me vaguely of Flower by Kenzo (which is a fragrance I haven't smelled for at least 10+ years, so don't quote me on this one lol)

I has a rather creamy, powdery note, almost like some sort of old school lotion. This is gonna sound weird (but I think this is why I make the connection with Flower) but it is almost like it makes the inside of the nostrils feel.. smooth. Or waxy.

Eh. I know.

I've felt this with a few powdery perfumes in my days, although it's not completely unpleasant, it's not at all a favorite of mine.

BUT in Lys Carmin, this note is really tamed down by the spices and just makes it an interesting feature. And the floral heart of this is just gorgeous. And I could have sworn it was carnation in this one, but clearly not.


Update; Today I really overdosed on this one, spraying it not only all over my body, but also my sweater - and I got complimented so many times it was ridiculus. The waitress even wrote the name of the perfume down on her notepad while taking my order. And then I overheard her talking to other guest about how good "that girl over there by the asparagus soup" smelled. No joke.

Uplifting, gorgeous and hyper-realistic Star lily! I've fallen in love... Anyone knows where to get a FB of this discontinued beauty? only seen it on ebay but it's sold with 5 other scents from the collection, which I don't want to buy :(
@Hipchick40 - TY for bringing up Lys Soleia, I'm on my second bottle and keeping a backup. It's THAT good :)

I'm going to answer my own question. Yes, it is possible for the love of one to ruin the possibility of another! I own Lys Soleia. I love Lys Soleia. The notes are fairly similar, both are high quality from esteemed houses. But because I own and love what I think is lily at its finest, I wasn't blown away by this. Don't get me wrong, this is very nice. It has the spicy pepper going on, it adds a tingly flavor. The lily is next most obvious and then the ylang, sandal and vanilla are in the background. The cinnamon is present too. It is a very nice blend. No sweetness anywhere. Just a powerful lily that includes the stem and leaves, to my nose. I really do need to give it another shot. I want to love it. But it may need to be when I haven't smelled Lys Soleia in a while, it's futile to compare and would probably doom this bottle to swap status. And I don't want that, I am definitely not there yet.
Bottle: 7/10
Sillage: 7/10
Longevity: 7/10
Overall: solid 7/10.

I am going to have to wear this again soon, because to my nose this smells very similar to amber musc by NR.
Little weaker, anyone find this odd? The notes are not similar.
Btw, NR amber musc is the best smell on earth. So this is good too!

Red Lily indeed! As a rule I dislike lily, but this is a win.

This lily is almost a carnation, and has that complexity, but lacks the sharp, almost metallic edge that carnation can bring. Slightly waxy, robust, warm to the point of being spicy, LC was a surprise.

The notes above specify pink pepper, but to my nose this is white pepper- that heat without the rose scent of pink, or the harshness of black pepper. Very fresh, crisp, and a counterpoint to the well rounded lily note, which is by far the most pleasant lily I have ever encountered. Not photorealistic, but a beautiful representation, bold, with crisp waxy petals, and a sense of both majesty and fun. This lily has shadings of fresh greeness rather than a perfumey tone, just wonderful!

For me the heart lasted for two hours, with the dry down appearing to maintain the same composition, but adding a creamier accord, as sandalwood and vanilla make an appearance. I do not detect the sweetness of ylang ylang, or the sharpness of cinnamon. There is an edge present in this scent, but to my nose it is a darker wood tone, more reminiscent of the smokiness of guaiac wood. I am quite sure, though, that if such a high end ingredient were used that it would be present in the official notes.

Good sillage, and very good longevity. I recommend applying this one with a light hand- my skin usually eats florals, but this remained quite apparent from beginning to end, and at times the heart was a little too. I never found the powdery notes promised. Instead LC is rich, almost oily, and crisp on my skin. Overall, I would characterize this as an outstandingly warm, almost vivacious scent, that is grounded enough to be suitable for the professional environment. LC would be as at home in a boardroom as it would in a canoe, scaring fish. To me this seems distinctly fall oriented, and for day wear.

Huh, I just noticed that this is marketed towards women. I would call this safely unisex, and would be curious to see how it adapted to male chemistry. It is perhaps a touch more floral than most male oriented scents, but that is what would make it so outstanding.

Sweet but fresh lily beautifully melded with subtle spices.

Very nice.

Lys Carmin is an unexpected love for me since I normally am not a fan of lily fragrances. This is a wonderful exception. Lys Carmin opens with some green flowery notes, which are joined by lovely spices. I smell the pink pepper but it is not sharp. Rather it enhances the cinnamon and makes it deeper and stronger. There is some cardamom in there, too. It's a warm spicy base that is really pretty.

What I like most about the fragrance is that the often sharp lily scent is softened by a lovely milky sandalwood, yummy sumptuous ylang and just the right amount of vanilla to create a beautifully constructed scent with the spices. I don't get much powder until a couple of hours into the drydown. This scent lasts for about 4 hours with good sillage and then as a skin scent for another 4 hours after that. I never thought that a lily-centric fragrance could be a comfort scent, but Lys Carmin is like a cashmere wrap on a chilly day!

Its metamorphosis goes before your very eyes! Well.. nose. It literally blooms through the natural stages of a flower.
She starts green - an irresistible reminiscence of still dewy, freshly cut, fat, juicy stems. She stays that way for a good half an hour or so. Than she slowly goes up and turns into colorful bee inviting flower petals and goes on like that for hours; and by the end of the day, she's that central powdery pollen, with sweet nectar burst.
Isn't she lovely?

I actually like this red lily, despite the fact that it gives me headaches. The pink pepper note is intense and I can also smell the vanilla in the background. The lily is there to stay, so be prepared for something special that lasts all day.

Lys Carmin is an elegant fragrance, that comes in an elegant bottle, for elegant women. Not for me :-)

When I first tried this one about 6 month ago it was a disaster on my skin.

Now I tried it again. And its lovely, wonderful, beautiful. Now in the middle of hot summer in Sweden I can smell soft spicy's dancing around a fresh and halfsweet Llly. The Sandalwood is soft and very female'ish. The vanilla in base is great and I get a hint of powdery notes as well. A keeper!

När jag först provade denna för ett halvår sen så var den hemsk på min hud.

Nu har jag provat den igen. Otroligt fin, underbar och fantastisk. Nu är det högsommar i Sverige och nu känner jag mjuka kryddor som dansar runt en lätt, fräsch, halvsöt Lilja. Sandelträet är mjukt o kvinnligt. Vaniljen i basen är perfekt och jag får en aning av pudriga noter i basen oxå. En doft att äga!

Wow! This fragrance is the perfect blend of sweet, floral, and spicy. And by spicy I mean spices like cinnamon and cardamom are what I smell right away. A sophisticated sweet, not too girly or young. The lily and vanilla makes it delicate, but the spices give it a unique punch. Very very nice.

After about 20 minutes it still smelled nice, but started smelling a little more soapy, but you could still smell the other notes.

How to review this one without repeating what's been said.. for me it was also my favourite, a breathtaking stand out, the one sample among over 30 smelling_gr8 sent me that day. One sniff and you had me. Lily can be austere, but not here. An amazingly balanced warm floral, with just enough vanilla and cinnamon.. but not too much. It doesn't distract from the lily. The pepper gives you the feel of pollen on stamen. A twitch in the nose (I also get this feeling with Ofresia). A refined fragrance, that really lasts. Beautiful, I had to buy it, and in UK online I got a good deal. Lucky me. My friend walked in the office and said OMG, what is the gorgeous smell in here. It's not me, it's lys carmin!

This is my favorite out of the Collection Extraordinaire line, and I'm not usually a huge lily fan. I don't know if other people have gotten this, but on me this smells like herbal tea after the dry down. Since I love tea and would be more than happy to smell like a huge cup of the stuff, this is right up my alley!

What is stopping from committing to a full bottle is #1 the price. $185? Ouch. Although, I could even rationalize that if this weren't so light. This, like all the others I've tried in this line, is a very close skin scent while it lasts... and that isn't long.

"Lys Carmin" is a really good presentation of lily. It feels very natural and feminine. What causes problem for me though is the lack of cinnamon which I was really looking forward to and the overdose of pink pepper. Also lily for the first hour seems simply too much, yes it does smell natural and feminine, but it is overpowering and all over the place.

Not for me, but will work on those who love lily.

Blind buy and I adore it. So different than anything else. I have tons of fumes from all houses, some you can't even find in the states and thanks to my personal shopper in France I have got some lovely niche fragrances. It is sweet and peppery and very very rich smelling, only gets better with time on me. I find myself sniffing my wrist often. I would say this is more of a fall winter fragrance. Not sure it would work as well in the hot months. If you can, do give this a try. Not on paper either, this has to be on the body because of the heat and chemistry. I sprayed on my daughter and myself, and it smelled different on each of us, both good I will add. High price tag also but to me, it is worth it.

The most amazing scent! I especially love the dry-down, with every hour it gets better and the smell becomes deeper and more sensual. What a rich, well done fragrance! Nothing I would wear daily, this is for special occasions!

As I found with another member (BOIS D'IRIS) of the Van Cleef & Arpels Collection Extraodinaire, LYS CARMIN has quite a bit of vanilla along with the spicy lily. This is a rich wintertime elixir for sure. I do not think that the vanilla is too sweet, but its presence is undeniable. At the same time, LYS CARMIN is VERY floral, so this composition is going to overwhelm anyone who shies away from big floral fragrances. The lily and the ylang-ylang may as well be white flowers since they are coated with lots of spices and vanilla.

I like this creation, which has big sillage and excellent longevity, and I do believe that it smells "niche", not like just another designer floriental among dozens. I should say that the first time I wore it, LYS CARMIN caught me off guard, and I myself found it to be a bit much. Today, however, it seems to work perfectly in the cold. It's rich and golden and comforting and voluptuous and just as sweet as it is floral but without being overly so. I would not be able to wear this perfume in the heat, but now, in December, it seems mighty fine.

A very lovely and very elegant lily with a mature character. Lys Carmin is not at all a boring white flowers type of perfume; as the name suggests, it's more like a reddish coloured stargazer lily, combined with sweet cinnamon, muted pepper, and (although not listed above) sweet and melting ylang ylang. As Kchild put it very well, this is a sizzling lily; it wraps you with a warm aura. It's not overwhelming or overpowering, not in-your-face, it feels as if it is your own skin's smell. It probably -and luckily- matches quite well with my skin chemistry because the smell feels like a part of me that was already there all this time. Sadly, this treasure is quite underrated, probably due to the ridiculuously high price tag but I am also glad that not everyone has discovered it.

I cannot imagine anyone loving and wearing this perfume feeling unsure of themselves. Lys Carmin positively emanates self-confidence, a carefree femininity. Also it brings to mind the warm, sunny days of summer; a lush garden full of beautiful flowers and I cannot think about a more self-confidence inducing thing than sunny summer days.

Lys Carmin is quite long lasting, I can still smell it on my hair and neck the day after I put it on and it's still lovely. As for the sillage, it doesn't fill the whole room but it definitely leaves a trail and I must say that is a very provoking one. Also, the minimalist and bold design of the bottle, the cap, the little charm around the cap and the box are all a part of luxurious elegancy. In fact, everything Lys Carmin is about making your point subtly yet highly effectively, not shouting what you have but encouraging people to find them out while you elegantly sit there with a lazy smile on your lips.

Curiously, the drydown of Lys Carmin reminds me very much of Ultraviolet's sweet, surrounding drydown. And there's no single note that's similar. Interesting.

Gorgeous! I like it. A lily sweet, not powdery scent. A lovely combination between lily, cinnamon and pink pepper. I prefer wearing it in the spring and autumn. It is too sweet for hot summer days.

Lovely and warm-smelling; I especially like the dry-down. Subtle but distinctive. On me, none of the components dominate - they blend into something delicious. I agree with lindy-fay that it's comforting, but not gourmand. I wish it was easier to find!

What a lovely, comforting, sizzling scent! Almost a year ago, during my pregnancy, I was addicted to green apples for a while. Lys carmin does not smell like that, but on my skin it has the same hint of fresh sourness, like the smell you get of a fresh cut, green apple.( Strange when there is no apple what so ever in there!) At the same time it is complex and rich. It is not by any means a fruity gourmand! In my opinion, very unique, perfect balanced and a must try!

This is a delicate floral. Suitable for warmer weather, and reminiscent of Givenchy L'Interdit - softer and slighty more fruity with a confectionery note perhaps. I'm not so in love with it that I'd pay the large $$s that it commands.

A sizzling lily. This hums and sparks as you go about your day.Everything about this parfum screams "knowledge", and "mystery" as well as "warmth". This is worn by a woman who's sure of herself but not hung up on who she is. She's too busy BEING who she is. Ava Gardner Would have worn this well....

It may bring these emotions to the surface for me but Lys Carmin never overpowers or overplays it's hand. It's done with excruciatingly good taste and would be a perfect signature scent for the fall/ winter.

Cinnamon and I usualy don't do well together but it's done beautifully here. This and the pepper compliment the lily in such an extraordinary way. I've yet to smell anything even remotely like this. Lily speaks with a new voice here. It's still lily but it's also so much more. Instead of being an unapproachable diva Lys Carmin invites....questions,interest,closeness....

Breathtakingly original and a true standout. Just like the woman who wears it......

On my skin, this is quite a soft fruity floral smelling fragrance. I am a massive fan of pink pepper, cinnamon, lily, however when I smell this. it don't find that the cinnamon or pink pepper take front stage (perhaps my skin). To me, it smells like a light sweet, fruit soap... with a touch of floral. I pick up more of the sweetness from a soft vanilla mingling with lily and ylang ylang subtly lingering. Very beautiful, simple enough, it doesn't try to be more than it is... i will be buying this soon.... i love it for my quiet days in the office when it's sunny out...

I like how the pink pepper interacts with the lily. If cinnamon worked with my skin chemistry, this would be a winner for me. Unfortunately the cinnamon is sharp on me, but it seems like it would be a lovely sophisticated scent on the right person!

The most sensual, elegant, overwhelming, sophisticated and at the time incredibly austere fragrance I have ever smelled. It is a copy of myself, I feel fully indentifyed with is, it has been love at first sniff !

This one is so delicious, sweet lily, pepper makes it some stronger with a hint of cinnamon ( not very strong, thats good).This scent comes the most close too Feerie epd. Realy love it. Also high quality and longlasting.