Reviews of Crown Alpine Lily (1879)
by Crown Perfumery

For nearly fifteen years, I celebrate the first burst of spring with Crown Alpine Lily. To me the overall fragrance is not that of the Lily of the Valley but of a complex duet of Asiatic Lily and the lovely Gladiolus tristis. It is rich, spicy and sweet in the way that fennel or anise are. The sweetness is sharpened by aromatic herbs. After the initial drydown, Alpine Lily remains nearly constant for up to six hours and fades gracefully like a diminuendo of the sustained final chord of a symphony.

Crown Alpine Lily comes close to being see-through, it's such a light-as-air rendition of lily of the valley. What's funny about lily of the valley, though, for all its delicacy - here more like ethereal fragility - is that it somehow manages to linger gently, patiently for hours. This fragrance is indeed odd in that regard; it is so light that in applying it, you just naturally assume that all traces of it will dissipate within, say, fifteen to twenty minutes. Yet two or three hours later, there it is, still sitting as quietly as a butterfly. This leads me to believe that the oils Crown Perfumery uses - or rather, used, as they're not producing anymore - to make its fragrances are more "true" than as is the usual case. I think many lily of the valley essences get a bit bolstered up in the translation to becoming elements of a fragrance and end up smelling more aggressive than they do in nature. Here seems more like the real deal. As for owning this scent, it's hard to get hold of nowadays and I only recommend trying to track it down if you're an absolute fiend for all things lily of the valley. Otherwise, sweet and endearing as it is, it's nothing that earth-shattering.