Reviews of Lys Méditerranée (2000)
by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle

Frederic Malle Lys Mediterranee

In 2000 when Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle came into being they hit the scene with eight scents. Six of these were impressions of specific floral themes. Lys Mediterranee is Edoaurd Flechier’s, of Dior Poison fame, take on lily as inspiration. Right from the top this is a lily blast. The top is a mixture of lily of the valley which keeps it sweet but is cut by an astringent, but spicy, partnership with ginger lily. As you transition into the heart there is a whiff of saltiness befitting a scent with Mediterranee in the name. It is subtle and is soon mixed with the lighter citrus of orange blossom and the slight muskiness of angelica root. The scent ends on a base of sheer white musk which pairs with the floral remains of what has passed before quite nicely. Lily can be a tough act to pull off without bringing to mind funeral parlors with badly recycled air. M. Flechier has done quite the opposite as he has brought to life a sun-drenched garden in a villa overlooking the blue of the Mediterranean. This never gets too heavy on me and the muskiness added by the angelica and white musk keep this solidly in unisex territory. This is another winner from Frederic Malle for me.

Leans more toward sweet lily of the valley than true, heady lily on my skin. A very nice, clear, ringing muguet floral dappled with honey that for me suits cool, sunny days. Lovely, but not quite me (I like but don't love lily) and just a little too sweet (I'm twitchy about sweet). Since I realize sweetness is mostly a personal preference and find it otherwise quite pretty, I'm going thumbs up.

Ah, lilies! For me, this is still better than Donna Karan's "Gold". The scent of lilies blends so much better with the salt water component that it becomes one accord. With "Gold", I cannot get by the cucumber smell. (I seem to be one of a very few who have this reaction.) Don't wait for the drydown, because what you experience initially is pretty much IT. Very nice, but a little pricey as are all of Malle's creations. P.S. I am waiting for summer to give Serge Lutens "Un Lys" another try. To me, it is a much more literal oriental lily fragrance, but it doesn't seem to stay with me. And the drydown is a little too sweet.

Horray for lilies! A nice, soft bouquet of lilies that's soft and cuddly.

The opening is a pure hit of lily of the valley and for a moment you might think back to Diorissimo, but just as your mind reaches for that comparison, a gorgeous lily in full bloom takes over and Lys Méditerranée settles to a very nice true lily fragrance.

On my skin, the lily becomes honeyed and the drydown becomes too sweet. I find Donna Karan Gold less sweet and as it's another full-on lily - perhaps a little more of a fantasy lily in bloom than Lys - I prefer to wear that one.

Lys Méditerranée is a beautiful olfactory essay on the lily. As reviewers here and elsewhere have noted, it smells like the rush you get when you open a florist’s cold refrigerator full of fresh white lilies and stick your head for a deep sniff. As the perfume develops, it becomes slightly tempered with a touch of a “green stalk” note but regardless, the lily note always stays true and clear. For comparison purposes, I also tried Serge Lutens’ “Un Lys” on the other wrist. It is a creamy warm lily whereas Lys Méditerranée is a cooler, slightly more shimmering lily. Last but not least, it has just the right amount of sillage.

Lys is very special....fresh and oh, so soft. What I love about Frederic Malle's Parfums is how REAL they are...how PURE they are...and that the longer you wear them, the more you love them and the more addicted to them you become. I find this scent's "complexity" is done very subtly. The green element makes it delightfully fresh and cuts the expected sweetness. A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to wander into a little shoppe which specialized in essential oil blends and they also had several testers of recipes hundreds of years old for scents similar to that which famous queens, princesses, even what Cleopatra wore...Lys reminds me of one of those old concoctions that apothecaries used to make...while being highly classic and timeless, it still evokes freshness and a young spirit.

I worried that Lys Méditerranée might be too sweet and heady for me, but I needn’t have. It actually opens with a volley of astringent green notes that put lily in a whole new perspective. The lily has real presence, but the green notes keep the scent from ever getting cloying. A gentle squeeze of citrus keeps things crisp for a truly “Mediterranean” olfactory picture. Simple, well executed, and very easy to wear.

This is a real top drawer scent. I love lilies and orange flower anyway, so this is just perfect to my nose plus a whisper of angelica and musk. It seems to float in the air around you like a cloud of makes you feel like you are in a field of white lilies all day long. A true masterpiece from Edouard Flechier.

I love this because, unlike so many fragrances out there, it isn't a chaotic haze of intermingling notes; it's the pure, poignant scent of lilies.

Lys Méditerranée was a disappoinment to me. I was hoping this would be multi-faceted, but it's just lily. Obviously I knew it was predominantly a lily fragrance, because of its name, but I imagined that it would be more complex, or have more depth. Its notes sound wonderful, but on my skin this is merely a strong lily scent with a dry, green base. After awhile a camphor-like accord comes through (angelica?) but it doesn't last long enough to make Lys Méditerranée anywhere near as fascinating a floral as, for example, Carnal Flower, which shares the camphor-like accord, but projects it like a deep summer dream. If you're a big fan of lily fragrance you should not miss testing Lys Méditerranée, though. I'm not fond of lily, so I'm sure I don't appreciate Lys Méditerranée to its fullest. I found the lasting power to be excellent, and it's a very fine fragrance.

My boyfriend bought me lilies for Valentine's Day this year, and this scent smells almost exactly like them. I mean, the natural scent given off by freshly cut lilies, right from a garden! It's amazing. However... I'd say this fragrance is a tad to feminine for a male (even a gay one like myself) to pull off.

Another wonderful scent from Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle : White Flowers in the best way possible (ginger lily extract, lily of the valley, orange blossom, nenuphars), not perfumey, cloying, but just giving the impression of a warm summer wind that brings soft flower notes. This is blended with salycides, ambrette and very faint musc (I do not smell the musc at all) that produces the most gorgeous effect : it melts the flower notes to the lovely sea breeze (not ozonic at all) such as I have so often experienced it down in Menton, at the shore of the mediterranian. Have you ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's "To catch a thief" ? This is one of my favorite classics - the atmosphere around Grace Kelly and Cary Grant must have smelled exactly like this : mediterranian, classy, aromatic with this inspiring hint of long journeys and adventure. Lys Méditerranée is one of my staples for summer.

Well... as a great fan of Frerderic Malles Editions de Parfums and a lily fragrance junkie this one was a must-have, which I ordered blindly. My first impression was: what a mistake... This lily scent starts a bit too sweet and mellow and I really wa disappointed. But after ten minutes the heart notes starts and the mediocre impression changes to something just awesome: pure, green, cool, fresh lily; the fragrance turned from a somehow cheap female discounter drugstore juice to a real masterpiece. Finally, the musky basenote takes over and you get a wonderful balance of green floral freshness and dry soft notes. Perfectly wearable by a man and definitely a good choice for summer evenings.