Lily Gris

Iris is one of my many obsessions. But those who know me know the love I have for lilies.

The challenge is that while iris offers you an actual extract to work with, lily – much like gardenia – is a subject of great craft and imagination.

And imagination is where the perfumer truly abides.

It’s easy to put out a scent pyramid that reads like one of a million bucks, but to evoke gardenias out of jasmine and tuberose, to craft the perfect ambergris accord or to give sandalwood the heft and volume of rose – these are different matters altogether.

There are two types of lilies in perfumery. One of them is the woodland lily-of-the-valley.

The other is my great love, famously presented to you in avant-garde self-destructive fashion in compositions like Mystical Lotus and Blue Kalbar.

But while Mystical Lotus was full-on blue lotus, the secret to this composition was to strip the blue lotus of its blue and turn it toward the valley – this requires the same olfactory feat that mutes the purple facets of iris and turns them white. 

Here, the hedonistic carnality of the blue butteriness of the water lily must sacrifice itself to give life to its unattainable terrestrial counterpart – the docile, ever-flirtatious, never-attainable lily of the valley.

A rendezvous where that inimitable beauty of the valley’s ethereal grace and fleetingness melts into the narcotic buttery accord of blue, also known as nymphaea caerulea (only the most beautiful aromatic could be named nymph of the waters).

This meeting of blue and blanc gives you the Lily – but what about the Gris?

You can’t dismiss aphrodite. Ancient Egyptians couldn’t resist the narcotic aphrodisiacal quality of blue water lilies, and neither could I. 

As a perfumer, you start to wonder: Civet and orange, cumin and musk, oud and rose, the tantalizing touch of a lily and… what?

In Yemen, ambergris is consumed for sexuality. It’s heated and infused into teas and drank for… you know what. 

So, what could be more apt (and rapt!) than to let our nymphs escape the pond and freely bathe in a sensual pool of sunshine, sea salt, and iodine!

If lily and ambergris were not the weak spot of this perfumer, I would have called this my Japanese plum blossom incense installment, in line with Iris Blanc and Yamanashi.

Smell Lily Gris closely and you discover that this isn’t only a special place between the pond and the ocean, but that those delicate lilies are donned in the plummy facets of kneaded Japanese incense. Beachcombed white juxtaposed with royal vault vintage grey punctuated by Japanese plum and a zen aesthetic throughout. 

The Japanese aesthetic is one of complication in simplicity. Overstatement via understatement. 

With this in mind, imagine you’re attending a kodo sitting and those plummy facets of the incense slowly get fractured through a prism of mauve Pinoy resin and pale beachcombed white to create a pristine periwinkle.

Imagine those sweet indigo notes dipped into a pond of sinking-grade Leyte gyrinops and aquilarias that give lift to the ambergris dancing with blue nymphs of unmistakable purity, all of which – not so coincidentally – give birth to the perfect plum blossom neriko accord…

… this psychedelic is not one I like to microdose on, if you know what I mean.

If you want a lily ghalia, this one is not for you. Between the sweet purple repleteness of Iris Ghalia and the animalic roar of an EO musk, Lily Gris is a scent of immaculate sophistication, elegance, and total zen.

Is Lily Gris so singular so as for it to be the only lily-themed ambergris in all of perfumery, kind of like Iris Ghalia is the only iris-centric musk? Or will this become a trend? 

I wouldn’t be able to tell you because I’m in a field of lilies and the only thing to follow me here is the gentle breeze from the coast carrying upon it the salty savor of the ocean.

*The sinking-grade Abu Yog oud that’s in here alone is worth $850. Plus, by the time you take into account the discount and complimentary tester of Knightsbridge which a 50ml bottle purchase will automatically receive, you’re practically getting the perfume on the house.

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