Lys Fume
Tom Ford (2012)

Shyamala Maisondieu's woody-oriental and white floral EdP that has a pleasant, earthy and sublime quality.

Lys Fume by Tom Ford utilizes spices, gorgeous flowers, boozy rum, and warm-sweet labdanum and styrax to create yet another wonderful creation in the "Jardin Noir" collection, released in 2012. Moderate projection and leaning more to the feminine side (the presence of ylang in a fragrance tends mostly to tip it in that direction from my experience). I concur with another reviewer about the inkiness that Lys Fume exudes.

I got a bottle on the cheap--I think it's discontinued now? In any case, I get a fairly shrill soprano, mostly clean ylang ylang and LOV. I don't feel much progression or complexity of notes, no smoke, no leather, not even much vanilla...and after about an hour to hour and half, I don't get much of anything. The base strikes me as insignificant, but it's there as a lily skin scent in a couple of hours--hardly worth the wait. It's something I will probably wear in the early spring. Maybe. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood.

An interesting perfume. It kicks off with jasmine, with its indoles fusing cleverly with a tobacco note. Tom Ford has a way with indoles (Black Orchid, etc.) and this is no exception. Given time, it morphs into a white floral lily perfume, eventually being joined by pink pepper. It eventually dries down to a fairly pedestrian pink pepper base, though many hours later, after that fades, the jasmine somehow comes back through.

In all, I liked the jasmine/indole/tobacco mix, hated the pink pepper, and am indifferent about the lily, so I guess I'll vote neutral. I can see how this ended up discontinued, as everything it does well is done better by Tom Ford's Jasmine Rouge.

Madame Zborowska with clasped hands by Amedeo Modigliani

This has a cool, fresh, almost minty opening; much less aldehydic than Jonquille de Nuit & Ombre de Hyacinth. There's a subtle hint of dirt, & l also get the plasticky note that others here have mentioned, as well as the "bad breath" type of indolic jasmine. Twenty minutes in a peppery lily emerges, but after an hour it all settles very close to the skin. There's a faint vanilla & a little ylang in the base, but l get no smoke or amber at all.
l'm giving this a neutral because l don't altogether dislike it, but l'm disappointed that it didn't deliver the hypnotic, smoky lily that l hoped for.

pictures of lily The name Lys Fume is only half correct. The lily is there, the smoke is not. No complaint, though. This is a handsome and well composed floriental. Lily is the centerpiece but other elements that fly in and out of this perfume include other flowers, fruit, plastic, spices, India ink and resins. A soliflor this ain't. It's been compared to Donna Karen's Gold, and the comparison is appropriate. Gold is a lily floral amber that alternatingly purrs and growls. The smoky, ambery base notes start to rumble up through the topnotes almost immediately after you spray it on. Lys Fume is less overtly louche than Gold, but is sweeter in both scent and personality. In Gold, Amber is the accompanying score to the flower, but it can feel like a Phantom of the Opera theater organ taking over the room. This is how Gold plays with contrasts (growl) as well as the common threads (purr) between the lily and the amber. Lys Fume has amber, but it doesn't ride it like a parade float as Gold does. Amber serves the end goal of the composition, it doesn't take over. It joins the other elements to give a rich, plastic-smelling feel that holds the balance of the sweetness and the spiciness just so. The base is spiced but not spicy. Lys Fume unfolds at a leisurely pace, and the extended heart notes are similar in character to the plastic floral notes of Vierges et Toreros. The plastic sheen in Vierges suggests shrink-wrapping. Lys Fume's plastic smells like India ink and seems to be a fortunate side effect of the wonderfully 'off' note that form the scent of ylang ylang. The composition is balanced, and notes like plastic and ink don't stand out anymore than do spices and florals. Is this plastic note a Maisondieu family secret? Antoine employed it to striking effect in Vierges et Toreros. Here, perfumer Shyamala Maisondieu integrates the plastic note in such a way that it could be the base note for a whole new generation of floral Oriental perfumes. Delicate, but not at all sheer. Strong, but effortless. Often in perfumery, 'distinctive' is code for odd and undesirable. Lys Fume is distinctive in that it is striking and memorable. It has just the sort of beauty that I look for in a perfume. It draws you in not merely because it's pretty, but because it has some thought to it and is equally interesting and beautiful. The inky plastic keeps the Lily note aloft. Sillage is low, endurance is good. But Lys Fume gets its highest marks for integrity and coherence of overall shape from top to bottom. from scenthurdle