Blue Lilac

[jj_j]

I did an actual comparison test, as the 80-year old lilac bush outside my door is just beginning to bloom.

 

I cannot tell the difference.

 

This is dead-on, and fabulous. I'll be ordering a bottle for my mother this evening, as she is a professed lilac junkie and always complains lilac scents don't smell like the real thing.

 

 

 

Updated: I took the Imp out to my mother so she could try it, and it was actually pretty funny, because I'd just received the "True Lilac" from MMU that I'd ordered for her lilac passion.

 

We dabbed that one on first, and she sniffed, sat back in her chair and sighed, telling me how good it was. I waited a couple of minutes, and told her I wanted her to try another scent, then dabbed Beth's lilac on her other wrist.

 

My mother sniffed it, looked at me with wide eyes, and said, "This is the scent of lilacs!" Then she wrinkled her nose, looked down at the other wrist with contempt, and said, "That's just perfume."

Edited April 30, 2006 by Shollin

[shriekingviolet]

A crisp, springtime floral note. Though I haven't spent enough time around lilac bushes to be incredibly familar with their scent, it does seem to fit. This lilac has a slight sweet smoothness to it that's appealing and keeps it from being too oppressive (as florals can sometimes be to me), powdery or sharp. Has pretty good staying power too, while it doesn't have much throw anymore, I can still smell Lilac on my wrists 10 hours later!

 

Nice scent, but not for me. Which is fine, because I ordered this for a friend who loves lilacs. Hopefully she'll like this rendition of it a lot because Beth kindly sent me a whole bottle of this rather than just an imp!

[Shollin]

First sniff: Softly sad, haunted flowers sighing in the entrance hall of an abandoned mansion. A wet and lonely scent.

 

Wearing: Beautiful soft-sweet floral that still somehow smells like a lament. You know how sometimes, when you’re having a really crappy day, all you want to do is wallow in your misery so you play grim songs or watch sad movies? Blue Lilac is a scent I’d wear if I were having a day like that. It’s very familiar to me, but I can’t pin down the reason – I don’t know if I’ve used a soap that smells like this, or if I used to know someone who smelled like this, but it’s teasing right around the edges of memory.

[hypothermya]

There was a note in Whitechapel that I wasn't quite able to place, and I guessed that it was the lilac, so I swapped for an imp of this. (thanks!!)

 

First Impression

 

This smells sweet, soft and very much like pollen. There's something about most floral scents that cause me to get a "pollen" type of note. But this one smells like a delicate and sophisticated floral. It makes me think of long dresses and wet, green gardens, empty hotel rooms with hand picked flowers on the nightstands, and lightly overcast skies.

 

Wearing It

 

It's soft on my skin, like freshly washed sheets, but sweet too. There's something in here that lends itself to almost being citrusy, but not quite. This isn't overpowering, either, like a lot of floral scents (roses, jasmine, etc.), but a subtle yet pervasive floral.

 

It's so hard to be able to describe this scent. I've never smelled a lilac bush, so far as I can remember, but this smells lovely. I can see why it works so well in Whitechapel. I think I'll be keeping my eyes open for more lilac blends, and I'll definitely be keeping this imp.

[stardreamer]

I adore lilacs. When I was a kid in Michigan, the neighbor across the street had these HUGE lilac bushes -- blue, white, and lavender -- and they were just masses of sweet-smelling blooms in the spring.

 

When I moved to Tennessee, I was without lilacs for a long time. Eventually I bought a place, and the first additional landscaping I did was to plant a lilac bush. While it didn't bloom as profusely as the ones I remembered, it was still a sweet breath of springtime scent -- almost the only floral scent I really like.

 

Then I moved to Texas. Lilacs don't thrive here, it doesn't get cold enough. Oh, there's something the nurseries here sell as "lilac", but it ain't. So I had to order the Blue Lilac single-note before they went away.

 

This is LILAC! It smells exactly like those sweet lilac bushes in my neighbor's yard, and evokes memories of my childhood. As is usual with floral scents, R. finds it obnoxious, so I may not be able to wear it very often. But now I can get my lilac fix any time I like! Sorry for the long ramble and the lack of specifics about the fragrance -- the only thing I can think of to say about it is that it smells like fresh lilac flowers, and I am in ecstasy.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

jj_j was kind enough to gift me with a 5mL of this for my wedding. Thank you, hon; you saved the day!

 

My impressions:

 

Opening the bottle is instant nostalgia. I'm 5 years old again, climbing the lilac trees (and they were trees, too, not bushes) in our backyard. This is so perfect I can't even begin to describe it. There are so many happy memories attached to this scent and I'm almost on the verge of (happy) tears from the memories its bringing back.

 

I thought I'd smelled realistic lilac perfumes before, but jj's mother is right, they really do pale in comparison. All those other scents I've been amazed by really are just perfume, but this...this is like closing my eyes and being back in my old backyard, whiling the day away perched in our lilac trees. I can't even begin to describe how happy this makes me.

 

I know this is the perfect scent for my wedding.

Edited April 26, 2005 by Penance

[JazzieCazzie]

The first of my many "finally must review my older scents" ... this is one that I was smart enough to buy a 5 ML of prior to discontinuation.

 

I LOVE the scent of lilac. A city girl, I knew it was spring when my mom came home with the first lilacs of the year and put them in a huge vase in the entryway to our apartment. I would bury my nose in them every time I walked in or out. They never lasted long enough and until I grew up and moved to the suburbs I didn't even know "where" or "how" they grew.

 

Though it's one of my favorite smells, it's not one that always worked that well ON me, tending to go a little cloying. No matter, I had to have the bottle just so I could sniff. Occasionally there would be another scent that was just missing "something" and layering a little lilac in there is the je ne sais quoi.

 

Lately, as I've been going through my oversized stash, I've been trying to figure out what I NEEDED and what I could share and disseminate and decided I could live with just an imp of this since it's more of a sniffer than a wearer and as such I swapped several impies and made people very happy. I am now down to my last imp and that ain't going anywhere except my imp keeper box

 

Ironically, I bought a tiny lilac twig about five years ago and planted it in the backyard. Last year, now about 10 feet tall, it had many blooms. This year, none. It was a bad year for the lilacs. At least I have my imp.

 

Scale of 1-5, I give this a strong 4 and it's a keeper.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: this is just a perfect lilac scent.

on: delightful. i love the smell of lilacs, and this is just perfect.

2.5 hours later: very, very sharp and soapy. poor me.

7 hours later: this has disappeared.

overall: this just didn't work for me. poor me, eh? hopefully, it will find a better home. i'm glad i have some bat's blood, since that's a fantastic lilac for me.

[Imbrium]

I have little to add to the other reviews stating that this smells exactly like lilacs. That's because it really, really does.

 

However, I did want to add this: When I first applied Blue Lilac, there was something odd about it on my skin. It did smell like lilac, but there was a dark and oddly sweet scent behind it. My skin chemistry tends to react that way with a lot of florals.

 

Still, I was determined that this would work for me, because I absolutely adore lilacs, and am a bit nostalgic for my parents' place, with their giant 12 year old lilac bush. So, I persevered, and within an hour, the "off" sort of smel had dried completely away. The moral of the story, I suppose, is not to give up on Blue Lilac, and it will love you for it! I'm certainly glad I didn't.

[Little Bird]

I didn't think that I knew what lilac smelled like... but this singlenote is so true that, the second I applied it, I got a clear image of the lilac bushes that my mother planted around our house when I was little. This fragrance is sweet, soft, and beautiful. I close my eyes and can picture the sunshine, butterflies, and pretty flowers.

 

The floral singlenotes have really amazed me, since I normally hate florals and most of the floral blends don't work on me. BPALs floral singlenotes are glorious and can be happily worn alone. They don't give me headaches as the blends usually do either.

 

I wish that I could get a bottle of this for my mother.

[Miyabi]

I wasn't so sure when I opened the imp and had a sniff. But then as it dried down, there it was! That's honest-to-goodness lilac, and I'm so glad I have it, since I missed the lilacs this year. It's beautiful stuff!

[dawndie]

This was a strong, pretty floral at first, then it quickly dried to a powder. BUT! Not just any powder, it's like the most decadent luxurious powder you could buy. Like $50 for a little poof. It's strikingly beautiful

[edenssixthday]

Blue Lilac - Oh wow, I can't get over what a beautiful and dead-on scent this is. It reminds me of springtime. I used to have a home that was surrounded by lilac bushes and for a couple weeks each spring, I had fresh sprigs of lilacs in my house every day. This takes me back 11 years to that home and that wonderful springtime that was so full of fresh lilac blossoms. The throw is out of control, so a little will go a very long way. The staying power is about average on my skin -- about two hours of good fragrance, a third hour of so-so fragrance, and by the end of the fourth hour, it's completely gone. I love to swap my single notes for other single notes so I can try them all, but this may be one you'll have to pry out of my cold, dead hands.

[wikkidraven]

i have been wanting to try this one since it seems so hotly pursued, and considering how blase i am about lilac scents this is surprisingly nice. powdery, sweet and very pleasant.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Decant bought off eBay

 

Initial Thoughts: Fan of florals, me. And I love lilac.

 

In the Vial: Full-on lilac. Very fresh and evocative of spring.

 

Wet: I can almost smell the dew dripping off the petals, this is so fresh and clean and inviting an interpretation of lilac.

 

Drydown: Hmm. I'm getting a rather earthy tone all of a sudden. The absolute bursting beauty of the lilac is fading quite a bit. It's still a nice floral, but the initial rapturous bloom is gone.

 

Verdict: Darn, the wet stage is so utterly gorgeous. But I have a scent locket and I might use a little in it, since I do have a full decant.

[Sapphy]

This is really gorgeously fresh and lush. I get not only the blue flowers, but the leaves and stems too. Like a freshly cut bouquet of lilac sitting in a glass vase filled with ice cold water on a white table cloth. Reminds me of the lilac bushes outside my house when I was a kid. The blend starts really strong on the green, then the lilac comes out and it gets softer, but it's always fresh, like lilacs after a cold spring rain rather than lilac wafting in the sun. So glad I have this.

[zankoku_zen]

True to life lilacs. I'm not a giant fan of it - but my husband is.

 

Gah. So sad that I can't find more of this....

[saralaughs]

Lovely! I love lilac and I have to say, most of the Lab's blends with it as a note end up soapy on me. Not this. It's realistic, fresh, and clean.