Highland Lilac

I have never been even remotely interested in a single note perfume, but after being intrigued by the lilac and sampling Vaporocindro from January Scent Project (and being suuuuper turned off), my interest in a lilac scent kept growing. I ordered a spray sample of Highland on a whim, and tried it for the first time today. It’s fourteen degrees today in NYC, but sunny. The air is so sharp that it hurts your face, but looking out the window from inside, you could think it was springtime. Highland’s first spritz has that same sharpness to it. It’s like the air is crisp and clean and it doesn’t really matter if it’s a freezing cold January day or if it’s the chill you feel stepping outside on a dewy spring morning. It’s green like the spring but sharp like the winter. Once the initial sharpness disappears, I’m left with nothing but the warm simple sweetness of lilac. This isn’t the sharp morning dew of early spring when all you want is sunshine and grass but you’re actually still wearing wool sweaters. It’s the lilac tree at 3pm that’s been sitting in the sun on the first hot day when you know summer is really coming, the blooms heavy. Or maybe the cut stems sitting on your dining room table, slightly wilted and with those tiny perfect flowers dropping and letting you know that the short season is almost over. The smell is soft and a little bit sad, if only because the lifecycle of the lilac goes so quickly. There’s nothing artificial about the perfume to me. It’s an honest reflection of lilac, containing both the green woodiness as well as the soft floral. It’s bringing me so much joy in the midst of winter and I will absolutely buy a full bottle to sustain me until I get to smell them again this spring.

I won this is the Fragrantica editor giveaway. I owned this many many years ago. The first time I bought it I was very young and my husband and I went to the Rochester Lilac Festival. I smelled Highland Lilac and fell in love with it. I wore the whole bottle but didn't buy it again because it was difficult to find. The funny thing is I was going to order a new bottle in the Vermont Country Store catalog this Christmas (just started getting those) but now I will only have to buy the shower gel/BB and the body lotion. This is somewhat similar to aerin Lauder lilac path but that fragrance is much greener. This is creamier, softer not as green. This also isn't as big of a projector like Lilac Path, that is a bomb. If you want a gentle, soft very rounded and lotion like lilac this is a great way to go. Thank you again Fragrantica for this blast from my past gift!

Sweet dreams! When I was a little girl, I was in love with flowers, especially ones that had a great scent. Every spring I would wait anxiously until the lilacs bloomed, and then would gather huge bouquets of the flowers to be put in vases on the nightstand by my bed. I would lay in the dark and smell their sweet fragrance until I drifted off to sleep. (I confess. I still do this!) Highland Lilac is this scent. It is the most realistic, fresh, "spring like" lilac I have ever found. It is truly like fresh pressed flowers. No chemical overtone. No additional notes to dilute its' loveliness. Perfect sillage and longevity. This is lilac - pure and simple. Edit 2/19: I've been trying several lilac perfumes, and none compare. HIGHLAND LILAC IS THE BEST! The holy grail of lilac perfumes!

Photorealistic Lilac Soliflore I have lilac steam distilled essential oil and a lilac bush in my yard and this perfume is nearly indistinguishable from the scent of the oil and lilac blooms. It is a photorealistic interpretation of lilac blooms minus the twigs, dew, grass and dirt that surround the petals. It is feminine, vintage, springy, romantic, and just plain gorgeous. If I didn't get the same results from my homemade essential oil and jojoba oil roller I would buy a full bottle for certain. This would be a great simplistic but not boring scent for romantic dreamy spring days and perfect layering scent! It gives cottagecore to me or romantic mori girl in spring. Sillage: 3/5 Projection: 3/5 Longevity: 3/5 Scent: 4/5 Leans feminine

Whenever I wear this fragrance I get compliments. It truly is a delight, the freshest, prettiest, purplest, most potent lilac in a little bottle. A fresh smell of spring optimism. If you are looking for a solo note lilac BUY THIS it's the one! Edit: I received my bottle in either 2014 or 2015...I can't remember for sure. It's 08/16/2017 today and I am sad to say my bottle has turned. I stored this in my normal way and it was not abused. Just letting buyers know that the shelf life isn't great and to use it up!

Received this as a Christmas gift from my sweet hubby. LOVE both him and the scent. Straight up fresh lilacs with no distractions. Reminds me of Pacifica's Lilac a lot, but has somewhat better longevity when wearing. Definitely more long lasting than Caswell-Massey's Lilac, which is another good iteration of the scent. I'm a soliflore fan, my other two favorites being violet and rose. This is a very good lilac for the price.

So glad to see this in the database now! Have had this for a couple of years and it is my go-to Spring Time favorite. Smells exactly like lilacs. Lilacs were my mother's favorite flower and we had a couple of bushes in the yard. Rochester is the world capital for lilacs, so they know their scent. If you love lilacs, get this one. Can't say enough about it!!

Lilac is my all-time favorite floral, and this is my all-time favorite lilac perfume. It has great sillage and staying power, and is just a lilac lover's dream. I wear it alone and layer it with other scents, especially when I want to make some of my more masculine unisex scents more feminine. People just smile when they smell it.

Lilacs were blooming in my neighborhood when I wore this last week. The scent was so heavenly, I wanted to know how close this fragrance came to it. I wasn't disappointed. When I went back outside, I could barely tell when I was smelling the real thing again.

This takes me back to my childhood. Stepping out our back door on Easter morning on our way to church and inhaling the heavenly scent of the old lilac tree in our yard. EDIT FYI: I bought this for a great price on Ebay.

This is an amazing fragrance. True artwork...perfume. If you love lilac this is a must-have.

a strong, sweet, rich, heavy, projecting, lasting lilac; one of my fave soliflores

This is really beautiful. To me Highland lilac smells like sniffing a really luxurious bar of lilac soap. It has that clean soap smell but it’s the round and creamy type of soap smell, it’s not sharp and it doesn’t attack my nose & head the way most soapy smells do. It has a vintage vibe to it. It’s not green like Lilas Exquis, it’s not exactly realistic to me, like En Passant with its dewy touch.

At first I was a little disappointed, it came out not as a photorealistic lilac fragrance but more of a soapy, bubble bath one. The dry down is so much better. I’d say at least 30-45 minutes after spraying is when it starts to smell great, it gets this almost warm vanilla skin scent and the floral is no longer a soapy, artificial, strong floral.

this stuff is so fun. just pure lilac, straight up, neat. there’s something vaguely nostalgic about it too. I don’t know why, but when I first tried it on it reminded me of my grandmother’s linen closet (this is a good thing lol). if you’re looking for a lilac soliflore, definitely give this one a go

A genuine, old fashioned lilac, with a little woodiness. Not as sweet or 'high' in scent as Pacifica's Lilac. That said it is still as sweet as a real lilac, and it will develop differently on everyone. Silage may vary significantly with the age or formulation of the bottle you have. I've happily found another American made lilac that's even more affordable than Highland, and smells (to me, at least) quite similar. BOURBON FRENCH PARFUMS Lilac Cologne <3 It's my new lilac Winner! It's got the same sort of 'real' lilac goodness, with the dry hint of woodiness in Highland's. Now, forgive me if this isn't true of your bottle - mine was quite vintage and had possibly aged. The longevity is mild, as was Rochester's on me, not surprising in a cologne. The scent - a boudoir delight! Today you no longer need to travel to Bourbon's perfumery in New Orleans but can browse their (wonderful) selection online. They offer everything from soap to bath powder in most of their fragrances. Lilac comes in a travel size roll on option perfect for trying out a new scent! Applause from me. Summary: Whether you choose Bourbon's or Highland's lilac scent, you will be getting a vintage dream, soft and airy and very, very JOYFUL, as real flowers are. For layering or wearing alone, these are memory making soliflores. Just charming!

Perfectly rounded and creamy lilac without any of that harshness of the blossoms after their prime. The most dewy of lilac mornings in April when you walk out into the cool shade, and a burst of light on wet lilacs captivates you for as long as you can remain enchanted, without being caught standing there sniffing. Reminds me of the spring when I was 20 years old and rode my bike to a secret hedge of lilacs near my classroom in college off the side of the road like a crazy person, not caring who saw me there for five minutes sniffing like mad. I don't regret that week, and I wasn't the only one there either. The lilac's creamy center has a hint of powder that I wish I could vote on. It's obviously very green and slightly woody but the lilac's the star. This year's lilac bush did not flower and I rushed out to buy Highland Lilac from The Vermont Country Store. I got the Body Wash and the Lotion too, and together, after the shower, I'm a triple threat! I wish I could remain shower-fresh wearing my waffle knit robe covered in this trifecta. The lotion is good, get it! It's thick and creamy and has the same smell and lasts all day. In the morning I smell just as lovely with the layering effect. If only there was Highland Lilac powder, I'd be done.

Oh what a special little perfume...a pure straight up old fashioned lilac. The ones that bloom so heartily in our mid-western harsh climate. Here lilacs are a true paradise on the stark plains wind-blown climate. Today on this Easter day, a lovely rare non windy day the flowering crab trees and other fruit trees and tulips I anticipate the coming of the beautiful lilac blooms just in time for my birthday in May. This little fragrance bottle duplicates those lovely purple blooms exactly and hangs on with it's dear little heart in longer duration than most other more pricey lilac fragrances. It's like pressing your nose directly into one of those velvety fresh blooms on a crisp but comfortable twilight evenings,I can imagine in Rochester New York riding next to my favorite person in the whole world in a horse drawn carriage down a lane of lilacs arm in arm on my Birthday...a day reserved just for me...clouds of scent surrounding us and wistfully enjoying lilac colored scented macaroons...a lovely lilac cocktail.

I have Pacifica, Highland, and En Passant, and here, darling, is the skinny. Pacifica and Highland are both straight lilac in the usual sense of triple-milled French soaps and nosegays. You will attract bees. I tested them side by side, and they opened similarly, but Pacifica was undetectable in 30 minutes and Highland is still energetically pumping out a fine, spicy-sweet lilac blossom fragrance a good two hours in. So, you know, I had a free wrist. I hit it with En Passant for another round, and I must tell you that En Passant is just a better perfume in every sense. Olivia Giacobetti is posessed of a stratospheric genius for producing distant, restrained, pianissimo florals, and En Passant may be the best of them. There is bread and rain and a leafy dampness in it that elevates and transcends the sweet simplicity of Highland. Highland is a lovely soprano lilac, but if you want the full orchestration, go for En Passant. And yes, Pacifica is pretty, light, and brief.

Like so many others the scent of lilacs are nostalgic and remain a pure memory for me despite life's way of soiling the good things. My Grandma had two lilac trees in her yard and the smell was absolutely enchanting. It wasn't just the smell of any old flower, but the smell of magic as the season turned from gray to bright green and blue. I picked them and brought them to my Grandma's table so that her house could also have this magic in it. I can still see the specks of dust floating in the sun as it shined in on my little arrangement of light and dark flowers weeping out of their glass vase. I needed this scent memory to keep my childhood close despite my Grandma's lilac trees being long gone. This perfume makes me feel like I have my face buried inside those old trees. I've no shoes on and no existential worries that weigh on my mind. It really can be simple at times. This soliflore proves that.

A perfect realistic lilac scent, smooth edges and excellent performance in terms of both longevity and sillage. Romantic without being suggestive. Like the real flowers, the sprayed area smells better from a few inches away than right up close. Not sure about online availability, but you can get it at Parkleigh if you're in town. There are a few products like soap, lotion, and a rollerball. The spray perfume is $50 for what looks like 1oz. What I purchased is a clear liquid in a gold cardboard box with no barcode, ingredients, concentration, or volume measure.

I was looking for a good lilac scent and saw an article here about this fragrance and decided to give it a try. Luckily I bought just a sample because I put the order about 2 months ago and never received the item. I called them twice and left messages, sent 2 e-mails, no reply. I do not know if I am ever going to receive the item but horrible customer service. Seems to me like the owner forgot that he owns a company. If you want to gamble, then order and hope that they may check the e-mail some day and see that they have an order that needs shipping.

I was happy to find this when Caswell-Massey stopped making Lilac. I enjoyed it for a few years but unfortunately the company’s horrific customer service has forced me to stop buying it. Ordered it and it never arrived. Eventually, after I called them, they sent it to me. Then they sent me an expired bottle that was bright orange and smelled obviously expired. I complained and they never responded. I had to dispute the charge with my bank. Never order from Highland Lilac!

Is there anyone even working at this company? I ordered a sample over a month ago, so long ago in fact that I actually forgot about it, and only just got a message that it was going to be shipped soon. So, am I going to have to wait another month for them to do that? I know this is not a proper review, but clearly people should be made aware that this company's customer service sucks.

I feel like I'm back in Illinois, at the beginning of Spring. I have all my living room and dining room windows open, and the smell of the neighbor's lilac bush is wafting in on the breeze! Scent goes on, and dries down, as a lovely, powdery lilac. I haven't found anything else that comes close to the pure, unbridled beauty of lilacs.

Can anybody compare it to Pacifica Lilac? I have Pacifica's French Lilac and so far it is the most realistic lilac I ever tried. Sold for $9/30ml at Target (USA) January 2019. If you have both, please let me know what you think. Thank you!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Real lilacs do not smell like this. This is a sickeningly sweet stench with a weird smell to it in the first hour or so. It smells like soap in grandma's bathroom. Body products a la 1980s.

How would you compare it to En Passant? Lilac is my favourite flower and I'm really curious about it, although this perfume is hard to find in Europe, I guess.

I bought a bottle from Vermont Country Store and I think it was old. It didn't smell like lilac at all. Very sour. Very disappointed.

Natural smelling, very realistic lilac fragrance, slightly sweet and powdery. Very beautiful scent.