Dream Sequence

Melodic, dreamy, nostalgic art. Marissa Zappas has an extraordinary gift of infusing her fragrances with whimsical nostalgia that feels so genuine. She is among my favorite perfumers because of the earnestness she expresses through olfactory art. Fragrance is not a powerhouse. Rather, it is an intimate moment, a memory whispering quietly-- something that communicates more to the wearer than anyone else. This scent, along with everything from MZ, speaks to my being, giving me beautiful memories of times I never got to have, and that is a gift.

this reminds me of my late grandmother's perfumed powders. it is a light, almost soapy sort of lilac garden. its earthiness adds a welcome amount of depth, beautifully so. if this were made in a powder form, i would hoard crates of it. it's vintage, soft, and nostalgic. it stays close to my skin so it feels like a little secret. love, love, love!!!

I grew up in very humid climate and Dream Sequence reminds me so much of that rich earthy smell before it starts to rain. Very lush, Victorian even. I love purple flowers in general (so cheeky and feminine) the lilac and the petit grain balance the dampness of the earth note beautifully.

reminds me of when i was a lot younger and would often play in the garden with my sweetheart siblings. baby faced, wide eyed, and innocent; brimming with curiosity at the beauty of the world. hazy, fond, ethereal.

Fresh lilacs swaddled in an earthy, powdery musk that sits very close to the skin. Sweet dirt. The Marissa Zappas fragrances I have had the opportunity to try have a lovely "antique" quality that I really enjoy.

My rainy day fragrance that also doubles as one for bedtime. So lovely!

sweet baby lilac fantasy, o how i wish to full bottle!

the rebrand bottle design <3 :-3

Humid earth and waxy, stemmy lilacs. This feels like the vintage-toned cousin to Regime des Fleur’s Jade Vines, if you’re into greenhouse florals. The name – Dream Sequence – describes the olfactory effect perfectly. It's dewy and pensive, surreal in how it doesn’t feel grounded to any particular point in time. A beautiful anachronism. I love the contrast between the antique, powder-purple blooms and the fresh, crisp greenery. Growing up, my dream job was a paint colour namer (still is tbh), and I feel like Dream Sequence would be the perfect name for a gauzy, blue-veiled lilac. Mental Snapshot: The most opulent greenhouse, in the most exclusive Floridian retirement community. Rainforest Café meets Versailles. tl;dr: antique ikebana 🪻☔️

its playing dress up in my late grandmother's vanity and closet when i was a kid. it's easter, the windows are open and you can smell the flowers from grandpa's garden. he just snuck me a $5 bill and told me not to tell my parents. i'm not usually a fan of powdery scents but this one gets me. i wish i could ask grandma what fragrance she wore - whatever it was, this is the modern recreation. i may have to purchase a decant just to sniff when i miss my grandparents a little extra.

A cozy, hazy floral. Clean and fresh but with a slightly disorienting, dark quality about it. It’s more of an intimate scent as it doesn’t project out too strong, but up close it smells sooo good. It develops beautifully as it meshes with the skin and reveals a bit more of that earthy muskiness. Just lovely!

Smells like hugging your grandma. I love hugging my grandma.

Powdery vintage lilac that wears very close to the skin

I'm so confused by this, I tested it blind without reading the profile first and I never would have guessed lilac. It's a quiet whisper of a fragrance, very modest and close to the skin. Musky, powdery, dry hay. I did however get a strong pungent yellow mustard scent in the opening (the petitgrain I guess??) but it dissipated quickly and now I'm left with a modest, polite scent that's rather powdery. The name and description have got me scratching my head. I adore the rest of MZ's line though, so many hits!

This doesn't really smell like lilac to me. I grew up around wild lilac bushes so I tend to prefer fragrances that smell more realistic. This is nice, but it's kind of a non descript powdery floral, reminiscent of baby wipes. It's not bad, but not something I want to smell like.

Much more powdery than expected, like a nice vintage soap! I'm not really getting any soil or earthiness here. A surprisingly different offering compared to the aquatic lilac of En Passant and the petrichor lilac of Nosferatu.

Objectively a pleasant scent, but my experience of it is colored by a Suave deodorant I used in middle school. The powderly lilac in Dream Sequence is just too similar for me to enjoy.

I’ve smelled the vast majority of Marissa’s scents by now, and to my nose, Lilac Dream is her masterpiece, if not at least solidly in the top three. It’s the lilac to which I compare all other lilacs and it was such an instant love for me when I first smelled it a few years ago. Been meaning to smell the reformulation since it came out, especially because Marissa said she thought it was “even better” than Lilac Dream. I didn’t succumb to the temptation to stock up on what decants I could still find, and now they’re all gone, so once I finally tried Dream Sequence, I regretted that lack of foresight right away. Genuinely heartbreaking first smell, like that beautiful original lilac buried under dust and hay. I figured I just needed to spend more time with it, but it won’t even stay on my skin. Lilac Dream has this velvety sweet but not saccharine feel that clings to me all day, just a powerhouse, and there’s nothing like it. I didn’t connect to anything else from the Garden collection as much as the one thing that got reformulated and I’m really bummed about it :( too sad to rate this one objectively, but discontinuing Lilac Dream was a mistake, and I’m sorry for her newer fans who don’t get to experience its beauty because it’s really special. Wish I’d known it was going away so I could’ve grabbed a full bottle when I had the chance :( please DM me if you have one, would be thrilled to buy it off of you!

Lilac and petitgrain made acidic by bergamot. It's like a nose blasting pungent cleaner, but not a pleasant cleaner. Acrid earth notes arrive to further dishearten. While pungent and somewhat gross, it still has the lilac which eventually softens into something softly floral and a bit pleasant. It's just not worth the nose scrunching horror. It is also much weaker than expected given how harsh the initial blast is. Big dislike.

cold, fresh, and hauntingly beautiful lilac. a dark yet enchanting scent that stir confusion within me but eventually grew prettier with time. dream sequence opens up with an earthy, grounding soil after rain then slowly evokes a powdery vintage smell that reminds me of my old grandma's vanity room, filled with leftover trails of her cheap scented powder that probably was lavender scented. but the scent journey didn't stop there, it then opens up a sharp yet fresh lilac that was akin to En Passant by Frederic Malle, with the powderiness seamlessly blended into the background. a perfect night-time perfume or for my people who want to smell eerie but ethereal. still has me debating on putting it in the wishlist, but if an opportunity does arise where i could purchase this with a discount, a swap, or a used bottle i would get it in a heartbeat. one of the more interesting scents i have sampled and i'm so excited to smell more from marissa zappas.