Lilac Dream

lilac dream is a faded memory, a picture of a little house framed on the wall of your childhood home; it reminds me of a plaque i bought at church as a kid using "goodie points" from learning verses by heart that read "HOME SWEET HOME" on a background of calico print. it smells like the dusty corners of an old spiral staircase; counting dust bunnies, christening each one. marie, wallace, bonny. a little sigh and they all flit away. it's languorous afternoons: sleeping dogs lay in curtains of sunlight. has that same golden quality that violette hay has, like fields of gold, softspicy tickle of eyelashes against your neck, a spray of baby's breath; no, it's how i'd imagine a baby's breath to smell if i were playing house. exhaling powdery bouquets of warmth. something familiar and soft: hands folded in laps, dog-eared pages of books, turning down the bedcovers. glowing lampshades. tiptoeing past nightlights. tea party with the stuffed animals at midnight. it's telling me, come to bed. it's past your bedtime.

Lilac dream is a long cotton nightgown, with a tiny blue bow. In the kitchen, before sunrise, barefoot with the lights down low. A humble, homemade cake with vanilla frosting- not too sweet- is on the counter with a slice already taken. You’re standing by the open window, blooming lilacs just outside, making chamomile tea. At first, I wasn’t too fond. I lean towards bright, vibrant green scents and prefer to smell like a tomato vine as opposed to dessert. But I started putting on Lilac Dream before bed (maybe I took the hint?) and before I knew it my sample was gone. I’m laughing as a write this because I can’t even explain how much I have been *craving* this scent since running out- I can’t get it out of my mind, like a burning crush. I was set on buying a full bottle of Petrichor, but I may have to break the bank and go for them both... I already have Violet Hay!! Which is another unexpected enigmatic love to write about soon.

Like the other person who reviewed this, I got a sample and thought, “This is lovely, but I’m not going to get a full bottle.” Then I was sad when I ran out and decided to get a bottle for myself. This fragrance sits close to the skin, so it’s more of a “just for me” scent that I put on before bed. On my skin, it lasts two hours max, but on fabric it lasts at least 8 hours, if not more. It smells very true to lilacs, with a nice green note and a bit of vanilla cake in the distance. It feels like an outdoor party in spring. I actually enjoy wearing it when it’s cold out so that I can carry a bit of springtime with me. Edit: I recently wore this during the day, and my partner commented on how great it smells as I walked by. So the projection is much better than I thought! Also, now that the weather is much cooler, other elements are coming through, showing how complex and lovely the fragrance is. Marissa Zappas is a true artiste.

I love wearing this fresh out of the shower! It's very feminine and the moment I smelled it, I was reminded of Ulta's Lilac Breeze lotion (which I don't think they have any longer). Years ago, I used to keep a bottle of the lotion in my car and would wear it while driving to Starbucks or running errands in my college town. Although this scent is perfect for spring and summer...due to my scent memory, I prefer it in fall. It's a reminder that even though it's about to get mad cold...there's hope that we'll have fresh flowers blooming in the future. I love this perfume house and own a couple of scents and adore each one of them! Very different scents and a great perfumer who stands out.

This fragrance transports me to springtime in upstate New York. It's the first really warm spring day. The lilac bush in the backyard is blooming. The sun is shining. The grass has grown long enough to cut for the first time that year. The ice cream shops have just opened and you are eating a vanilla cone in your backyard while enjoying the fragrant lilac blooms. Definitely lilac/ floral, green, and vanilla. What a lovely fragrance! I feel nostalgic and yearn for spring when smelling this scent. I think I need this one in my collection.

Lilac Dream, and yes it is a dream. This is fluffy billowing lilac blooms wafting in the air. Their delicate perfume fills your senses and lifts your spirits. I really like the touch of vanilla in this because it keeps the flowers from becoming to green, that is the trouble w/ many lilac perfumes, they are just to green for my taste. This one is like lilac/vanilla clouds, fluffy, soft comforting. This would be an excellent bedtime perfume. Very feminine soft, like floating on a purple cloud in your dreams... Full bottle worthy.

The search for my perfect lilac fragrance is over. What a beautiful scent. Lilac, vanilla and a touch of green freshness. Can’t wait to purchase a full bottle!!

A picture perfect spring scent. This collection seems inspired by a Secret Garden version of nature, and I can totally smell that in Lilac Dream. It reminds me of trespassing through my neighborhood as a kid, stumbling upon what looked like the most perfect backyard right next door to me. I remember stepping stones, and perfect green grass, and cherub bird baths— maybe even a fountain. The sun filtered through what felt like abundant treetops, casting everything in this idyllic green light. I would peek into that backyard every time I was looking for a little magic. I watched that house move through a handful of owners over the years, and the fence is gone now, so I can see right into that garden if I stand in my mom's backyard. It's been nowhere near that original glory in many years, but Lilac Dream reminds me of how I felt when I first saw it. It was this heavenly, perfectly manicured vision of fertility, but constrained by privacy. When I stood in that backyard, I never forgot that it didn't belong to me. I could only ever stay for so long, and I always had to be ready to run if I heard someone coming. Lilac Dream is abundant, but it isn't wild. When I smell it, I imagine an older woman who wakes up early every morning, puts on her gloves, and tends to a garden with careful, organized passion. Her life might be a bit lonely, but she's attempting to claim beauty and joy wherever she can. It's a controlled beauty: the woman pulls weeds, clearly labels everything, makes sure everything stays in its corner. Her flowers are clean and polite, and planted with a very clear purpose, even if that purpose is just to look and smell nice. Lilac Dream is a strong floral, but there's nothing obscene or off-putting about it. You'd think the musk would add some sex into the mix, but it just underlines the scent's very clear respect for tradition. It's the smell inside the widow’s well-kept, but old-fashioned house. There are porcelain dolls here and there, alluding to the presence of children at some point, but long ago, and she never thought to make changes. There’s a quiet grief to those decorating choices, like she misses when they made perfect sense and can’t quite let go, or just decided they suit her somewhere along the way. There are candles everywhere, because the woman wants everything to smell as fresh and feminine as her garden. Lilac Dream is undeniably beautiful, it really blooms on skin, and lasts for hours. It's sweet and femme, but very lightly so, and its general cleanliness makes it seem wearable across the gender spectrum. Like all of Marissa's scents, it's nostalgic in a way that feels both timeless and a bit radical. "Vintage" may be cool, but "old-fashioned" has been a dirty word for a while. You can tell Marissa thinks it’s a cop out to say a perfume smells like an old lady, and I can see her really pulling perfumery away from that kind of impulse. As I get older, I respect the image of an older woman so much more because it's where I'm supposed to go as an aging woman anyway. Why not get comfortable with it? Lilac Dream feels like a very Venutian, loving crone kind of scent– the wise woman who gets respect without question in older, more matriarchal cultures. The kind of woman who's stuck around, and seen a lot, and wants to make things look nice for whoever will take her place. People seek her out for her age and experience, because they know she's taken care of them, and they want to take care of her in return. That image of a certain kind of old woman's house is comforting to me, because it feels like those cozy, loving settings are harder to find now. Most people who are entering their AARP years now seem extremely self-conscious about aging, like they want to be cooler than what that used to look like, and not live in homes that reflect that sense of waiting for the kids to visit. They paint all the walls white, pull the carpets out of the floor, turn childhood bedrooms into gyms or home offices. They actively do not want to retire, because it's too terrifying to imagine what they'd do with all that idle, lonely time. The woman I smell in Lilac Dream feels like a refreshing counter to that. She’s more content with things being finite— it makes what’s right in front of her feel all the more important.

Marissa Zappas herself describes Lilac Dream as a soliflore on her website, and while it may be a primarily lilac scent, there are so many thoughts and memories that it provokes in me. First, I think of a toy I had as a child - a plastic dragon that produced a scented mist as you squeezed it. I also think of the lilac bush that grew in the yard at my parents' house growing up, and how my mom and I would eagerly await for the flowers to bloom every Spring. While I could see some people calling this an "old lady" scent, I am more inclined to see beyond this categorization and understand that simple floral fragrances can still become complex in our minds. With Lilac Dream, Marissa has given us another feminine scent with ties to the innocence of childhood, and yet it is still wearable for all ages.

This is a very lovely lilac scent. Has classic, cottage-core, pixie vibes. I have only one other lilac fragrance, Pacifica's French Lilac, to compare this to. Purple flowers scents are my favorite of the florals. The lilac's in Lilac Dream come with the stem's still attached. Maybe a little bit of soil. And the rickety wooden garden gate. It's puts you very much outside in the lilac garden. And the lilacs are lightly sweetened. It's not a sweet scent, just a touch. Compared to Pacifica's French Lilac, which is way more soapy and the lilac is more intense. I love lilac, but I think it can be a divisive note, reminding some of baby powder. Given that, I think Lilac Dream is more of an approachable lilac.

What a lovely opening. Very nostalgic nose-in-the-bush smell of lilac. After the fairly bright beginning, it becomes pretty soft. The petigrain and bergamot fly under the radar as far as I’m concerned but the rest of the notes blend very well. It’s more floral than I usually wear so I wouldn’t do a FB. But if sweet polite florals are your thing it’s worth a try.

A joyful and innocent lilac fragrance with creamy vanilla and green nuances, drying down to a green musk. A little simple for me. I would like to smell a bit mysterious or confounding.

Delicate, grassy lilac with a creamy, honeyed vanilla that comes out in the dry down. Very close to the skin but very nicely naturalistic smelling.

Lilacs are a perfect embodiment of life and death; they start to decay before they have even fully opened However, this has none of the melancholy April wetness that real lilacs do. It’s a powdery whisper. Agree with the assessment of this as a cottagecore fragrance. It absolutely is, but with emphasis on the "cottage" of it all. This is not an outdoorsy fragrance, but rather one to be worn atop a cotton eyelet dress while sipping tea on a window seat. It’s gone in a flash. Would not recommend this as an introduction to MZ perfumes.

This fragrance is extremely photorealistic lilacs. I don't really get anything else. It is incredibly green (you can almost smell the stem and the wet leaves). If you love florals that are super green, this is for you. It's a little too green for my taste. But I can appreciate the craftsmanship which is superb! Excellent longevity and beast mode sillage!

I pick up a lot of vanilla from this, which I personally don't like. I never gravitate to vanilla scents. However, I can totally see why some people would love this! Give it a try.

The reviews here sold me on trying this one out — immediately out of the bottle I smelled Glade bathroom spray mixed with Off bug spray; I could not get past these associations. The scent sweetens over time, but I can’t imagine spraying it a second time to figure out when that happens.

this is soft and dreamy- petitgrain and neroli sometimes have a slight bitterness or intensity that I don't find here. I don't mind it either way- but, I really like how gentle this scent is. It's very light and dreamy- like looking at everything retrospectively. vaseline on the camera lens, and light beams blocking a perfect view. I really love lilacs, they feel like the perfect floral for a sensitive person, they're romantic and beautiful, but I always associate them with some tears forming in my eyes. This is held together by the neroli and base notes from just being too light and airy. This is a great lilac forward, focused perfume and I wish I could get a full size.

Lilac dream smells like springtime under a microscope. Petally, delicate, purple, airy, pollenous, slightly camphorous, and very much alive. Here is the mental image I get: A little girl dreams of being a scientist. She goes into her grandmother's garden, and plucks a lilac blossom from the bush. The bush shakes and pollen fills the air for a brief moment. She puts the crisply-shaped silky blossom on the microscope slide, clips it into place, and twists the knob. She looks at it closer and closer until the petal looks almost as if it's a beathing stain of purple watercolor paint.

This is an artful interpretation of a lilac scent. Very painterly. It brings me to a cottage, tells me a story, as others have so eloquently written in past comments. It veers sweet and musky, losing the distinct lilac scent, which is why it isn't full bottle worthy for me. I like a green, steamy, soapy purple floral but I appreciate and respect this artistry. Glad I sampled

Pretty, dreamy lilac scent. Very delicate and feminine. It has a decent dose of petit gran and bergamot, neroli and musk. It evaporates from my skin in minutes. I would love to have a bottle if it lasted a decent amount of time.

Smells... cute. Nice delicate parisian vintage soaps, sugar cookies, and a shabby chic home with breezy porches.

Fresh soil notes & honeyed florals after a powdery opening 3-4 sprays medium projection

a purple my little pony that is scratch-and-sniff. very lilac and very plastic.