Lilacs & Heliotrope

I sampled this a few years ago, randomly from a decanter, and I fell fully in love with it. But even at that time, I couldn't find a bottle anywhere, and the decanter must have also run out by the time I knew I wanted more. All I have now is the sample bottle with just a hint of juice left so I can try to review it before all trace of it is gone. This isn't a photorealistic lilac, but something about the formulation is like 5x on the *feelings* I have when I smell lilac. This is lilac, but in a dream, or a fantasy novel, where your imaginaton always makes things MORE than reality every could be. It's dense and dramatic and hedonistic.

I have a mini of this fragrance and love it. It reminds me of spring, of a wet garden, of lilacs with an almondy - vanilla (heliotrope)note rising up from it. A beautiful scent.

Lots of powdery cherry almond heliotrope going on, quite sweet. Would smell gourmand except it's also quite floral. On fabric I can smell lilac blooms, but on my skin it drys down to heliotrope and benzoin, no flowers. Pretty.

My experience is very different than either the official description or the majority of reviews: to me, it's sweet without being floral and, specifically, no lilac. I was so sure I'd love this one that I took the plunge with a small bottle. I don't hate it, but blind buyers beware: I wish I'd sampled it first. ETA: it's beautiful, though. I've really grown to appreciate this scent, which is rich and mesmerizing rather than fresh and floral.

While testing this today, I dropped the vial and spilled half of it on the floor, so as not to waste it I quickly stooped to rub my wrists in the small pool of scent then spilled the rest down the sides of the vial which I rubbed on my legs.. So I guess since I unwittingly chose this as my fragrance du jour, I'll go on and review it! It's powdery lilacs and then it's not, green for a minute and musky too. Very musky on me, in fact and vanilla sweet, almost cloying and then it rounds out to a warm and sultry musky orchid. Distantly similar to Olympic Orchids Golden Cattleya. A more suitable name to me would be "Orchid Musk". It is not dirty animalic to my nose, not quite sexy either but it is sensuous and heady. Not a fresh floral at all, this would bloom most beautifully in autumn or a cool summer evening. It shares a vibe with Honeysuckle Bird from the same house and if I didn't already have that one, I would buy this because it really is beautiful. As others have noted, longevity is poor which seems to be true of many fragrances from "natural" niche houses. If you're really hankering for lilacs, you'll only find a whisper of them here though.