Reviews of Lilac Vegetal (1880)
by Pinaud

A wonderful lilac scent - it starts out smelling like fresh-cut flowers or a hot greenhouse, then rapidly dries down to powdery lilacs. Light and floral but still masculine. It's also ultra-cheap and very few younger men seem to wear it. Don't be fooled by the scent in the bottle (which is nasty), this transforms on the skin.

This is my first review at Basenotes and I approach it with some trepidation as I'm neither a good writer nor do I possess all that discerning of a "nose". So while my reviews may not be very helpful, they will be honest.

So let's start with an old, old classic Pinaud's Lilac Vegetal....

You should know up front, that I wanna smell OLD at "YeOldeSweatShoppe & Cubicle Farm ". This is definetly an Older guys scent an in and of itself a very old scent -- The Pinaud Clubman website claims that this product is one of the oldest (commercially produced) men's scents. Commissioned about 200 years ago (in 1810) by the King Of Hungary for of all things (GET THIS) his personal CAVALRY troop.

If you've never tried it, lemme tell'ya when you first splash it on,

it STINKS to HIGH HEAVEN, like the miasma from a newly "stewing" compost heap wafting from your flesh. I reckon this is the "Vegetal" part of the name.

After about 2 or 3 minutes it dries down to a Lovely (imho) "powdery lilac" which lasts a long long time. Very subtle & masculine but also old, very old, LOL, like 200 years old.

Maybe, I love this oleur because when I was a young kid (long ago & far away) this was the scent mortician's splashed on dead men for "viewing" times....Yes, the scent of death on display.....Try it out....IF YOU DARE.

I can't see you younger fella's wearing it unless you're one of them there Goths or you're a rebel against the current batch of designer badged laboratory scents worked out by a corporate commitee. Believe me, none of your peers are going to match this. This product can "clear the aisles" so you may not have many friends if you start wearing it.

Pinaud products are a safe blind buy as most all of them are $6 or less.

If you hate it, throw it out, pass it on or send it to me as I love this stuff.

This is fresh lilacs in a bottle and extremely well done. There is no complexity nor subtlety: it's simply lilac water. It is bracing, refreshing and invigorating. Extremely good on a hot day. However, this is not a fragrance to wear out. This is for you to splash on after a shower, or swimming, and to enjoy for the 30 minutes or so that it lasts. Highly under-rated in my opinion.