Lilac Wood

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Lilac wood is the timber of the lilac shrub, Syringa vulgaris, not its blossom. Cut or turned, it smells floral with a camphor edge over a light dry wood. It is a woodworker's curiosity rather than a perfumery material.

Scent Profile

Floral leads on the trade reference: 'Lilac has a distinct, floral scent when being worked.' That is the whole claim, so it is capped well below the published lilac blossom rather than matched to it. Dry_woody is the substrate. It is cut timber and both sources are describing the smell of working it, but neither source uses a woody word, so the number sits at the level this repository gives faint timbers such as arbutus-wood at 0.38 and amaranth-wood. Cooling_mentholic is the camphor: 'I have turned some small pieces in lilac, which smells like camphor when first cut into.' That is one first-hand account, and it describes the first cut rather than the seasoned wood, so it sits below the floral lead and carries the widest spread in the vector. Green is fresh-cut sap, implied by both sources describing green wood and stated by neither. Powdery is a trace only.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Floral, Woody & Earthy

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Lilac is a shrub, so there is no lilac lumber. The Wood Database states it plainly: 'Due to its small size (typically only a shrub or bush), Lilac is not considered a woodworking lumber, and is never commercially harvested.' What circulates is hobbyist offcuts, 'an excellent turning wood' with heartwood 'sometimes seen with reddish or lavender color streaks'. No perfumery house or fragrance glossary was found describing lilac wood as a material, so nothing here comes from a distiller or a supplier.

Usage in Perfumery

Parfumo records 2 placements across 2 brands. Fragrantica records none. Neither fragrance was identified, so there is no evidence of how a perfumer reads the term. It may be the cut-timber smell described here, or the flower's name borrowed for a soft woody accord.