Have you tried this fragrance?
Share your experience and help others discover great scents
La Fille de Berlin or, ‘The Girl from Berlin’, is one of the most beautiful rose fragrances currently on the market in my humble opinion. However, it’s also a very simple scent - focusing entirely on the supple beauty of the rose flower, or a young girl of Berlin which you struggle to erase from your memory. The rose is bright and soapy, it epitomises the clean and sweet characteristics perfectly. It’s gorgeously clean and delicate, whilst remaining quite noticeably pulpy and stemmy. It doesn’t resemble the annoyingly cloying, jammy roses which you see quite often these days. It undeniably feels as though it was inspired by Guerlain’s Nahema, even if only loosely. A stunningly simplistic rose like this is a must have in everyone’s collection in my opinion, as a reference point of what a great rose scent is and can be, at the very least.
Watery, metallic rose with minty geranium. More minty than I first noticed. Something herbal and green lurks underneath, is it palmarosa? No idea but it works well. It develops and opens very quickly and it more complex than many other perfumes I've tried from Unky Serge. I'm not sure if I need more than my 4ml miniature yet but it's good.
Thin, metallic rose. I'm not that keen. I much prefer the new one Là Fille Tour de Fer which is a similar scent with more depth.
🌹 FREDERIC MALLE: Une Rose (Rose Tonnerre) Edouard Flechier 2003 🌹 SERGE LUTENS: La Fille de Berlin Christopher Sheldrake 2013 It has been rainy days In Finland lately and these two beautiful rose perfumes - especially Une Rose - performs best in rainy days and high humidity. LFdB works well in shiny weather as well. These two are often compared to each others and that’s why I wanted to make a post of them together. There are only few similarities in these two scents: both are very realistic roses, both are very bright but I don’t see them as green. The smell of them start to separate straight away after the opening. 🌹 La Fille be Berlin is a very safe choice, and if you are used to Serge Lutens’ perfumes you may even think that it’s boring. It’s not unique but it’s beautiful for sure. The petals are fragile and thin and the smell of a rose is clean. There are no other notes which I can detect, just luminous rose with a metallic undertone. I would say it’s linear and one of the easiest scents to wear and for people around you. 🌹 The petals in Une Rose are thick and a little bit shiny - like there is some waxy surface on those. The smell is much deeper and stronger. If I compare it to LFDB it reminds me of a lipstick - not in a vintage way but it feels that there is something over the instant smell of a rose. On the other hand Une Rose is like some amazing rose water but powerfull one. In sunny day I don’t understand it so well but it bursts into flower and begins to shine in the rain, there is something amazingly melancholic in it and it’s beautiful. It lingers in the air while you move and it feels that every raindrop absorbs the scent from around you. This is not so complex either but very interesting one and the longevity is very good. Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
So glad that firstly I stumbled upon this really old sample (from when it was first released) in my samples box and secondly that I didn’t review it once upon a time, likely calling it a jammy rose concoction I’m unlikely to wear, because I’d have to retract that. Through messing around with hobbiest perfumery it’s often said that rose and geranium are similar in their metallic feel and can be complementary but I’ve never really thought so. Not looking at the notes for this I’d forgotten what it was all about and you’re instantly greated my a faceted jammy fruity rose then a slightly more powdery Bulgarian rose, basically a well rounded rose accord with the best of both aspects. There’s a hint of decay but then a minty wave of geranium, cooling, bright a touch green and metallic. Reasonably long lasting, strong at first, but not loud and a perfect mixture of bright n breezy with the merest suggestion of darkness. It’s a superb rose. Not the deepest or most velvety but by tastes have adapted over the years since I first tried this and the combination of rose and geranium is something I really love now, excellent.
Very strong and dark jammy rose scent that is tempered by metallic notes. It's both lushly decedent and aloof, as though the Berlin in which it's set is the Weimar era, with its hedonism increasingly overshadowed by the threat of curdled nationalism and war.
As this fades, the rose settles in with another contradictory combination: honied, earthy animalics.
This isn't a cozy creatuon: its beauty has an edge, and you can see why so many reviewers find it has a gothic allure. To me, the images it conjures are more modern than that: this is the scent of someone travelling through an exciting but exacting city, smartly dressed, on their way to an illicit assignation.
Depending on how you like your roses, you may find this a little too austere, or dark. It's certainly not a comforting scent, but it's a strange and beautiful one.