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Portia
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Heya APJ Crew,
Lots of people have been bitching about the brand new bottle and I understand that nobody likes change. I also understand that if you have a set of Serge Lutens bottles that this is not going to fit. What did you do when you changed to CDs? Yes. This is the excuse you needed to get a new set. I do like that price per ml has gone down. I think that is really classy of Shishedo, when every body else is aspirational pricing their arses out of my ballpark. Serge Lutens is still making a fabulous, affordable product. Now I can uberspritz my La Fille De Berlin with no thought to running out.
When the new bottle was first available in Paris I got my bottle but things have been so hectic around here I didn’t get time to write you my thoughts.
La Fille de Berlin by Serge Lutens 2013
La Fille de Berlin by Christopher Sheldrake
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rose, geranium
Heart: Palmarosa
Base: Oakmoss, honey, patchouli
Cherry roses and pepper on opening with a softly metallic twang. Interesting how quickly it dries out. On Tina’s skin it stayed a crisp snap of cutting of a rose stem, violet and geranium – much cooler, where my skin the honey has taken over almost immediately and you can definitely smell the dryness of palmarosa. Smells expensive. So many Serge Lutens are freaky – this misses out on the freaky and is a very expensive rose + glam. Unusually for Serge, the honey is clean and not so animalic. We’re not smelling any of the bees or the wax on either of our skins.
La Fille de Berlin makes me smile. The rose is deep and burnished and a little bit boozy.
So fragrant yet La Fille de Berlin isn’t in your face, it manages to be quite a heavy perfume but restrained. It hits my dressed up evening button but I’ve also been enjoying wearing it in the warm spring daytime air around here.
Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and EauMG
Mecca has some $171/50ml and $294/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $6/ml
What do you think of the new 100ml bottles?
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 
I have and love this one. Rose galore. 50 ml is enough for me. 100 ml is overkill.
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HA! Maybe it is overkill but with this bottle I’ll be spritzing with abandon Gina.
Portia xx
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I love the bottle. We have them in my local perfumerie. However they are not an less expensive than the 50mls, in fact a couple if Euros more. Still, great price compared to so much of the overpriced niché rubbish. Love FdB and have a new 50ml to be gettingvon with. Bussi.
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Will wear glasses next time I comment. 😩
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I have a large collection of the 50mls, so no, these new bottles don’t fit in, plus the huge label hides the lovely colour of the juice. In general I prefer 100 ml bottles, so I can spritz wildly, but I don’t see myself going out and replacing my collection at 180 euros a pop. Never mind that basically all of them have been reformulated over the years, and not for the better. So I’m sticking with my vintage bottles.
La Fille de Berlin is so new it’s probably safe to buy since it won’t have been (too) reformulated. I like it a lot. In fact I bought 2 of the 50 mls, so I’m probably set. 🙂
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I love Sl and have stocked up on enough to last a few lifetimes, so the debate over bottle is less important to me than reformulation issues. LFB is one of my absolute favs, and on me is a spicy, pungent, almost carnation-smelling rose. When I make the trip to “Serge Mecca” again– then I’ll worry about the bottle. To me it looks similar to my Guerlain Ensens Mythique in terms of proportion and small top. Frankly, I’ve never liked the bell jars which once opened (as mine are) are liable to dissipate product no matter how cool, dark and tightly kept. I’d rather these than those, save for the super ornate Ltd. Edition.
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This is a classic shape for Shiseido. It’s the shape of their Eudermie facial tonic (been on the market forever) except that one is a true red.
I bought a thrift store bottle purely for the shape. Since I don’t have any SL bottles ☺ I don’t have to worry about matching.
I do have to get around to sampling this.
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La Fille de Berlin was the first Serge I owned – I tried it in Mecca and loved it on the spot and was lucky enough to spot partial bottle for sale on ebay (15ml) for a reasonable price. It has become one of my favourites and i’ve since bought a backup bottle in the old 50ml format.
I’ve seen the new bottles in Mecca. I agree the new bottles do also hide the glory of the juice colour but they’re not ugly – they have their iwn asthetic.
The size is my main beef as I’m a light spritzer and enjoy a wide variety of fumes. I rarely need/want 50mls of anything, 100ml is vastly more than I want, 30ml is my ideal size. Yes it’s cheaper per ml but my budget is the same. I could have enjoyed two different Serges before for around what it will cost me for one now because of the size. However Serge is not the only brand/range that only comes in big bottles. *sighs*
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I do not not what has to happen for me to go for 100 ml of anything… I should love the juice and not imagine my life without it. Or to do a friendly split. Other than that… Even 50 ml is too much for me for most perfumed. So while it’s good that they didn’t increase their prices per ml, I suspect they’ve reformulated the heck out of it making it cheaper to produce. So I’ll look around for one or two more 50 ml old bottles while they are still available but I won’t hurry to get any of the new bottles.
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I prefer 50 ml bottles, but I like to use up the things I buy. I do not have a collector’s mindset. I think they would be better served to control the grey market sales of SL like Guerlain and Chanel are doing in order to control their prices in the market. It is not good for SL if I can buy a bottle for $60. Perhaps that is what Shishedo is really trying to do by creating new packaging. I am curious to watch this brand.
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Really good points Horses434,
I too will be watching with interest.
I wonder if the grey market pays the same for the product?
Portia x
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