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Post by TinaG

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Hi APJ!

I’m travelling in Europe for a few months and thought y’all might like a short snapshot of my fragrance shopping in Berlin.

Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Holy WOW. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is stunning. Duty Free had a fantastic fragrance collection including Miller Harris, By Killian, Memo, Amouage, Dolce & Gabbana Velvet Collection, Guerlain Pera Grantia, Rosa Pop and L’Homme Ideal EDP, amongst others. The staff were super-friendly & very knowledgable.

Étui Noir by Miller Harris 2016

Miller Harris has two Heathrow exclusives – Ètui Noir and Lumière Dorée. I picked up Ètui Noir which is a gentle leather fragrance

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamo, tangerine
Heart: Incens, iris
Base: Vetiver, leather

TinaG’s Fragrant Adventures

Berlin, Germany: Photo Essay

Berlin: I stayed at the Grand Hyatt, Berlin Mitte. All my fragrance shopping was within walking distance of the hotel.

Tourist Tip: check opening times, many places are closed on Sunday.

Frau Tonis Parfum

I had only recently heard of Berlin’s Frau Tonis Parfum so I was excited to visit their one and only store. The display made it easy to try every fragrance so I worked my way around sniffing stoppers & making notes. My poor nose was absolutely tortured from 23 hours of aircraft travel so I was totally surprised to find it still worked! Joy!! Kristiane and Clarice were wonderful & helped me with my many questions, like what does the number mean? It’s simply a catalogue system as it’s easier to remember numbers than names.

Frau Tonis have very sensible bottle sizes – 8ml travel spray, 15ml, 50ml and 100ml. They also take custom blend orders, so you can mix & match and make your own bespoke combination. And yes they ship to Australia.

I chose three 8ml fragrances: 10 Linde Berlin (lime and honey), 14 Grasse à Toi (Jasmine, ylang-ylang, lilly of the valley, iris, peach, red berries, vanilla) and 37 Veilchen (which may also be called 37 Violet) which has violet, liquorice and raspberry.

Tourist tip: the store is near Checkpoint Charlie and Topographie des Terrors, a display & section of the Berlin Wall.

Galleries Lafayette

This department store has an atmosphere of a ‘pop-up’ shop for fashion & makeup. I went to Galleries Lafayete to fine the Berlin-based Schwartzlose.

Yea, interesting. Rausch probably got my attention the most because of the animalistic notes, it was damn dirty & fun. Altruist is their newest which has a cologne freshness with May rose, lemon and pepper. Testing was rushed in a crowded area, I didn’t buy anything.

Tourist tip: save yourself time by asking an SA to take you to this display. The store layout is frustratingly circular with a space in the middle.

Krigler

Krigler currently has stores in Berlin, Beverly Hills & New York. The store in the Hotel Adlon Kempinski has the full range of fragrances and make candles on-site. Their first fragrance was crafted in 1879 – 79 Pleasure Gardenia. The fragrance numbering relates to the year it was made, that one is the only ’18’ prefix. If a second or third is made, a 2 or 3 added to the number. The 2000 series drops the second zero, ie: 214 = 2014, 2142 = the second fragrance made that year.

What do they smell like, I hear you ask?? But I haven’t yet told you about the long history, the famous people who wore Krigler, or the quality of the ingredients. Or the extravagant prices. £16 for a 2ml sample…. Painful. Yes they ship to Australia.

Established Cognac 66 was the stand out for me. A thick caramel with rich cognac cut through by a sharp juicy apple note, taking the edge off the heaviness. Apparently it used to have 80% cognac but the current formulation is 50% – still quite potent. I also picked up samples of Oud for Highness 75, Schöne Linden 05 and Extraordinaire Camelia 209.

Tourist tip: these guys are right near the Brandenburg Gate.

Ritz Carlton – “Fragrances” cocktail bar

OK this Fragrances cocktail bar was the primary reason I wanted to go to Berlin! And it totally blew me away. I’ll dedicate a separate article to my evening here because the Bar Manager, Arnd Heissen totally took me under his wing and showed me around both Fragrances, and its sister bar The Curtain Club. The bar staff were absolute fragrance & mixology experts, I had a fabulous time, so much fun!

The cocktails are created to emulate a fragrance profile. I think there are about 30 on the menu. You walk in to a display which has a bottle of the actual fragrance, the ingredients, and a photo of the cocktail glass. I chose two cocktails, Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles and Bulgari Au Thè Bleu. Both were beautifully done and wonderfully presented. I was curious to see how they managed the incense in Fille en Aiguilles – this was created by using a particular smokey tea. Fab result.

Ok I’m sure I’m over my word count (sorry Portia!) so I’ll leave my fragrant Berlin travels stories for now. It is an amazing city any my short 2 days there wasn’t enough.

Have you visited any of these places? Or do you have more recommendations for my next Berlin adventure?

xx Tina G