La Fille de Berlin

Serge Lutens files La Fille de Berlin among its florals and describes it as a spicy rose with a hint of pepper; rose and pepper are the two notes it names. Wikiparfum classifies it among the florals, in the classical rose family.

Top, heart, and base

The house’s French perfumeries publish this breakdown: black pepper in the top; rose, geranium, and clove in the heart; amber woods and white musks in the base. The notes are arranged the same way here.

The materials

Wikiparfum names other materials, without a tier: palmarosa, geranium, bergamot, lavender, clary sage, moss, amber, and vanilla. Palmarosa, a grass with a rose-like scent, extends the flower. These materials remain in the prose.

Several critics detect a violet that neither the house nor Wikiparfum names: Robin of Now Smell This and Victoria of Bois de Jasmin noted it as early as 2013. It stays out of the classification.

What the label declares

The ingredient list opens with alcohol, fragrance, water, and a solvent, dipropylene glycol. Two UV filters, butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane and ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, shield it from light; BHT, an antioxidant, slows its oxidation.

The list names three natural materials: bergamot peel oil, patchouli oil, and rose flower oil or extract. Alongside them come numerous odorous molecules, among them geraniol, citronellol, eugenol, rose ketones, vanillin, and anethole.

Three colorants tint the juice: a red, CI 17200, a yellow, CI 19140, and a violet, CI 60730. There is neither lilial nor lyral. A shorter version of the list omits bergamot, patchouli and rose.