Fin de Siecle

If Libertine’s fragrance Fin de Siècle is any indication, this house will become a bright star in fragrance night sky in the not too distant future. It isn’t as if there is something revolutionary going on in the ingredients—its ingredients as listed on Libertine’s website are: black currant, rose, patchouli and oakmoss. Fragrantica lists 8 notes, none unusual. But from opening sniff to dry down this one is one of these intoxicatingly fruity, floral, mossy, patch scents that can compete with almost any of the many scents that include these ingredients. I think it is the black currant that helps move it to the higher echelons of the rose heavy fragrances. Since I have just received the bottle early today, I have been trying to find either a useful metaphor or another scent to compare it to. Since many have smelled or tried a sample of Portrait of a Lady, I will invoke it as it has black current, rose, and patchouli. It also has a very long list of other notes. It is much more complex and for some this is what makes it world class. I love both for the overabundance of subtle notes and the high quality of the ingredients. Fin de Siècle is much more in your nose from the get-go. Some might find this both too much and not enough. While its palette may not come close to POAL it still leaves me with a depth of heady and carefully chosen ingredients. It is supposed to invoke the decadence of the time and character of Oscar Wilde and the art for art’s sake era. Provocative, self-assured, paradoxical and brilliantly witty in Oscar, more somber in the likes of Walter Pater. I think this scent is somewhere in between those two, reaching for the art of fragrance while still acknowledging the desire to shock. Sample first, as it is powerful and long-lasting.

Very under-rated gem and it should deserve more attention! Fin de Siecle is a retro-ish, green, mossy and jammy rose yet still feels modern and current. The initial spray is a blast of jammy and sweet rose full of life and nuances, the rose swings from fruity to mossy, back to fruity, another min to jammy and mossy..., and dries down to a lovely rose skin scent. It is ever-changing and never boring with the interesting contrast of moss and civet, neither does it feels too retro and should have stayed on the 60/70's shelf. The perfumer (Josh Smith) is a great artist and really captured the quirky spirit of the rose. Lasted 7-8 hrs on skin and even longer on clothes.

The most jewel-like pomegranate-colored rose, glowing and multi-faceted, reflecting prisms on cave walls. It’s lush and passionate, no sterile soapiness or virginal dew, just wild growing branches, emerald vines, ruby juice and the fire-bright golden last flash of sunset. This feels royal and alive, the psychic rose of past life dreams.

This contemporary Chypre uses high quality ingredients to make a modern classic. It has depth, a bright blackcurrant opening, a smooth rose, the right amount of sweetness showing skill already beyond his years. This is a rare house and relatively new so for the fraghead, a must try. 4/5

This is my new favourite rose scent. It's like rose and skin and fur and it's a bit juicy but in a slightly bitter way. Wonderful.

The more attractive sister of Incense Rose by Tauer. I love this fragrance. It has a delicious, effervescent open that's like a well-mixed cocktail: not too sweet and intricate enough to still enjoy after a few sips. There's a bitterness to the glimmering top notes (probably can credit the civet and/or moss notes for that) that helps the fragrance last without relying on the fun fruits and flowers Incense Rose loses itself in. Fin de Siecle is a party girl in her 30s: she's still fun but she's more refined now. I wish it lasted longer. Good value (Libertine has good prices), and moderate sillage and longevity. Pairs well with Carduus by Jorum if you want to lean in to the moss note.

Fin de Siecle opens with a heady cloud of powdery rose meshed with black currant and bitter citruses sitting in the frays. It begins to show its 'Fin-de-Siecle' reference after about 10 minutes, conjuring imagery of walking through Les Jardins de Tuileries in the 1890s (perhaps I'm simply the suggestible type?), with the rose settling a little and the black currant keeping things interesting in the background. The woody notes start to reveal themselves after about 40 minutes and take on a slightly spicy note, too. The metamorphosis is generally completed after about 60 to 90 minutes and though the projection starts to drop off as expected, it lasts - 12 hours on my skin.

Based on the name of this fragrance I think it is supposed to be a kind of rose Chypre. If that was the intention I would agree. You get a nice blast of bergamot up front and soon later a dusty rose. I don't get much of the animal vibe from this, but admittedly I own much bigger stinkers so I might be desensitized. The opening is quite beautiful, however it dries down to an oakmossy skin scent in very little time. After about 4 hours it is barely detectable. It is a shame the performance isn't as good as the fragrance is beautiful.

This is quite an interesting one. I was really hoping to like this one more. I purchased the full size because the notes seemed to be right up my alley, but unfortunately this one's not for me. It is quite a heavy, mature rose scent, and overall full bodied. It has a dated, basement or garage sale vibe, but not in a bad way. If you like classic, spicy floral scents, you may enjoy this. The rose is pretty jammy, but not in a juicy, fruit sort of way, more so in a herbal way. I will be selling the full size if anyone is interested.

When it settles on my skin the animalic note becomes kind of overwhelming. I think I would like this a lot more without the civet. Otherwise, it has a very appropriate name. Has a very vintage feel to it.

SOAP It's old fashioned, dry and screechy in the opening. At times it's reaching for green, but never clears the summit. Much better in the air than with your nose pressed to it.

I recently purchased a sampler of 8 Libertine fragrances. While many of the fragrances may appeal to some, I realize this house is just not for me because many of the fragrances are herbaceous chypre. Fin de Siecle is no exception, as this fragrance opens with a typical blast of spicy notes, which I imagine are black currant, citrus and whatever else. Immediately upon application, I smell loud, dirt 'n green herbal notes, which I suppose are oak moss, labdanum & civet poking through. On me, this fragrance smells like dirty wet ground all the way. While a lovely dry rose tries to break through, sadly it simply cannot because of the overwhelming presence of herbaceous materials (oak moss), labdanum & civet. Wood notes try unfolding but they also take on a slightly spicy, mound-of-dirt note. As I found with other Libertine fragrances, silage is not great and longevity is about 2-3 hours. IMHO, due to the presence of citrus, oak moss, civet, labdanum and the like, this fragrance leans very masculine. Wish the rose was not drowned out by all the other notes because if the rose could shine a bit more, I think this perfume could be tolerable. This is sadly another Libertine pass.

reminded me a little of rose jam by lush, but then the notes went sour and musty on my skin. very powdery, which i hate in a perfume.

Why is it that the samples you can't stand seem to contain 100+ sprays for you to labor through? I've struggled with this perfume from start to finish. The opening is like Aromatics Elixir, so I had high hopes that with time it would mellow out into something beautiful and unexpected, but it's not doing that for me. It's suffocating even in the far drydown. Dank, musty, sour rose, rotting woods, old cologne, smothered by moss...I don't like this. I tried using it as a room spray and even that didn't work for me - every time I enter the room it hits me with either that unwashed civet menstruation type smell, or in the far far drydown just a generic men's cologne. I'm testing from the older Libertine Fragrance sample so it seems from other reviews they may have reformulated this and tamed it a bit, which I am thankful for.

I liked this upon first spraying it but on my skin the animalic notes are too much. The bass note of this smells like bad coffee breath to me.

It opens up quite dry and bitter, and becomes sweeter and better balanced with time, so give it a few minutes before judging it. On my skin the rose and civet are very loud and the fragrance is very long lasting, and I think my skin is just made for dirty roses like this one. On clothes it lasts forever. I just pulled out a wool sweater I haven't worn in a very long time and I could still smell it on it. I also find that it becomes more musky and animalistic when I'm wearing wool- and I like that, and started to associate the mixture of Fin de Siècle on wool with getting cosy in cold weather. When I smell it I picture Van Gogh's "Café Terrace at Night", or a group of obnoxious and drunk artists in Paris at night in the early 1900's. It could also be a scent of a vampire, but one that lives among people and enjoys art and the vibrance of life at an ancient city. It's elegance with a raw, dangerous edge to it. It somehow smells both old and modern, so "Fin de Siècle" is a great name for it. It's a unisex but definitely not for everyone- for an artistic soul or someone daring. I own much more complex fragrances compared to this one, but I don't think that the simplicity of it is a bad thing, I think it's perfect actually. It also doesn't work well in all weather at all, the colder and moodier the better (but I think fall is the best). I also don't think that it's for everybody or that it's a compliment getter, I think it might be too loud and dirty for a lot of people. But I always come back to Fin de Siècle, and I don't think I have anything remotely similar in my collection, or anything that matches my personality as well as this does. Every time I spray myself with it I think "oh yes, this is me, this is it.".

I was a huge fan of the original Fin de Siècle, and I really wanted to give the 2025 reformulation a chance, but I just don't like it. I don't detect any rose it in anymore, and it has become more spicy, but not in a good way. I never call fragrances "old lady" style, but this is exactly what happened to Fin de Siècle. It always had a vintage vibe to it, but it was raw, powerful. Now it feels wilted and old. It's an old lady's sweater. And I don't mean a classy old lady in her vintage furs with shiny brooches, I mean a forgotten and neglected granny. It seems like it's the right of passage for every fragrance enthusiast to have your favourite perfume be ruined by reformulation- so I guess that makes me an official Fragrantica snob now. I also understand that it was probably caused by new fragrance regulations or trouble sourcing old ingredients, nonetheless I am disappointed. Glad I still have a backup bottle of the old formula, and I will have to look for a replacement.

Of all of Libertine scents, this is the closest to anything I'm already familiar with, and that's Portrait of a Lady. Its not a dupe, but its definitely in the same family. I remember smelling POAL years ago, then heard the gripes about the formula being changed. I had a bottle at that point, and it just became the fragrance equivalent of a sledge hammer on me. Drydown was different too. While I may not buy a bottle of Fin de Siecle, anyone who likes that POAL style of rose would love this; I actually think its better. Not has heavy, more transparent, and the drydown feels natural vs POAL's synthetic kick. I find that even if I don't LOVE a certain note or style (eg Sex and Jasmine) I can very much appreciate how Libertine handles the note.

I happen to have an older Libertine formulation of this fragrance and the newer sample. I feel like the Paraphrase one smells a bit more clean and less animalic for the lack of civet (but I'm not sure if the original had it as it's one of the notes listed on here). They are very similar but the newer versions smells a bit more soapy to me and maybe a bit easier to wear comparing to the original which is a very boozy dirty rose that might smell a bit old fashioned to some. It reminds of a vintage oddities store. Very incensey and dark

This fragrance smells very much like Guerlain Mitsouko, created in 1919. It's a scent that you used to smell all over Paris 40 years ago. To this day, I think of that city every time I smell it. Fin de Siècle is not bad, but I prefer a fragrance with a more distinct personality, that doesn't remind me of another scent. As far as whether it is more feminine or masculine, I think society has moved past that. If you love it, wear it.

The perfect classic rose for me. Just the right balance of freshness and darkness. Not too powdery or spicy. May make it my signature scent. At least for the cooler months. Not sure how it will act in heat and humidity.

This definitely favors Ballets Rouges from Olympic Orchards but I find Fin de Ciecle has an animalic element missing from Ballets Rouges, and also has a stronger potpourri-type vibe.

This is a really lovely fragrance. I tend to wear very big fragrances like POAL or Zoologist T-Rex but this is quite good for warm summer days. I am very glad I bought it.