“No. 33 Vild” is a perfume like no other, it starts with lots of smoke and leather, but when that clears, violets and a certain sweetness come through.
The colours of the perfume are grey like smoke, with strays of light in between, white and violet.
The official scent notes on the website of Frau Tonis Parfum name leather, saffron, thyme, amber, raspberries, jasmine, and roast flavours.
Most of them I cannot distinguish, the raspberries might be indeed there, as is the thyme. The thyme I only smelt after knowing it is there, but then with an exclamation mark. Thyme, together with the smoke notes, make the grand entrance of the perfume.
“No. 33 Vild” is a perfume for women, but only for strong women. You need courage to wear the fragrance. When I smelled it for the first time, I thought I would never buy or wear it. The saleswoman in Frau Tonis Parfum shop disagreed from the start and recommended the perfume to me. Sometimes you need a little time before you accept it…
The fragrance represents the old Berlin of the 1920s, big city, liberal times, lots of parties, no care for tomorrow, celebrate life. In 1929/30 German actress Marlene Dietrich acted in the movie that made her famous: “The Blue Angel”. She played Lola, a careless and ambitious night club singer that made an aging professor very unhappy and led to his ruin. Was it her problem he wanted to ruin himself? No, in the Berlin of that time one was responsible for one’s own behaviour. No social net or too much compassion. The role made Marlene Dietrich a star and she decided for an international career, moving to the USA and spreading the free Berlin spirit there.
Frau Tonis Parfum, a niche brand from Berlin’s Check Point Charlie, has been around for 15 years now. Founded in 2009 by Stefanie Hanssen, a marketing specialist, and Christoph Niedermeier, it is today well established. They stayed a real niche brand – as the owner writes on her company’s website, there are no sex sells campaigns, no marketing campaigns, and no famous people advertising for the perfumes. What she does is featuring interviews and literature tips in their blog. All in line with the individual spirit Frau Tonis Parfum wants to transport.
Unfortunately, the company never names the “noses” behind the perfumes. On their website they only state that they work with a manufacturer in Berlin and another in Grasse. Whilst this was never of interest when only wearing the perfumes, for this article digging deeper seemed appropriate.
The parfumo platform gives the information that Frau Tonis Parfum works with the company Galimard, one of the big 3 from Grasse. In the same article they say that some, or better most of the other perfumes, are made by the old and renowned HARRY LEHMANN perfume company in Berlin.
Coincidentally, I own Fr. Tonis Parfum’s “Accroche-Coeur” and I own Galimard’s “Accroche-Coeur”. They are not exactly the same perfumes, although very strong similarities are there. The more they dry down, the closer get the resemblance, but the first 30 min are different. As after 1 hour both are the same perfumes, the coincidence to have bought them both seems now not that big any more. It was a surprising realisation that Frau Tonis Parfum does not make or create all fragrances themselves.
The perfume company HARRY LEHMANN produced perfumes since 1926 in Berlin, but after the last owner with the name Lehmann died in 2022, there was a gap in time before the shop reopened on 25th of May, 2024.
From what one can read in discussion and comments when googling for it, Frau Tonis Parfum does sell quite a few of those receipts under their original numbers of the Lehmann nomenclature. “No. 33 Vild” is supposed to be the same as HARRY LEHMANN’s “HL 33”. The scent notes named include the ones of “No. 33 Vild”, and some others as well.
HARRY LEHMANN was new to me, but I thought why not try it out, as the shop had just reopened. I ordered “HL 33”, already convinced to have a cheaper option now to some of Frau Tonis Parfum’s. The perfume arrived 2 days ago, I sprayed it on – and it is very clearly not the same scent. Not immediately and not after 30 min or 1 hour. There is a certain resemblance in the scent notes, but the smoke and thyme that dominate “No. 33 Vild” are not there in “HL 33”. Maybe the HARRY LEHMANN company created the perfume for Frau Tonis Parfum, but they did not simply copy it. Maybe the fragrance is an inspired scent, who knows.
Frau Tonis Parfum does have their own creative saying in the perfumes they offer, which made me glad. Their store at Checkpoint Charlie is welcoming and the concept so original, it would have been a pity otherwise.
Due to “No. 33 Vild” and “HL 33” being different perfumes, Marlene Dietrich had no chance to wear the smoky dark scent of Frau Tonis Parfum that resembles her style so much. “No. 33 Vild” captures the tough Berlin spirit of the 1920s, as we imagine it today, better than the perfumes really worn during the time.
Sometimes it is all about imagination and collective memory, so that reality can be forgotten for a while.