I was lucky enough to receive a 30ml bottle of Halle by Halle Berry Eau de Parfum as a gift at a company conference as I had heard a lot about it and was quite looking forward to trying it out.

The box is very disappointing I feel, it is a little too self promoting and gives the product a much less luxurious air. The box has a picture of Halle herself in a rather cheesy pose, looking over her shoulder, on one side of the box. The other side is far less offensive and is plain dark golden yellow colour with the Halle logo. I felt that it was necessary to dispose of the box immediately and suffer this self indulgence no more. Very unnecessary to have Halle staring at me from by dressing table!

The bottle is an improvement on the box, and is a heavy glass with a soft gold coloured spray mechanism, and a frosed glass type of lid. The bottle is transparent, through which the fragrance is visible, this is a really rich looking golden colour.

This perfume begins with very sweet and fruity top notes, which include fig leaf, bergamot and pear. If you are a fan of sweet fragrances then this would be a good choice. I feel that the product at this stage is what has now become a typical celebrity scent. However, the sweet notes even though they continue to full dry down, do tend to mellow quite a lot so it doesn't become sickly.

The mid notes are much more sophisticated, mimose, hibiscus and freesia which bring a more grown up quality to an otherwise possibly too sweet (for some) a fragrance. I do like the scent of freesia in a perfume, and here it does tend to stand out quite nicely.

The base notes, and the full dry down are much better than the sweet and fruity opening. This is where the fragrance takes on a very grown up and quite surprising and unusual turn, with the addition of cashmere musk, which is warm and exotic, along with sandalwood and amber. I think that I also detect a warm soft hint of vanilla, but can not be certain as this is not one of the listed notes.

I think that this fragrance is quite unique for a celebrity scent as it does have some great notes, but I do feel that it is let down by the sweet fruiy opening. It feels almost like two fragrances combined, which is a little odd.

It is not an unpleasant scent by any stretch of the imagination, and does have its appeal. It is an improvement on many celebrity scents out there, but it does have a few drawbacks. For instance, the cheap box, the confusion between opening and dry down, and the fact that it is rather expensive, at £23.00 for a 30ml bottle, I feel is not cheap. My last criticism is that for an eau de parfum it does not last very long at all. I applied this today with writing this review in mind, and at tops being generous, it lasted all of approximately 3 hours before I couldn't detect it any longer.

Would I recommend this fragrance? To be honest no, there are too many negatives for the price although on smell alone it is nice For the money there are much nicer fragrances available.