Reviews of Burberry for Men (1995)
by Burberry

Wow, a mid-nineties fragrance with a tart, sharp citrus opening, a peppery heart, and an amber/woody base. Who would have thought?

Honestly, we have Platinum Egoiste. We have Jazz. We have XS. We have about 65 more. I don't know which predated which, and I don't care. I'm just sick of smelling it.

The one redeeming quality: I get a pretty nice boozy accord about a half hour in. It then fades to the synthetic woody base we've come to dread.

Ignore the man behind the curtain – the one wearing Cool Water.

Bright, sweet, and pleasantly juicy top notes of mixed fruit and bergamot combine in a beautifully composed opening gesture that persists beyond all reasonable expectations. (Ah, the power of modern synthetics!) Spices and floral notes come very slowly into focus over the first half hour of wear, but these work to season the opening fruity accord, not supplant it. Nutmeg and cinnamon eventually detach themselves from the nebulous spice ensemble, while the floral accord coalesces into a clean, cheerful jasmine.

So far, so good: it seems as if Burberry for Men might evolve into a light, fruity oriental scent. Alas, that’s not what happens. Before the first hour out of the bottle is up the mask drops, a huge lavender note wells up to establish a conventional fougère accord, and Burberry for Men reveals itself as yet another fruity fougère Cool Water clone. Granted it’s richer and less crass in its execution than most, but it’s still profoundly derivative, and adds nothing of interest to the realm of masculine perfumery.

Not satisfied with being merely insipid, Burberry for Men is also loud – very loud. It carries for yards and leaves a great cloud of generic men’s cologne vapor behind it. The drydown, which Burberry recycled for its equally uninspired Brit for Men, consists largely the same chalky, raspy, synthesized woody base that perfumers have dumped by the gallon into nearly every designer masculine since 1990, apparently fearing that without it their products won’t be recognized as scents for men. In sum, Burberry for Men is far from the worst of its prolific ilk, but it still has no valid reason to exist.

Inheritance - unfortunately when my Father passed away. Complete desilusion - and I'm so found of Lavander... but this EdC makes me sick.

Blind buy that I regret. I don't mind a sweet warm vanilla but I get overly sweet from this. Smells like sweet tarts to me. Try before you buy.

Yes, I could smell this everywhere for awhile and frankly, in some ways, I find it more nauseating than a sweet fragrance like Pi (which I very much admire). What Aqua di Gio is to floral/citrus, this scent is to oriental, a kind of teetering between sincere wood/spice and yes annoying fruit/mint notes, just like a car salesman, who also, when the moment is right, turns on the charm and tries to be somewhat "seductive."

For those who would like to try a cheaper alternative, go to Pathmark and check out Storm Force, a $6 after shave definitely inspired by Burberry. Some may like it better.

2 reviews in one? No, I would never do that.

I purchased this one a year ago but had only used it twice. To my nose it always smelled like some very dry lemon and honey concoction. I purchased it because of how different and unique it smelled, especially compared to all of the cookie-cutter scents out there. It's also an older, more mature "classic-type" scent, and I didn't own any of those.

So I wore this twice with no problems. And then something happened the other day. I wore this to work, only a couple of sprays as usual. A few hours into the day, this scent started becoming overbearing to my nose. I was very aware that I was wearing it, and it started making me nauseous. It even took on a different scent, and smelled more like burnt pencil shavings, which was just disgusting. I'm not sure of the exact cause for this, perhaps I had an allergic reaction to it, or perhaps my body chemistry changed within the past year, or it could even be the new soap that I am using. Whatever it is, I absolutely cannot wear this fragrance anymore. Even the thought of spraying this on myself makes me a little queasy.

Gonna have to give it the thumbs down considering it's the only fragrance that has almost made me vomit. :P

I came across this by accident, it was being sold as Burberry London and I thought I was buying the 2005 one... how wrong I was... =(

Anyways, this smelled distinctly like old men. If I were to imagine an old white man (in his 60/70's), this is exactly what I think he would smell like.

There are definitely lots of greens in the opening. Renato says mint: I think so, too, and there’s also juniper. There’s also bergamot with those greens, but the whole accord is quite thin and sparse. The opening has a definite aromatic bent to it from the juniper, mint, and Artemisia, and it is unnecessarily sharp. Its sharpness reminds me of the cologny auras of some of the 60’s colognes…that is not good. There’s a restrained fruitiness in the opening that doesn’t seem to sweeten the sharpness. I sort of wonder why the fruit notes are there if not to sweeten things up—the only thing they accomplish is…they annoy me. This is an unsatisfactory opening — one that I never would have tolerated if I hadn’t done a blind purchase of this fragrance. The piercing aromatic / green sharpness continues into the middle level and proceeds to olfactorily disrupt the middle florals and woods. The base is non descript and even my love for civet doesn’t help me appreciate it because I can’t discover the civet through the residue sharpness of the opening. This is an altogether disappointing fragrance for me.

To THINK that the stuffed shirts at Burberry's would discontinue the perfect (spicy, masculine, original) Burberry's for Men and market instead this bland tripe without which no car salesman in Des Moines would be complete.

Go figure.

Burberry London really reechy & stinky. similary to Eternity (Calvin Klein) & Safari (Ralph Lauren).
all fragrances by Burberry is ghastly. I hate it all.

A horrible synthetic and cloying nightmare of over ripe pears fermenting in gigantic vats of honey as some wild animal releases it's musk glands in a toxic cloud floating over the whole regretable affair. I smelled this on another person and loved it, and I tried so hard to like it when I bought it but I admit defeat. London, I leave you to the chavs.

This is a pretty basic and, well, rather unoriginal fragrance. London starts with citrus and dries down to a sweet woody base. My biggest issue with London is that everything just kind of blends together into this ‘blah’ kind of fragrance. It smells pretty synthetic, and doesn’t really inspire or evoke any type of response at all. It’s just there.