Burberry The Beat vs. Dirty English

I'm a fan of Burberry The Beat. It's a nice citrus and pepper fragrance, Dirty English I thought was okay, but not outstanding. If I had to choose, I'd go with The Beat.

These two are worlds apart IMO. The Beat is an excellent peppery opening that dries into a leather and woodsy base. Dirty English is a dry woodsy and animalic fragrance. Barely projects too, but that's a good thing, I think. The beat is more like Parah or even Tommy Bahama. Dirty English is more like Azzaro Visit. Extremely dry woods.. not my cup of tea.

Agreed - worlds apart to my nose as well. I liked The Beat (both of them, actually) right off the bat. Dirty English took some warming up. But both of them are faves now.

Yep, what RP said.

The Beat is dominated by a cracked pepper smell sitting on top of everything else. DE has more a smooth peppery feel but it's laying under the leather and woods.

I really like this idea of doing back to back comparisons, but I'm pretty often confused about the choices...

Hey Brad-great observation! The more fragrances I try, the more I realize that I've tried something similar already. Like yesterday, I tried M. Micallef's Homme Auod, and it smelled just like L'Aristan's Tea For Two. So it's like...if you sample enough, you'll find yourself yawning quite often from boredom, cuz there aren't a lot of really unique fragrances out.

I like Dirty English better by a long shot, mostly because The Beat is one of the few fragrances that literally disappears within 20 minutes on me. I like DE's scratchy leather/woods combo.

To me, they are totally different. I prefer the beat. If they could remove 75% or so of the pepper, it would be perfection. Its such a nice green leather fragrance. However, I found the inspiration for the beat, Amouage Epic. Epic does this light years better and is so satisfying.

I definitley disagree with this one. I think Marc has a certain swagger to him, the way he owns every fragrance known to man, the way he pronounces names, but I find many of his reviews to be more of a personal review rather than a review that can help the potential buyer. Same with Tim's reviews. No disrespect to either of them though, they both do a great job and both are dedicated to what they do.


Dang, I feel bad for you, I get fantastic longevity with The Beat.. usually 8+ hours. I love everything about it, which is probably the reason a lot of people dislike it. I tend to be the type who picks up the positives where people find negatives. When I read all the bad reviews about it being pepper laden, along with Kerosene's great video review, I added it to my test list. I guess you gotta have an acquired liking for pepper, I seem to at least like, if not love most of my fragrances with even the slightest amount of pepper in them.

I find The Beat to be a bit more complex than just a peppery fragrance. The pepper does last and last, but the leather is really always there as well, it just doesn't come out as much until the end. I guess you could say the pepper intimidates the leather, until it dies down. The bourbon note that nobody seems to talk about.. oh ya.. BOURBON. And, bourbon done very well, very fitting and rewarding in The Beat. It's really what brings everything together to me, its the "IT factor" not the pepper. The bourbon is what has me wondering what it is that I'm really smelling that's weaving its way in and out from beginning to end, well actually from middle notes to base notes. When I couldn't quite grasp what it was I looked to the note pyramid and there it was, and in my mind with a gold light shining upon it and angels saying "ohhhhhhhhhh" lol. The pepper may dominate the opening, but the bourbon brings it together with the base. I also pick up slightly on the violet leaves which I think is why this reminds me of Fahrenheit just in the slightest way. The overall fragrance though presented as a whole reminds me a lot of Fahrenheit. Both different and atypical, both acquired tastes, and both extremely masculine.

I can see that if they made a version of this with less pepper in the opening, but basically the same fragrance, it would have a lot of success. Again, I feel the pepper is what becomes an overdose for many.

Call me a little bit mental, but I found that Creed's Santal Imperial smells a little like The Beat without the heavy pepper note. At least in the drydown stage.

I prefer the Beat!!! I never was able to get interested in Dirty English
Gary

All questions of quality aside, I don't think they have anything beyond the liquid state of matter in common.

The funny thing is, I actually rather enjoy the pepper (and pepper in general). It's the longevity that bothers me. I get no leather (which I would also probably like, if I smelled it). It's just pepper, then nothing.

It's odd, because I'm usually one who has no problems with longevity when others do. Maybe I'm anosmic to it?

PS...if you haven't already, you must try Poivre Samarcande. Now THAT is good a pepper scent.

The Beat by far.

Oh ya, I'm trying to acquire some samples from that Hermes line, they have a lot of interesting ones, hopefully I'll get my hands on them soon.

I have both. In my opinion, the beat is nothing like santal imperial.

You're right. I tested out SI last night. Completely different. I must have been thinking of something else.

Good to see the Beat kicking arse! When I first got it, I loved it. But like with most of my fragrances, the less I wore it, the more I started doubting it. But the last time I wore it, I was quite pleased with it, so my faith was restored. Besides-it serves its purpose in my collection. I dont have many citruses, so I appreciate it adding that peppery citrus to my wardrobe.