Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume

My Burberry Black is a flanker¹ to My Burberry. I’m sorry to disappoint. I don’t have a sample of the original so I can’t really do an accurate comparison. I had tried My Burberry before and remember liking it. Obviously, I didn’t like it enough to buy it, but I thought it was pleasant enough and fit with the Burberry brand.

To my surprise, My Burberry Black opens with pineapple. It’s ripe, sticky, sweet pineapple. So much pineapple! I guess there’s some grapefruit/citrus in it, but all I really can smell is pineapple. As it wears, it starts to remind me of baked pineapple. It’s warm, fruity and (still) sweet. It reminds me of a pineapple upside down cake without any of the butter. It’s warm pineapple, some baking spices and brown sugar. My Burberry Black is fruity and sweet but I wouldn’t call it a gourmand. It’s a floral amber. The heart is a rose with peach nuances and a heady jasmine with an amber musk. The dry-down is a powdery amber musk with a hint of floral-scented talcum powder. At this stage, it sort of reminds me of Michael Kors Sexy Amber but smoother and sweeter. There’s also a vanilla in the patchouli that adds some volume, keeping the perfume feeling robust even into its dry-down.

I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get more peach from My Burberry Black (because I love peach). But, I’m not mad. I actually enjoy the pineapple. It’s pineapple that doesn’t smell like a piña colada or some sort of cocktail. For a designer perfume, I found this one more interesting than I thought it would be. It manages to be a sweet, fruity floral amber that doesn’t smell juvenile. In perfume marketing, “black” and “noir” are code words for trying to sell you something with a “sexy” image even if the perfume itself isn’t. My Burberry Black is “sexier” than the original. But, grown and sexy instead of what a young person would think sexy smells like.

Notes listed include jasmine, candied roses, peach nectar, amber and patchouli. Launched in 2016. PERFUMER – Francis Kurkdjian

Give My Burberry Black a try if you like sweet amber fragrances or want a fruity fragrance for cool weather. Or if you like perfumes like Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, Dior Miss Dior Cherie, Van Cleef & Arpels Oriens, Chanel Chance and/or Yves Rocher So Elixir. I actually don’t really like any of the ones I mentioned but I like My Burberry Black. I’m saying that I do see similarities between these (fruits, flowers, amber and musk). The Burberry one just wears better on me than the others. Oh, the complexities of skin chemistry…

Projection and longevity are average.

My Burberry Black comes in a few sizes with the 1.6 oz retailing for $95 at Sephora. It can sometimes be found at discounters like Perfume.com for a cheaper price.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Pineapple upside down cake floral amber. I’m surprised by it. It’s not really something I see myself wearing (so I can skip on a bottle which is great because my to-buy list is always growing). But, I think for this sort of perfume (sweet, floral, fruity and everything else) by a designer brand, it’s well done.

¹What is a flanker? It’s a perfume that shares some similarities (bottle, name, etc.) of an already existing perfume. I talked about this some last week in my review of the flanker Bvlgari Omnia Crystalline. 

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*Sample obtained by me. Product pic from Sephora. Kate Moss pic from fashiondella.com. Post contains affiliate links. Thanks!