Burberry — London for Women
Essence
Burberry London for Women is the 2006 floral that occupies the “comfort scent” slot in Burberry’s feminine lineup - a honeysuckle-and-jasmine bouquet that the wearers almost universally codes as elegant, mature, and inoffensive. It was created by Dominique Ropion and Jean-Marc Chaillan, despite occasional misattribution to Antoine Maisondieu or Emilie Coppermann. The original launched under Inter Parfums; the line later passed to Coty. Its identity is the cloth-wrapped bottle in Burberry’s signature tartan, and its reputation rests on punching well above its drugstore-adjacent price.
Scent Profile
This is a white-floral built around a genuinely realistic honeysuckle and a creamy jasmine, lifted by the tangerine in the opening. wearers repeatedly single out the honeysuckle as the star - “one of the best honeysuckle perfumes in market (affordable one)” - with the tangerine giving a juicy, slightly fizzy citrus lift that some find occasionally too sharp. The rose sits underneath rather than dominating, and the tiare/peony heart rounds the bouquet into something tropical-leaning; one wearer noted it smells like “a tropical garden by the beach” rather than anything evoking the actual city of London. The patchouli-sandalwood-musk base is faint by design - a “barely perceptible woods-and-musk base,” as one wearer put it. Crucially, the pre-reformulation version contained oakmoss (Evernia prunastri), which gave the drydown depth; its removal is the central reformulation story (see Versions).
Performance
Performance reports are bimodal and clearly batch-dependent. Owners of older Inter Parfums bottles report it as a near-beast: “two sprays lasted on my hand all day long,” 8-12 hours, with one wearer claiming over 12 hours and strong sillage. Owners of newer Coty bottles report the opposite - “I sprayed it twice on the back of my hand and within an hour no smell at all,” and 3-4 hour wear. The current formula is more modestly pegged - current bottles are generally described as modest, around a half workday, while older bottles can last far longer Consensus: projection is surprisingly loud in the first hour for a mainstream floral, then settles to a close skin scent. If longevity matters, the batch you buy matters more than how much you spray.
Wearing Context
Overwhelmingly coded as a daytime, office, and cool-weather scent - fall and winter favorite, workable in spring. The recurring wearers archetype is “mom perfume,” “rich British lady,” “smells like generational wealth,” and “my go-to safe bet for work.” It is the scent reviewers reach for when they don’t want to draw attention but want to read as polished and professional. Several note it can lean “old lady” / mature on younger wearers, though defenders reframe that as “timeless.” Heat is its enemy - wearers warn the jasmine “starts to really stick out, on the warmest of days.” Not a date-night or evening powerhouse; a competent, legible everyday floral.
Comparisons & DNA
The most-cited comparison is to Ropion’s own Dior Pure Poison - wearers explicitly say “if you love this one you’re gonna love Dior pure poison,” noting the shared Ropion jasmine signature, with London reading as “Pure Poison + rose + sweetness.” It’s also lined up against Givenchy Very Irresistible (shared rose-peony) and, by one reviewer, the discontinued Givenchy Fleur d’Interdit. Within the Burberry house it is distinct from the 1995 Burberry Women (the peach-vanilla-cedar-oakmoss original) and from Burberry Body’s peach-soapy character - some reviewers rate London above Body and “way better than the completely bland Brit Rhythm.” Note that the men’s Burberry London (a tobacco-honey scent) is wholly unrelated in character despite the shared name.
Reception
This fragrance is the rare case of a sharp critic-vs-wearers split. Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez panned it in Perfumes: The Guide - per a wearers transcription of their public reaction, Turin tagged “Burberry London * floral abomination,” and later gave the 2008 special edition one star as an “acid floral.” The wearers pushes back directly: a wearer wrote “This is one case where Luca Turin and I must agree to disagree… For cheap, cheerful, and utterly inoffensive, London can’t be beat.” On wearers it enjoys broad affection as a “hidden gem” and one of the best-value florals Burberry has made. There is Its critical footprint is essentially Turin’s dismissal plus strong grassroots wearers love.
Versions & Reformulation
This is the single most important practical fact about the fragrance. wearer discussions document that London was reformulated: bottles stopped being made by Inter Parfums and moved to Coty, and the ingredient list no longer shows Evernia prunastri (oakmoss). As one wearer stated flatly, “There is no need to speculate on this one; the ingredients list change proves it was reformulated.” wearers describe the new formula as “a sad little whisper of the OG beast mode, sexy, mossy, cedar goddess she once was” - it smells similar from the bottle but loses depth and longevity on skin. Packaging tells: older bottles have a low, flat ridged cap; the reformulation has a tall, thin cap and a more checkered/plaid-covered box, sometimes marked “made in Germany” vs the older “made in France.” It is NOT discontinued - Burberry still sells it (listed at $145 for 100ml EDP on its official US site).
Acquisition Notes
Because the reformulation gutted longevity, the enthusiast move is to hunt vintage Inter Parfums stock (ridged flat cap, France-made box, oakmoss listed). These surface on the secondhand market and even thrift stores - one wearer scored a quarter-full 100ml bottle for $5. For a current bottle, buy with the expectation of a lighter, shorter modern formula; for the legendary performance, buy vintage and verify the cap and oakmoss listing.
Notable Facts & Lore
- The 2006 advertising campaign featured actress Rachel Weisz and actor Ioan Gruffudd. A 2008 “Burberry London Special Edition for Women” (also a Ropion composition) followed with a different, pepper-and-peach-forward profile and white tulips - a distinct flanker, not the same juice. The name itself drew bemused commentary from a fragrance wearers’s wearers about whether a city deserves “great gravitas” as a perfume name, riffing on the YSL “Paris” precedent. And the persistent irony noted across reviews: a fragrance called “London” smells like a sunny tropical honeysuckle garden, not the foggy, rainy city it’s named for.