Burberry — My Burberry Black
Essence
My Burberry Black is the 2016 “dark” flanker to Burberry’s 2014 My Burberry, developed by Francis Kurkdjian in collaboration with then-creative-and-CEO Christopher Bailey, with actress Lily James fronting the campaign. (the launch year and perfumer are clear: 2016 and Francis Kurkdjian.) Burberry’s own brief casts it as “a London garden amidst a gathering storm; heavy rain contrasting with the warm and captivating flora.” In practice it is a sweet, dense amber-floral fruitchouli - candied rose and peach nectar over amber-patchouli - that wearers routinely describe as “My Burberry on steroids.”
Scent Profile
The structure is compact: a jasmine-led top, a heart of candied rose and peach nectar, and an amber-patchouli base. The opening is a fruit-bomb - a thick wave of peach and sweetened rose that critic Jessica found almost too much in close quarters (“I couldn’t help noticing the stricken facial expression of the passenger seated next to me”). The most interesting development is in the heart, where Jessica noted the jasmine turning “more prickly and animalic than I would have expected” - “My Burberry Black’s naughty side” - before that floral facet is “submerged in a fresh wave of peach juice and vanilla-spice amber and synthetic patchouli.” Her verdict on the late stage: the drydown “turns out to be a little bland,” though staying power is strong. The wearers consensus is warmer: a syrupy, addictive peach-rose plush, with patchouli that reads sweet and almost caramelized rather than dirty, and amber as the soft “scent bed.”
Performance
Performance is the fragrance’s calling card. As a parfum concentration it is widely reported as enormous in longevity (10+ hours on skin, detectable on fabric the next day) and strong in projection for the first hours before settling into a still-present, more intimate phase. The trade-off is density: applied heavily it can become cloying, and the patchouli specifically is a headache trigger for a minority of wearers. Standard advice across reviews is to go easy on the trigger - one or two sprays.
Wearing Context
This is an evening and cool-weather fragrance by near-universal agreement - fall and winter, rainy days, nights out. Several wearers who own both find it too heavy for summer heat and reserve it for cold or wet weather, which fits the “rain on warm flowers” marketing conceit. It skews sensual and “leading woman” rather than office-discreet; one long-term wearer summarized it as “sweet but not ‘little girl sweet,’” sexy and best for evening.
Comparisons & DNA
The primary comparison is internal: My Burberry Black is the original My Burberry “amplified,” richer and rounder where the 2014 floral is brighter, greener and more daytime. Wearers also reach for Flowerbomb as a sweet-bomb reference point. Critically, this sits within Kurkdjian’s prolific designer-era catalogue of “deep, rich, ambery fruity florals” for houses like Nina Ricci, Elie Saab and Burberry - work that predates his mass fame with Baccarat Rouge 540. The Scented Salamander’s review placed its “opulent resinous rose accord” in the lineage of Guerlain Nahema and read the gourmand facet as roasted-pineapple-and-cane-sugar decadence, framing it as a fragrance that “renews the gourmand genre” in a true parfum concentration.
Reception
Reception is broadly warm with a critical asterisk. Enthusiasts call it intoxicating, addictive and a reliable compliment-getter, and several name it their signature or “scent to live for.” The dissent comes from two directions: perfume-focused critics like critic Jessica admire the craftsmanship while finding the profile not to their taste and the drydown bland; and a subset of users find the jasmine or patchouli overbearing (“a jasmine BOMB”). There is also a recurring quality-control complaint thread - some long-time wearers report recent purchases smelling weaker or simply “not… as I remember it,” raising suspicion of batch inconsistency.
Versions & Reformulation
My Burberry Black has spawned a small family: the core 2016 release (variously presented as Eau de Parfum and as Parfum, a concentration ambiguity that confuses buyers and that even Jessica flagged - “Is it really a pure perfume extrait? Unclear”), the December 2017 My Burberry Black Elixir de Parfum, and a 2017 Parfum Limited Edition. The Elixir came out in December 2017 as a sweet holiday extrait with top notes of lemon zest and jasmine absolute, a heart of rose absolute and sugared almonds, and a sandalwood base - sold as a 30 ml Extrait de Parfum at Harrods (125); several wearers rate it as outperforming the original and compare its marzipan facet to Hypnotic Poison. On reformulation specifically: there is no formally documented reformulation, but user reports of weaker recent batches versus early-2016 production are persistent enough to note as a caveat rather than an established fact.
Acquisition Notes
The single biggest acquisition pitfall is concentration confusion: “My Burberry Black” has appeared labeled as EDP, as Parfum, as a Silver Edition Parfum, and as the separate Elixir, and these do not all smell identical. Buyers should confirm exactly which version and concentration they are getting. Given the strong performance, a smaller bottle goes a long way.
Notable Facts & Lore
- The bottle is a deliberate translation of the Burberry trench coat: an amber-colored flacon finished with a hand-tied black gabardine knot and a dark horn-look lid inspired by the coat’s buttons. The campaign face is Lily James, and some bottles were sold with personalized initials. Kurkdjian’s authorship is the recurring talking point in reviews - wearers consistently invoke his “way with resins and sweetness,” noting how a profile that “would be heavy, heady and cloying in the average Oriental floral becomes ethereal” in his hands, even as critics push back that this particular composition is denser and less ethereal than his best namesake work.