Burberry Hero: A Horse, a Forest and Five Ways to Wear It

Thomas Burberry started his company in 1856 in Basingstoke, England, and for most of its history the name meant coats. That makes it a little funny that the bottle most men now associate with the house is Burberry Hero, and yet it makes sense too. It was Riccardo Tisci's inaugural fragrance for Burberry, and the campaign is the part people remember: Adam Driver, a horse, land and sea, in the summer of 2021, set to FKA twigs' Two Weeks. A year later the Eau de Parfum ad had him swimming to the same song.

The scent itself was composed by perfumer Aurélien Guichard, and for the Eau de Parfum he drew on his memory of the Landes forest in southwestern France, where pine trees grow close to the ocean. So think of trees before you think of a gym bag. It works at a desk or at dinner.

The five bottles here are really one idea at different volumes. The Eau de Toilette is the lightest and the easiest place to start. The Eau de Parfum sits a step deeper, and the Parfum deeper again. The Parfum Intense with Cedarwood and Leather Accord and the Elixir de Parfum with Vanilla, Leather and Cedarwood are the two I would save for cold evenings, when a heavier trail is welcome instead of loud.

My test is simple: spray once on your chest, then walk around for an hour before deciding. Notice what you smell at the end of that hour, not at the start. The last chapter is what people around you actually get.

If you are buying your first Hero, the Eau de Toilette is the gentle introduction. If you already know you like it, the Parfum is where it gets richer and stays longer on a shirt collar.

Hero is a woody scent, and there are days when wood feels heavy on skin. When it is hot, when I am running errands or sitting outside, I want something that smells like it has been rinsed.

Prada's Luna Rossa Ocean with bergamot and iris is the crisp one, clean without smelling like laundry. Jo Malone London's Sea Salt and Bergamot Cologne is the lightest of the first six, airy and slightly mineral, and as a cologne it is one to top up during the day. Versace's Man Eau Fraiche is the sporty pick and easy to wear on a plane. Maison Margiela's Replica Beach Walk, with coconut milk and musk, is more of a holiday in a bottle and a good one to try if citrus feels too sharp.

Dior's Sauvage Eau de Parfum is the widely recognized one, with more body than its neighbours, and I would treat it as an evening-leaning option even though it sits in this row. Tom Ford's Taormina Orange, with citrus and oakmoss, is the one with an actual mood, sunny and a little bitter, like the peel.

If you already own a Hero bottle, one of these in the cabinet next to it gives you a season change without repeating yourself. I like to keep one bright bottle by the door for mornings when I am late and do not want to think.

A small habit that helps with all of these: spray the lighter ones a little more generously, two or three times, since they thin out faster, and give the richer ones a single spray.

Woody does not have to mean heavy. Cedar can smell dry and clean, or it can smell like smoke and leather, and the bottles here cover both ends. This is the group I look to when the air turns cold and I want a scent that feels like a scarf.

Ralph Lauren's Polo 67 Eau de Parfum Extreme pairs pineapple with cedarwood and leather, a fruit-forward opening that settles into something warm. Givenchy's Gentleman Society Sport, with lemon and cedarwood, is the brightest of the woody group and the one to wear if you want cedar without a heavy finish. Dior's Sauvage Elixir is the concentrated one, so a single spray is enough. The 7 Virtues' Vanilla Woods is soft and sweet, closer to a candle than a cologne, in a good way.

Tom Ford's Oud Minerale, with smoky woods and musk, is the most unusual, and Merit's Retrospect L'Extrait de Parfum is the one I would give to a friend who says he does not like cologne.

What I would skip: layering two strong woody bottles on the same day, and trying a new heavy scent on a hot afternoon. Concentrated formulas carry further than you think, and warm skin makes them louder still. Smell your sleeve the next morning, too. Cedar and leather notes tend to cling to fabric, which is lovely on a jacket you wear often and less lovely on a gym shirt.

If a woody bottle ever feels too dark, put it on your chest under a shirt rather than at the neck, so it reaches you as a warm halo and not a shout.

Pick by weather and by room. Lighter bottles for warm days and shared offices, richer ones for dinners and long coats. Spray on clean skin after a shower, one spray at the chest and one at the neck, and leave your wrists alone rather than rubbing them together.

Keep bottles somewhere cool and dark, not on a sunny windowsill or in a hot car, since heat and light change a fragrance faster than time does. A drawer or a closet shelf is fine.

Try a scent for a full day before buying a large bottle, because the opening never tells you how it ends. And if you keep reaching for the same one, that is your answer. A Hero bottle in the middle of the rotation, a fresh one for summer and a woody one for winter, covers nearly every day of the year without a lot of thinking.

If you have settled on a Hero bottle for the middle of your rotation, these are the richer ones I would reach for when the coats come out. Burberry Hero Parfum Intense and Hero Elixir de Parfum stay closest to home. For leather, Ferragamo Sublime Leather and Spicy Leather, Memo Paris French Leather and Tom Ford Ombré Leather make a good side-by-side test, and Matiere Premiere Falcon Leather and HABIBI NY White Moroccan Leather widen it. Tom Ford Oud Wood and Initio Oud for Happiness are for dinners. If cedar is what you liked, Jo Malone London Hinoki & Cedarwood Cologne Intense is a calmer way to get there. Try two leathers on separate arms before you decide. What I would skip: Maison Margiela Replica Never Ending Summer in January, because the name says it all. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Hygiene Hero.