Hero Parfum is the parfum concentration version of Burberry's Hero line, launched in 2024 after the eau de toilette and eau de parfum. Signed by Aurélien Guichard, this masculine woody fragrance pairs amyris and cypriol oil at the top, and sets down the trio of cedars on which the house built the entire line as the base.
Amyris and cypriol at the top
The top pairs amyris, a wood from Haiti nicknamed Caribbean sandalwood, with cypriol oil, drawn from an herbaceous plant from India that perfumery classifies among woods. Aurélien Guichard expects a velvety, creamy softness from the amyris, and a warm depth from the cypriol.
The trio of cedars
The base rests on the trio of cedars common to the line, from the Atlas, the Himalayas, and Virginia. The perfumer describes Virginia cedar as the best known, fibrous and vertical, with its pencil-shavings odor; Atlas cedar as rounder and warmer; Himalayan cedar as the most animalic.
By layering these three woods, he says he sought a fourth, imaginary cedar, with vibrant, almost animalic accents, which the amyris and cypriol come to brighten and soften.
Cypress and cardamom
To lighten this wood, Aurélien Guichard says he added a cypress essence from Morocco, a foliage note close to wood, and a cardamom essence from Guatemala. Neither appears in the list of notes published by Burberry, which is limited to cedar, amyris and cypriol.
What the label declares
The label places coumarin, with its odor of hay and tonka bean, at the top of the odorant substances, and declares an oakmoss extract: two materials absent from the list of notes, which sticks to cedar, amyris and cypriol.
Limonene, citral and linalool contribute a freshness that the house does not name, eugenol a touch of clove, alpha-isomethyl ionone an iris facet. Unlike the Hero eau de toilette, the list declares neither a UV filter nor a colorant.