The Beat for Men Burberry cologne – a fragrance for men 2008

This was my first perfume. So a lot of nostalgia is built into this review. Grain of salt. I had no clue what was cool or not when I bought this thing about 10 years ago. So whenever i was in an airport I would sniff a million strips and then spray a few I liked on my wrist and walk away. Two stuck with me: the Beat and Dior Homme.

I had no clue what I was smelling but I knew I liked it. Bought a 50 ml and then would buy a new bottle whenever I went to the airport. It was great.

So I just bought a $25 50 ml bottle from FragranceBuy for the nostalgia. And I completely regret it: I should’ve bought a bigger bottle!! It’s awesome. There is a “peppery-ness” and a grapefruit-like citrus (pithy – more that white stuff than the actual juice) and it is way more floral than I remember. Violet makes sense. I thought I hated violet (Portrayal Man is a big dislike for me), but the Beat’s violet is comparable just not powdery. And there’s no musky-ness to this. Musk and powder don’t really work for me. At all. Which I guess means: I love non-powdery violet and always have. Who knew??

For the money, this is very special. I have close to 40 fragrances now and the Beat is utterly unique. Yes, nostalgia may be speaking. I did live in a cloud of this stuff for a couple of years of my life. I will say this: one of the reasons I shifted over to Dior and then to Durga’s Sir was longevity. By the end, I was going through 100 ml every few months and paying retail!

I’m not sure what’s going on with this bottle but this one spray on my wrist has lasted over an hour and is competeing with Amber Kiso for nostril space (though to be fair to the durga I’ve been wearing that one for 5 hours).

The Beat is really good stuff. Completely understand why people might not jive, but I think of this as a plus. They don’t jive because they’ve never smelled anything like it. I know i haven’t and I’ve sampled 200 plus fragrances in the last 6 months. As for the chemically smell – I disagree. It has that dryness I associate with vetiver dominant fragrances. I used to describe this as chemically (I mean, technically, it is??). But now I recognize it as its own thing.

Big thumbs up.

P.S. this was a compliment monster for me. Jeremy Fragrance’s wet dream-style unsolicited hot ladies and hot guy compliment monster. Never experienced that with Dior. I did with Durga Sir, but less so. I did with Journey Man but less so. I did with Nasamatto Duro, but less so. This is my most complimented fragrance ever. Do with that what you will.