Bottle Design:
Riccardo Tisci

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Hero Burberry 2021 Eau de Toilette

7.1 / 10 628 Ratings

A perfume by Burberry for men, released in 2021. The scent is woody-spicy. It is being marketed by Coty.
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Main accords

Woody

Spicy

Fresh

Synthetic

Citrus

Fragrance Notes

Juniper

Atlas cedar

Himalayan cedar

Virginia cedar

Bergamot

Black pepper

Perfumer

Aurélien Guichard

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

7.1628 Ratings

Longevity

6.3554 Ratings

Sillage

6.1549 Ratings

Bottle

6.9533 Ratings

Value for money

6.7486 Ratings

Submitted by OPomone · last update on 04/14/2026.

Source-backed & verified

Interesting Facts

The face of the advertising campaign is actor Adam Driver, filmed by Jonathan Glazer and photographed by Mario Sorrenti.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Pasha de Cartier Édition Noire Sport

Hero Eau de Parfum

Lionheart

Bois Impérial Eau de Parfum

Dior Homme (2020) Eau de Toilette

Oriental Essence - Nuit d'Azar

Reviews

38 in-depth fragrance descriptions

07/29/2022

7.5Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

HugoMontez
82 Reviews

HugoMontez

Helpful Review 5

It's more than it seems

I reached Burberry Hero with no expectations, when it was released. And it didn't gave me good impressions. I wrote in a statement that it is very boring and generic cedar-iso e super smell and that Encre Noire is a better woody experience.
Well, i still think that Encre Noire is better but, this is actually good. Not great, not fantastic, but decent and well blended.

Aurélien Guichard is a great perfumer and has done some classics by now, so it's not a surprise that this would be good. The combination of juicy and fresh bergamot with the aromatic and dry woody base is very appealing and masterfully well blended. It didn't convinced me in my first impressions because it seemed very vulgar but, for a fragrance in the mainstream world, where everything has weird sweetness all over, this is really chic and sophisticated.

As it dries down, the cedarwood (the combo of 3 different types, in fact) is what makes this fragrance a good one and not a cheap and generic one. Because of the high quality of these materials, the drydown is actually good and long lasting, and don't became cheap like many other offerings.

This is not revolutionary, neither a great and must have fragrance, but it's a really nice, well blended scent, that makes a good office scent, or a causal everyday type of fragrance. If you want something versatile, masculine and polite, this is a contender, along with Encre Noire, Terre d'Hermes of even Bleu de Chanel.

The bottle is nice and the magnetic cap it's a nice touch. I don't like the new fond in the name of the brand and the name Hero it's not that accurate, but what matters it's the fragrance itself, so, if you want something new and not sweet, young and fun, but want something masculine and with nice quality for a good price, this could be your next purchase.

3/5

09/21/2021

5.5Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

Smora
155 Reviews

Smora

Helpful Review 4

Do We Need Another Hero? (Aurelien Guichard, 2021)

Scentrack: Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero

I was excited when Burberry announced the release of the new masculine line. Although a little bit concerned because of the name – Hero. Unfortunately, my concerns were justified. Burberry Hero is just another 2020’s fragrance. Inoffensive, easy to wear and politically correct male fragrance. Still, it possesses some pale interesting woody nuances that Aurelien Guichard replayed from his earlier creations like This is Him by Zadig & Voltaire or Bois Noir by Robert Piguet. Hero starts with, nowadays very popular, bergamot, some metallic undertones and a nice creamy touch that morphs into a full-blooded cedar heart. The cedar accord is really made of a fresh Virginian variety and a sweeter Atlas one. The composition is extremely contemporary woody, yet not overly synthetic. It has some nice woody and masculine undertones which I can associate with the classic Burberry brand. However, too weak, and bland. Hero is not a bad composition. It smells good, it is versatile, and easy to wear. Not so heroic, but a perfect ticket for newcomers to enter the serious niche woody game. Still, do we need another Hero? No Burberry, we don’t.

01/05/2026

4Scent 3Longevity 3Sillage

StinkSultan
101 Reviews

StinkSultan

2

The Hero Nobody Wants

There's not much being offered by Hero Eau de Toilette that makes it worth considering. Quite literally nothing stands out in this composition. And sure, maybe it's not trying to stand out, just offer a simple, easy to wear, mass-appealing scent for people who don't really care about fragrances and just want to smell "good". In that case, I guess this is good enough. But if you look at it from another lens, from a "how good is the actual fragrance itself" lens, then Hero Eau de Toilette falls short in most aspects.

The scent starts off as very synthetic corporate perfumery, trying to hide it by introducing a screechy bergamot citrus accompanied by some black pepper spice. Things then get mildly woody, but it's mostly warm, dry and subtly balsamic-sweet type of woodiness that barely reminds of actual woodiness and more of pencil shavings, if anything. The juniper adds a bit of that piney crispness, a tad herbal too. And then... that's pretty much it. Very linear, synthetic, boring, and lacking in depth. I know I said that this was made for people who don't care about perfumery and just want a fragrance out of necessity, but from the looks of it, not even those people want Hero Eau de Toilette as there are plenty of better options out there, some of which might also be the other flankers from the Hero line.

Hero Eau de Toilette is quite soft too as far as performance goes. On my skin, it was barely detectable by the 4 hour mark, while regarding projection it pretty much stopped projecting before the 2 hour mark. The first half an hour I got around 1-2 feet of projection, but after that you wouldn't smell much unless you'd stay uncomfortably close to me. So I suppose overspray away?

Ah, versatility. That's the only place where scents like this win back a couple of points. Extremely inoffensive, simple scent + poor performance = about as easy to wear as it gets. Sure, I would never recommend something like this for more special situations where you'd actually want to take perfumery slightly more seriously, but as a daily, dumb-reach scent for school, sports, or the oficina, this won't offend anyone.

That still doesn't justify buying a bottle. The simple fact that you get so many other options out there, many of which are better and actually have a touch of personality, make Hero Eau de Toilette pretty pointless. At the time of this writing, it might be the most boring scent I've come across. As far as pricing goes, about $50 for 50ml is the cheapest you'll find it for at discounters. At that price, you might say it's hard to complain, but adding a little bit more cash can potentially get you significantly more. At least more personality, if anything, for Hero Eau de Toilette's biggest weakness is just how bland and stale it is, and that's enough for me to look away, regardless of the price.

Overall Rating: 3.6/10

Updated on 01/07/2026

02/06/2026

8Scent 4Longevity 4Sillage

Smirky
593 Reviews

Smirky

3

The Hero Family

I'm testing the four Hero scents: EdT, EdP, Parfum, Parfum Intense on consecutive days. I came into this somewhat concerned about the cedar notes - if any of them would smell like hamster bedding or cedar mulch. I'm happy to report that none of them are that way. The cedar is there but it's blended well with the other notes so there's no hint of the mulch scent. I was also curious about the Hero line because it's frequently recommended in the Fragrantica men's forum.

Hero EdT starts out with nice citrus and some pepper. The pepper is not overly strong, more subtle. It quickly dries down into a very nice, masculine woody scent with a touch of the cedar, done just right and only very subtle sweetness. (As I said above, no overwhelming cedar mulch scent.) The scent is very pleasant - I can't imagine anyone (wearer or smeller) being offended by it - making it very versatile for any occasion, time of year, day or night. It didn't seem synthetic to me. Performance, unfortunately, is rather poor. I didn't get more than 5 hours out of it and projection was very weak after about 30 minutes. It might still be useful for a guy in a profession that only allows "barely there" fragrances such as medical, etc.

Hero EdP is very similar to the EdT, only stronger. My description of the EdT above would apply to the EdP except for the following: the EdP struck me as a bit sweeter than the EdT; it also was a clearly synthetic scent to my nose. Performance was much better with the longevity being around 7 to 8 hours with decent projection for a couple of hours. Because of the noticeable departure from the EdT in sweetness and the synthetic smell, I didn't care for it.

Hero Parfum - now here's the real winner for me. Seemed identical to the EdT, with only subtle sweetness and no synthetic smell, as described above for the EdT. The performance was much better than either the EdT or EdP. Longevity was around 10 hours with good projection for about 3 hours. Out of the four, I really liked the Parfum and it would definitely make an easy, versatile reach for any guy. I'd like to get a FB of this. Currently, at Jomashop, 50ml is going for $75 and there's even 200ml available for $100.

Hero Parfum Intense (the newest; released in 2025) does a 180 from the EdT, EdP and Parfum. It is not a woody scent but a leather scent. If you're looking for a woody fragrance, you don't have to bother with Parfum Intense. It opens differently from the others- with a strong pepper that is almost overpowering. I'd say it's a notch down from the strong pepper in Toy Boy. As it dries down, the pepper diminishes, and the woody cedar "Hero" scent makes a brief appearance in the foreground. That doesn't last and soon a dry leather scent dominates. Under the leather, there's a subtle foundation of the woody cedar and even some of the pepper, but the leader here is the leather. Performance is superb. Longevity for well over 12 hours with projection being room filling. It can be tamed by doing perhaps 1 spritz on the chest with your shirt dampening it. However, if you want noses to know you've walked into the room, you can spray away. As a leather scent, however, it didn't really make an impression.

Hero Elixir de Parfum (2026 release) was not available to me as a sample. I'll probably test it eventually however it also seems to have taken the leather route as the Parfum Intense.

Smirky's rating (as of February 2026):
1. Hero Parfum - Nice, masculine woody scent. Not profound, but easy reach and versatile.
2. Hero EdT - Same as the Parfum only weaker. Good if you need something subtle.
3. Hero EdP - Deviates slightly from the DNA. Sweeter and synthetic.
4. Hero Parfum Intense - mediocre leather
? - Hero Elixir de Parfum

11/07/2024

9Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

Natkobratko
12 Reviews

Natkobratko

2

Amazing daily

I knew about this fragrance for some time but never took the time to really try it and test it out, then i saw a great price on it and looked on parfumo , seemed lke my type of fragrance then i went and tried it out and this is how it smells:
When u first spray it , it smells synthetic and alcoholic. Then it becomes very woody, ambery, spicy and fresh which is my favorite type of smells. later u get a bit more fruitiness but it smells like another flanker to the chanell alure line exept the first 2 minutes are very synthetic.
Performance is average , nothing to complain about but nothing to compliment either, its ok.
I love magnetic caps so thats also the plus and the bottle is simple and juice colour describes the fragrance very good as well.
Price is ok on discounters i think its a good daily fragrance with amber, woods and some spicy freshness, versatility is top tier as well , easy all year around , school , office , work, walk out...
For who is it for? For someone looking for a versatile daily that is good but not everyone has it , perfect age group i would say 20 plus , but as a 17 yr old i easily pull it off.
Scent: 9/10 , perfect dose of every note and accord, lots of wood and amber and other stuff u alredy know what i mentioned , maybe if they could make it not smell weird at first and blend it even better it would be 10.
Performance: 5/10 average perfomance which is okay i dont mind it. 6 hours on skin with ok projection
Versatilty: 10/10 one of the most versatile fragrance i have ever tried, and i tried many blue and versatile fragrances bcs i love them so much...
Value for money: 7/10 great value but its hard to find anything these days that is really amyzing value.
Overall: 8/10

Updated on 11/07/2024

More reviews

Statements

150 short views on the fragrance

StinkSultan

7 months ago

4Scent 3Longevity 3Sillage

7

Synthetic, spicy citrus + fresh but mild juniper. Dry, woody base; faint balsamic/piney undertone.
Boring, lacks character.
Quite soft too

MuratArabaci

4 years ago

5Scent

6

This is the result of political correctness, include everyone, exclude no one, made for anyone. SO BORING. I'd rather wear a scented lotion.

Topfpflanze3

4 years ago

6Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

5

The bottle fits the scent perfectly... boring and bland...

BertolucciK

4 years ago

6.5Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

4

The opening is synthetic, citrusy, fruity with black pepper and too much sweetness. The drydown is just boring with cedarwood.

HugoMontez

4 years ago

7.5Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

4

Cedar and iso E super based scent. With a screechy citrus on top. Boring as hell. Get Encre Noire for a better dry woody experience.

LordDrakkar

2 years ago

6.5Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

3

Gentle, unobtrusive, fresh at the beginning and later you feel a fine cedar. A scent for every day, for all situations!!!

JMWeed

4 years ago

6Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

3

Boring and unoriginal, I find too many scents with this same signature, but better. It would be an ok discount find, not a designer quality

Jcoplen

4 years ago

7Scent 7Longevity 6Sillage

3

What is up with the cap on this bottle? It looks magnetic, but it's not. It doesn't click into place, so don't pick up by the cap!

Shemsmeller

2 years ago

5Scent 4Longevity 4Sillage

3

Similaire a coton chic de Daniel hechter en plus expensive.parfait pour le printemps mais tres léger et tenue de seulement 1h pour 80€?joke

Dreamchaser

3 years ago

9Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

3

Bought it for 98$ wore it to work in 90 degree heat. Good scent trail for 4 hours then I wore down sits close to the skin after 4 hours.

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johnmada 1 year ago

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