Millésime Impérial (1995)
by Creed

Imperial is musky, sweaty, and exceedingly French (as to discordantly mask body odors I mean). Nonetheless, Imperial is one of Creed’s best recent launches (vastly inferior to the likes of GIT and RSL), but acceptable nonetheless. The opening is bergamot, some kind of fruit, and musk. Soon after, the ambergris adds distinction to the compositions. Imperial smells incredibly similar to Azzaro Black/Silver minus the pungent caraway seed and with added ambergris. Imperial does have a certain flair of a middle-aged man who still thinks it is the 1970s. I would certainly try before you buy because the musk is very powerful and unbalanced.

Why do people go ga-ga over this fragrance? I don't get it. Is it the nice gold-colored bottle? I'll confess that the bottle wooed me in my purchase of a 2.5 oz. bottle, my very first Creed purchase, 8 years ago. It smells like it doesn't know if it wants to be an acquatic or a fougere, like it's trying to be Green Irish Tweed, but with much less complexity and a loud, hammering rubbing alcohol/paint thinner note up top that never really goes away. It's not a terrible scent, but that acetone smell just flattens any other note that may be in the mix. It's like Cool Water on crack. I liked it when I first bought it years ago, but it was so loud and strident that I quickly got sick of wearing it and threw it in the trash.

Creed has many fragrances that are so much better than this. Stick with Green Irish Tweed, the real deal.

Normally with all the existing reviews I would refrain from adding my mondane 2 cents. However this is just that damn good. I don't get the "aquatic" vibe that many people allude to. I def get the melon/fresh vibe along with that amber/musk drydown. I also don't really get the Wall St connection. I would say Wall St is alot more like Erolfa (althoug I do agree that Erolfa and MI are similiar in some ways). Longevity is an issue, as with most of the modern Creeds. But hell, everything comes with a cost. This is damn good and I will always have a bottle in my wardrobe. The warm Florida climate that I call home demands such frags, and to me MI is the best.

This is one of the better citrus/aquatics I have come across. Although longevity is an issue for me, I thoroughly enjoy this scent while it lasts. Perfect for the year-round tropical weather I experience. Simply delightful.

In short, MI is mostly a juicy melon note over ambergris (a salty, comforting musk) and some sort of (pretty realistic) sea/ozone notes. It's hard to say just what kind of melon is in this because it's obviously a synthetic molecule that is based on melon. IMO, MI is the ultimate aquatic and would be in in my top 10 favorite fragrances of all time if I didn't find myself getting sick of it so easily. There's just something in MI that gives me heartburn and annoys the hell out of me halfway through each wearing. Either way, it's a milestone in the fragrance world, and a huge compliment getter - definitely worth sampling.

On a final note, don't let Creed's false marketing fool you - buy the scents if you like them, not because Creed says they're special, natural or high quality. While the older, classic Creeds are pretty good quality and have a relatively natural feel, the newer ones, like Silver Mountain Water, Green Irish Tweed and Millesime Imperial are obviously at least 90% synthetic, if not 100%. It may be unfortunate that MI was blatantly copied by Sean Jean and named “Unforgivable” but I don't blame him anymore; Millesime Imperial probably costs pennies to make (synthetic ingredients are super cheap) and they're charging 200$ for this stuff while claiming it uses natural ingredients (which it doesn't). So do yourself a favor and go buy some Unforgivable for your wallet's sake.

8.25/10

Millesime Imperial is a bit difficult for me to review. The sample that convinced me to buy a full bottle and the actual bottle I purchased are clearly the same scent, but the two developed very differently on my skin. In both cases, however, Millesime Imperial opens with wonderful, rich, melon accord with a bit of salt water thrown in. This top is the best I've experienced in any fragrance as of this writing. As the scent dries down, it becomes warmer until it eventually settles into the typical Creed ambergris base. So, why the neutral? The top and heart notes in my sample lasted a good few hours on me - after three or so, I could still smell waves of fresh and slightly warm melon periodicallly. However, in my bottle, the scent went straight to the base after a mere half hour, and I don't find the ambergris base particularly compelling; indeed, it even seems somewhat out of place in a scent that is otherwise fruity and slightly aquatic. This could easily be a thumbs up if I could consistently find bottles similar to my sample, but as the one I purchased was one from the newest batch, I can't in good faith give Millesime Imperial more than a neutral at this time.