Counterfeit Millesime Imperial

Yeah, I think there's now more bootleg MI on eBay than bootleg GIT.
Seriously.

Poor you Just boycott Creed, and all will be fine, lol

Hmm, my MI has Arabic on the box, but it's certainly the real thing. There's a sticker on the bottom right with Arabic writing, and a sticker on the left panel that says "Toilet Water PGS" and lists some ingredients (including alpha isomethyl ionone, methyl 2-octynoate and butylphenyl methylpropional, which I'm sure since it's Creed and all-natural came directly from the rare Isomethyliononemethytwooctynoatebutylphenylmethylp ropional tree indigenous to Antarctica).

But still, that doesn't mean yours isn't a fake. Bite the bullet and get it from a reliable source. Also, remember that there is quite a bit batch variance in MI- test it out at a few legitimate locations and see for yourself.

of course there is a misunderstanding with many about creed being all natural.

they try to convey that they are mostly natural but they use a combination of ingredients including synthetics.

new 2008 bottles of mi have also lost the gold foil coating and are now sold in clear glass bottles with gold stickers on the front that are similar to the labeling of virgin island water.

as far as i'm concerned i'll never use ebay for a single purchase ever again in my life. its completely worthless to me at this point and is especially so for buying creed fragrance products.

there are a few good online retailers who, while unofficial, can supply you with real deal creed bottles for what i find to be great prices compared to retail. they may still have arabic writing on them, but another thing i've found is that this arabic writing issue is not an issue unless you are racist or something.. i'd suggest to any basenoter to forget about ebay completely (unless you are into the rare ones you can't find anywhere else or something) and find the websites of vendors who have been praised here as authentic. 4.0oz creeds retail for $225 plus tax.. you can find most for between $110-$150 at these online discounters so be happy you are getting nearly half off the price and stop trying to find this stuff for $60. if you were buying a new car would you really think you were getting a great deal if they knocked 75% the price? no you'd think about what is wrong with the car.

strangely, as far as i've heard the only slight and noticable differences you have brought forth concerning this particular bottle that you believe to be fake and a genuine article is that you don't like the way it smells.. which could be an issue of freshness or correct storage environment or even may be related to the millesime vintage of the product being different from other samples you've encountered.

of course by all means send it back because the smell is all that matters in the end anyway.

my imperial bottle from fragrancenet.com i'm wearing juice from today is more than satisfactory to me.

forget ebay for creeds there are more worry-free options that are still appealing imo.

Ha, ha!

I thought that arabic writing would make the Creed bottles more exotique, in a Lutenesque/Montale-like way...

I have a friend who got burned when he received a bottle of the infamous "Green Frich Tweed" from an Ebay seller. So I will not use Ebay to purchase fragrances.

I have purchased all of my Creeds from reputable on-line discount retailers that a lot of BNers use, and have been very happy with the quality and authenticity of my purchases.

They're doing MI now? What's next on these counterfeiters lists? Himalaya?

My concern with the grey market bottles is that they probably are fairly old and have not been stored in optimal conditions (think non-air conditioned trucks in the middle of the desert). This causes Creeds to age prematurely and, at some point, turn rancid...

Teddius

by mistake

and the saga continues.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Creed-Himalaya-4...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/CREED-HIMALAYA-4...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CREED-HIMALA...QQcmdZViewItem

probably, they do the popular ones. I dont think you'll ever see a counterfeit green valley or royal english leather lol

^you may want to check the links above your post. it's clearly been counterfeited, and is currently on eBay from the same sellers who sell counterfeit silver mountain water, green frich tweed, and imperial millesime.

Is it just the 2.5 oz bottles that have lost the gold foil or is it the 4oz bottles too?

the new for 2008 bottles in both 2.5 and 4.0 have done away with the gold foil.

they now look like this:

http://www.creedfragrances.co.uk/sit...cts/product/93

I think if these counterfeit guys visited the Basenotes forums, they'd probably start selling fake Bois du Portugal bottles...

^Let's hope not.

So far, I've only seen four bootlegs, in chrono order:

Green Irish Tweed
Silver Mountain Water
Millesime Imperial
Himalaya

does anyone know of any more ?

I have an idea: Stop buying Creeds online from e-tail stores! Really, you get what you pay for.

All bottle issues aside,

If these counterfeiters can reproduce a convincing copy of any of the above named fragrances, (and by convincing, I mean convincing on MY level) - - - I'll buy it!

At this point, I can usually spot a fake bottle from 20 feet away, and if the bottle doesn't tip me off, I'll be able to make a judgement about the juice itself with less than one sniff. Boxes are not as difficult to perfectly replicate, so I wouldn't worry about arabic text etc. The cap, the spray mechanism, and the juice itself are the dead-givaways.

I WOULDN'T BUY - Millesime Imperial, GIT, SMW, OV, OS, or Himalaya WITHOUT first requiring that the seller give me the serial number. If they can't do this for me - no sale. And even if I get a bottle from THIS YEAR, it will still be subject to my own approval.

If anyone decides not to abide by the above policy, they are placing themself at a high risk of receiving unsatisfactory product, or maybe even decent product that just isn't quite as good as it COULD be. For $200+, I want the freshest, legit stuff I can get.

If you're going to buy a bottle of GIT or MI from ebay for $50, instead, just send me the 50 and I'll mail you a dog turd.

I've purchased most of my Creeds from places like Scentiments, and I've received fresh juice at a significant discount. I don't think e-tail stores are the problem. It's freakin' ebay. That's what I'm sick to death of hearing about-- fakes bought from individuals on ebay for $50 or so. It gets old after a while.

You'll be sending a 3.4 oz Roll-on no doubt?

If they wanted to make it counterfiet, then why would they put arabic wrting on it !!!

to give you hints? Arabic doesn't equal fake.
I had a friend of mine read the one of my fragrance box and he said it means "for external use only" go figure.

in Any case, I will look into this more and see what the actual reason is. I will get back to you guys.

Hey could you please upload some pictures of it when you got the camera working ???

There is nothing that smells like BdP so it would not be a good item to counterfeit. Also, it does not come in a fancy 4oz bottle like GIT or MI does so that takes away from the marketing aspect.

Yeah, I think next is Spring Flower and Love In White.
Fade gradients of Orig. Santal/Vetiver are harder to duplicate than monochrome.

Im brand new to this site fellas. Hope you dont mind if I chime in on this particular convo. I purchased MI from fragrance.net a few days ago. Service was VERY quick and when it arrived, I looked at the bottle and it was clear. I was reading that they did away with the gold bottle(which was a pretty good perk for buying this) for the 08' releases. Is this true? Ive also never dealt with fragrance.net before. Are they official, as far as the product they sell? Anyone? Thanks!

yep they did away with the gold foil coating and now the bottles are clear with gold stickers.

fragrancenet.com is a fine retailer imo. i prefer scentiments.com however. they are not, however, official 'authorized' creed retailers, in the sense that they do not sell for retail pricing. they are official in the sense that you will get an authentic creed product.

i purchased a mi bottle from fragrancenet.com a few months back and got a gold coated one so they must have just gotten the new stock.

Ok, cool! That definitely makes me feel better about my first $100+ dollar purchase. It definitely smelled officialI I bought Tom Ford Black Orchid a while back and that almost hit the $100 dollar mark and I almost lost it! LOL! But as I get older and make more $$, sometimes somethings just change. I guess I'm saying as you get older, you have to step your game up a notch. Ill be giving feedbacks on how MI treated me! If it worked for my boy and all of the others on this site, i'm sure i'll have a crazy story to tell as well.

I will miss that gold foiled bottle though. That was one of the perks to having the stuff IMO.

if you knew how often i found tiny gold flakes on myself you'd understand why they had to get rid of the old bottles. yeah they look pretty neat but even when i am really really careful pulling the cap off and handling the bottle gently, i still manage to flake off more and more of the gold.

but yep enjoy that millesime imperial i find it to be a very impressive frag.

I understand where youre coming from now that you said that.

Ill have some feedback on this frag here in the next week or two im sure!