Millésime Impérial

I wrote a review on this in 2015 and decided to write another, after reading some less than glowing reviews about this masterpiece. This was my FIRST niche bottle of cologne that I ponied up money for in my 20’s. I sometimes go 6 months to a year without it as I have a few others that I love but also, so that I can allow absence to many my heart fond. I truly love this fragrance. What I am surprised about, is the reviews from people swearing they cannot smell this after they spray it or that it dissipates/devolves quickly. I just re-upped this about 3 weeks ago and what I can say is that it is glued to my skin, LONG after I wear it. Even yesterday, I sprayed 2 sprays on before I went to get my haircut and run errands. That was around... noon’30 ish. I smelled wafts of it throughout the day. I smelled it while at the gym and I smelled it when I showered as the warm water rinsed my skin, before I lathered up. This fragrance is NOT a loud, rude, intrusive or crass scent. It does project but not across the movie theatre. It is soft, but strong! This cologne is mesmerizing the way that refinement can be. I am honestly wondering if the reviews from people, were based off of dupes or if for whatever reason people are smoking or snorting... OTHER things and can ONLY smell something as cloying or intrusive like Baccarat Rouge or Aventus; something that is huge and projects a lot. I can see someone saying that this is... boring but I don’t ever thing refined perfection is boring. This is a cologne that I can actually observe, making it’s way in the nose of people, before they ask me about it. Creed, does charge a king’s ransom for its fragrances but, I will buy them. It does help to have a friend that works at a large dept store that can offer a discount but I don’t always ask for it. Creed’s refinement and benchmarking is unrivalled. I believe that I get what I pay for and I HOPE that I can always afford to pay for it

A deliberately light and intimate scent that's a really smooth and well crafted balance of salt and dark(ish) citrus. It gets something of a bad rap because it's not a beast mode projection bomb that radiates across a room but sometimes that's a feature, not a bug. This is for someone who justs want to smell good without your scent needing to announce your presence to everyone in a 50yrd radius. For this, I think MI is hard to beat - it's elegant and interesting without being bombastic. The skin scent drydown is also really pleasant - a salty musk that kind of tickles your nostrils if you get close. Unlike Silver Mountain Water I actually think this has quite good longevity, it's just very easy to go noseblind to it really quickly. I find with a few sprays of this I'll still catch whiffs of it radiating away from my skin many hours later, suggesting it's still projecting, and the musky drydown is still there the next day until I shower. I think peoples' issue with performance is mostly because they go in expecting an Aventus-style projection powerhouse, and this isn't that. The price tag - as with all Creed fragrances - is absurdly high, it's not worth the price but that doesn't detract from the quality of it. A note on Milestone: some people have said that Milestone is borderline identical to this and to those people I question their olfactory capacities. They may have some superficial elements but Milestone is like a loud EDM show and Milliseme Imperial is a soft jazz concert. In other words - they're nothing alike. The softness and lightness of MI is the point, whereas Milestone is not bad for the price, but it's a synthetic bomb and the musks used are clearly of lower quality - the drydown is nowhere near as pleasant as it is with MI.

Creed Millésime Impérial opens with a distinctly marine and metallic character, although the metallic quality feels cold, salty, and refined rather than sharp. Beneath it, there is an interesting fruity note that sits somewhere between sweet and tart, adding brightness and personality to the opening. After a few minutes, the fragrance settles into something calmer and more aquatic. It becomes increasingly musky and ozonic, creating an airy, almost weightless sensation that reminds me of the breeze along a luxurious coastline. As it develops, the fruity sweetness gradually fades, although faint traces of it remain in the background. What stays on the skin is a fresh, musky, marine accord with noticeable salty nuances. The drydown feels clean, relaxed, and elegant without becoming overly soapy or generic. In terms of performance, Millésime Impérial performs reasonably well during the first few hours, especially in warm weather, where the heat helps enhance its projection. It lasts noticeably longer on clothing, although performance is not the main strength of this fragrance. Considering its price, its longevity and projection can feel somewhat mediocre. However, with the right number of sprays, it becomes much more enjoyable and remains extremely easy to like. In my experience, around 6 to 10 sprays are necessary to achieve a satisfying presence. I see it as an excellent option for events in warm climates. Its fresh yet refined character makes it highly versatile, working equally well for casual or formal occasions, whether they take place indoors or outdoors.

The best Creed Scent Creed Millésime Impérial is, so far, my favorite scent from the brand. I first experienced it during an in-store visit, where I sprayed it directly on my skin — and it immediately stood out to me. I was able to compare against other Creed options, and in my opinion, this is the best scent by far. 1 – Scent and Notes: The scent is fresh, clean, and smooth, with a slightly salty and fruity feel that makes it very pleasant and easy to wear. It smells bright and refined at the same time, without being sharp or aggressive. Well-balanced and smells like high quality. 2 – Sillage and Performance: On my skin, it lasted at least 6 hours. Projection wasn’t loud, but it was noticeable enough during the first few hours, and it didn’t feel like a skin scent right away. For a quick in-store wear test, performance was solid and promising. 3 – Personal Experience and Final Thoughts: Based on my first experience, this fragrance really impressed me. Price tag is high, but it’s fresh, elegant, and seems to project well. I’d like to test it during a full-day wear before forming a final opinion, but first impressions are very positive. At this point, it feels like it would be a great addition to my collection, especially for warmer weather or anytime I want something fresh but still refined. If my full-day test confirms this performance, this could potentially become my new signature scent.

I got this along Aventus, i got this one first (I had sourced Aventus earlier, like two years ago.) I indeed agree on several of the points made here: Poor longevity, maybe, some 3 - 4 hours, quite low. Disgusting scent? Depends, i like a lot the salt, marine notes, fruit and citrus, wood and slightly floral scent it has. This would be lovely for the summer listening to Bad Bunny in Puerto Rico, in a yatch, at the beach or stuff. On me it opens up quite salty, citrus - forward and fruity, extremely high quality, and the bottle just screams money, i don't remember if Jeremy said it but it's the coolest looking bottle ever. Anyways, after the opening settles, i get the florals, wood, remaining citrus, musk, marine notes, quite salty smelling components, and that's the remaining smell until the perfume dies. If you ask me, i definitely prefer Aventus since it has better performance and personality, but both are equally enjoyable. PD: For youtubers and tiktok content makers: It's pronounced "Meel - aah - seem Eeem paay (Barely any "Y" sound) gggggial" (G as substitute for R in french, and make this in the cockiest french accent you can) PD2: A guy below mentioned it's better to get a bottle and age the liquid by storing it for a few months. I agree, but the air bubble needs to be sufficient. Wear some 5 - 10ml to sleep or stuff and let oxygen do the rest.

Cool summer breeze by the waterfront of an extremely warm island. There are countless scents that have that in mind but this one has the most accurate depiction. The scent used to be so good, that when I first tried it back in the day (Transparent bottle) it made me think and even feel about the annoying feeling of having sand on your feet after the beach and I'm saying this in a good way. It used to be so good that made me feel nostalgic and made me reminisce about a feeling that I truly hate with passion. Even after so many years after trying it for the first time there are little to none scents that made feel in such a way Pierre Bourdon was a genius. Unfortunately longevity is just tragic, even for F batches (Post 2023). It's so tragic longevity wise that even if you reapply during a summer day the scent would evaporate immediately, even on a good spring day the top note lasts for around 2/5 minutes and then it becomes a subtle skin scent, after one hour or so it's gone. Don't get me wrong, the scent even in vintage bottles had performance issues, but not like it does today. The funny thing that my girlfriend pointed out is that a Chanel aftershave that I have lasts longer on me than MI. Observing masterpieces getting ruined is depressing to say the least. 5/24/2025 EDIT: I purchased a 2025 bottle. All I can say is that it's back!

Ive worn a lot of this fragrance over the years. Here's my take on variations and if it's worth it to hunt down a vintage bottle. ● 2013. Stronger, saltier, rich, longer lasting, more mature, less fresh, more musk, but still suitable for the warm temps, but a little heavy in high heat. Excellent fragrance. Note: *this formula is what armaf tried to replicate with Milestone. ● 2019-2020 Lighter, but still good. Almost like an EDT of the vintage, but missing the gravitas and depth. Less salt but brighter. Fresh, clean, more noticeable iris in this iteration. ● 2022 Fresh, and extremely crisp, with excellent citrus top notes. Less noticeable iris, noticeable increase in anbroxan. Performance isn't half bad. ● 2024-2025 Similarities to 2022. Light and clean, with a little salt, musk and sandalwood ××××××××××××××××××××× Conclusion: the vintage is so different from modern, its like a different experience, and I prefer it sometimes, but not all the time. Modern is better in high heat, and never fails to get compliments, if that's something you care about. Vintage will cost most people a truckload of money, so unless you absolutely love this particular scent, I wouldn’t go down that road unless you are rich, and want to experience what it used to be. Maybe one day I'll get to try a bottle made in the 90's 🫠 ×××××××××××××××××××××

Poor performance be damned, this fragrance drives me insane. The marine, fruity, citrusy smell that comes after spraying feels like being hit by a cool breeze on the beach, and it's an extremely invigorating smell to me. The woodier, muskier dry down is very masculine in my opinion, but it still remains a very fresh scent. I can make the argument this is the best marine fragrance I've smelled so far, the best fragrance I own and maybe even my favorite fragrance of all time. Despite the poor performance, it seems to work extremely well with my skin as it lasts for a long time, far longer than most people report. I sprayed my neck three times yesterday at around 6 pm and I was still catching whiffs of it when I woke up at 5 am today. Some of it definitely got in my hair and that might be why the smell lasted so long but I'm not entirely sure. I would never in my life pay retail for this fragrance, so I'm really glad I could get a brand new, unsealed retail 3.4 oz bottle for around $209 shipping and taxes included. As much as I love Millésime I cannot understand why anyone would pay retail considering its performance, and even if it was the longest lasting fragrance in the world I still think it's way overpriced at nearly $500 MSRP. Please do yourself a favor and get this from a discounter.

Gorgeous scent. If I think of the scent in terms of a colour, I see "light gold". I smell the best of GIT (lemon verbena??), SMW (sandalwood, and that signature creed musk?) and Aramis New West (Watermelon Ketone?) all nicely bottled in for MI. Abysmal performance though. Non-existent on the skin after 30 mins. Pierre Bourdon is a god-level nose. And this is his masterpiece. Creed ruined it by diluting it so much and chasing steep profits. I hate creed for making such a great scent so weak, and pricing it at 350 bucks!?? Fuck you, Creed. That being said, I still would be the saddest guy in the room the day creed decides to discontinue MI. Edit: Armaf Milestone smells like a more potent, but less refined version of MI. I'd trust Milestone to perform leagues better than the original MI. However, I am inclined to supporting the original houses over their clones because they are the ones that really push the envelope. If you care about perfume houses like creed rolling in scents like these (and for them to eventually be cloned), support the OG stuff.

I can definitely smell the sea salt and ambergris. Great for summer. Despite the fragrance being on the weaker sides of the creed house (although there has definitely been a decline in the quality and longevity of all creed fragrances in the past 10 years ish) I think this fragrance was intentionally made to be weaker because it works better. Long lasting fragrances usually have an oily or resinous sort of base which can become headache inducing for some (and me) on a very hot day. An example of another perfume done well for a hot summers day is afternoon swim by LV. The name is intentional, it is meant to be worn after a swim in the noon, for a refreshing vibe. Due to this, I believe millesime imperial should be priced cheaper in comparison to orher creed fragrances...but we all know it’s not. A great fragrance overall but the price lets it down 7/10.

LOL!! I've noticed the hating invariably comes with the most expensive fragrances. I have this and at least two clones of it. There is no doubt that the OG is better quality. I'm not saying it's worth the money (that's an individual call), but I AM saying if money were no object, the OG would win this contest and almost any other "OG" vs clone comparison. Face it haters, I suppose you may (?) own a little decanter of the OG, but you probably have no business buying a full bottle and your hate is just sour grapes. If you can't afford it, there's nothing to be ashamed about, but throwing out hateful comments is weak... If you want to drive a Bentley, be prepared to spend a thousand on an oil change. If you want a better quality fragrance, don't complain about the longevity. That's small potatoes... Overall rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Imperial Millesime smells like money... old money, new money, the kind of wealth that doesn’t need to announce itself because it’s simply understood. It’s effortless, refined, and walks that fine line between casual luxury and straight-up opulence. Wearing this feels like stepping onto a private beach for a wedding where the champagne never stops flowing, or mingling at one of Diddy’s legendary White Parties—back when they were all about style, excess, and unshakable cool, before the scandals and the baby oil. It may have been the Diddler's signature scent but don't let that deter you. It’s fresh, clean, mildly sweet, undeniably appealing, with a polished maturity that suggests you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Versatile, smooth, and an easy win. This isn’t a fragrance that tries too hard. It doesn’t need to.

Upon the opening spray, I was greeted with a salty and fruity aroma—think of a sea breeze while enjoying fresh watermelon next to the ocean. The opening is beautiful and very enjoyable, though it is rather soft, projecting only about a foot. Expect this initial scent to last around 10 minutes. After the opening, I started to pick up a creamy musk, but it still remained fresh for about 30 minutes. After that, the scent became more of a skin scent for me. While I could still detect it for approximately four hours, it was quite weak. I have to say that Creed creates a beautiful scent here; however, the longevity is disappointing given the price. While I generally advocate for over spraying to get better performance from weaker scents, I cannot recommend this one based on its price-to-performance ratio

2014 vintage (Batch 3314D01) The opening is not as bright as Club de Nuit Milestone for the fizzy salty watermelon, but it still comes off as plenty potent especially nose to skin on ambergris watermelon saltiness (the trade-off is that the vintage is far richer). Where this shines is more in early and late dry down as the ambergris comes on even stronger and it gets this powdery iris, salty warm ambery musk. It might upset people, but I want the best of both worlds, so next time I'll layer the vintage with the current formulated clone just for the extra pop in the open; it almost certainly won't take anything away from Millesime in this manner because after 30 minutes or so it'll completely take over as it's considerably more robust in structure.

Probably the greatest men's cologne of all time.. for the 2-3 hours that you get to experience it for. Beautiful mineralic, marine DNA that blends perfectly into a bed of salty, slightly fruity musk. While both projection and longevity leave a lot to be desired, this particular Creed offering is the perfection of the quintessential man's daily marine go-to. While not everyone will appreciate this cologne for reasons articulated above, everyone should at least get the chance to smell it once in their life. You can go heavy on the sprays without issue- very non-offensive, as most Creed freshies tend to be. Creed does fresh scents like no other- Millesime Imperial, Wild Vetiver, SMW, and VIW are an impressive, impressive quartet.

This is giving gentleman wearing a moss green cabana polo and linen pants old money vibes! This is such a gorgeous cologne. From the start I got bergamot, marine salt, musk and something floral. I don't know what type of Iris is used but it is exquisite. Once this dried down the sandalwood really shown through. This is so fresh without coming off as bright and stingy and then has a muskier warmth drying down. This is not the young Aventus man figuring out who he is and trying to impress others. This is a man who is confident, poised, not in a rush and knows what he wants from life. This is definitely a late spring and all summer cologne. Of course I had to buy this for my husband!

If there is one Creed that you need in your collection, this is it. Be aware that even the official website sells bad batches but will return them. Bad batches smell like salt + alcohol and lack the watermelon scent. When you purchase anything from C(g)reed, ALWAYS GET A TESTER OF THE SAME BIG BOTTLE YOU ARE GETTING! They always offer 2 free testers of any fragrance with purchase. That way you can compare/confirm if its a bad batch. Its very impressive. But the pricing is insane. Honestly when you purchase Creed your not just paying for the bottle, but a surplus premium for their brand name and history. The price is excessive and does not reflect the current economy.

What can I say I love it it smells how it looks like liquid gold. lol but yeah this an easy dumb reach too cause it works everywhere it is a light and crisp but also serious scent. it’s performance is decent it’s not a room filler or anything it doesn’t scream for attention but if you get within arms reach or brushing past you will smell it for sure. i get whiffs of it 6 hours later strongly still projecting especially in the heat and wake up the next morning and can still smell it clearly so the longevity is definitely over 12 hours. the new F batches are great and they get way better over time mine is getting stronger and deeper smelling for sure.

I can't recall where I heard the phrase "as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle", but that is the perfect description of what Millesime Imperial is without clean skin. I cannot stress it enough, having a clean skin is ESSENTIAL for getting a good performance out of this. Whenever I spray it after work it usually lasts about 4 hours on me. However whenever I wear it right after taking a shower, it has lasted up to 18 hours on my skin. This is actually the longest lasting Creed that I've tried despite it being ironically hailed as one of the weakest Creeds here lol. Long story short: Shower before wearing this. Every single time. No exceptions.

I am serious that I don’t get why there are so many people complaining about its performance. I’ve owned this for a week. On my skin it lasts for 6 or even 7 hours. (I don’t talk about batch variation or something like that. My bottle is brand new and was manufactured in 2021.) Of course the projection tends to be more intimate after a few hours, but it is still there without doubt. People close enough (sitting next to you) could surely smell this beautiful scent. This is a true masterpiece. Although it has been 27 years since it was created, it still smells classic and not dated at all.