Eau Parfumée Thé Impérial Bvlgari 2026

I received a sample of this perfume. It is a beautiful scent - bright, fresh, uplifting citrus, slightly sweet and not a "cleaner" type scent at all, with fresh black tea and a slight, fresh musk on the dry down. For an EDT, I felt it lasted a long time; it lasted on my skin 8+ hours. However, it does have low sillage. Although I really enjoyed trying this perfume, I don't think I would ever buy a full bottle. It was inspired by a hotel lobby smell, and that's what it smells like - a beautiful, clean, white marble-filled hotel lobby. I would love this in a room spray or a candle, but I got kind of bored with it wearing on my skin.

While Imperial smells nice after spraying, the scent fades into my skin quicker than I'd like. The citrus note very much takes a backseat to the musk and ceylon tea notes, which was nice as someone who doesn't normally go for citrusy scents. It's quite creamy and delicate compared to what I've experienced with other citrusy scents. Additionally, despite being a unisex scent, I found the notes blend in Imperial to lean slightly more on the male side.

Some reviewers compared this to citronella, an ingredient used in mosquito repellants, but in my experience, the citrus-like notes in bug sprays tend to be a bit deeper and not as refreshing and deliberate as this scent is. A similar thing could be said about the critique of this smelling like a cleaning product; I suppose that if you use a higher-end product or one crafted with a deliberately nice scent, you may feel differently, but as someone who just buys regular, affordable cleaning products, they tend to be a much more powdery, more overbearing (at points), and less rich than this.

When testing fragrances, I usually give myself two sprays for most reviews, but because I found this scent to fade away so much, I decided to give myself two more sprays of it, especially since I did enjoy the scent. But even after that, Imperial was barely noticeable on my skin after just 20-30 minutes of wear-time. At that point, the notes are no longer distinguishable, and it smells like a cologne or male fragrance that's made of nothing. Like I can detect that something's, at least to the point where I can tell its a bit more masculine, but its impossible to put a finger on what exactly it is.

Although I was gifted a sample of this, the full-size of this scent is currently listed for around $150, and in my opinion, paying that much for what has the strength of a body mist is crazy. However, despite being so faint on my skin that I had to literally touch my nose to my wrist to be able to smell anything at all, that faintness lasted around 8 hours. The only scenarios in which I could imagine a buyer being happy with the faintness of this fragrance is if they're looking for a really subtle, workplace-safe scent or genuinely like faint fragrances and want to wear something that's slightly more elevated than a skin scent. However, if you like your fragrances to be on the stronger side, just be aware that when you're testing this in a store or potentially blind-buying, it only keeps the beginning scent for a short period of time before becoming a shadow of itself.