When I first got into fragrance as a hobby, Imagination had been well established as being a fragrance that people point to as being their favorite, or for being one of the best of all time. At that point in time, I had a strong bias against Louis Vuitton and was unwilling to see what all the hype was about. Fast forward to 2025, I find myself in the thick of trying everything in their lineup in order to expand my horizons a bit. I had very low expectations for Imagination having smelled it a couple times on a blotter card, and these mostly held up throughout my sample session.
In the opening, a sharp citrusy note immediately hits your nose with a black tea note that accompanies it and rushes in right behind it. This reminded me of what
Cactus Garden did in its opening, where the bergamot combined with the lemongrass note completely took over the opening few minutes before the maté note kicks in. At this point, the very low expectations I had for Imagination were surpassed, and despite its similarity to another fragrance they had done in the past, I didn’t mind wearing this at all.
In the air was a different scent to what I was getting directly on skin. Instead of the citrusy tea scent, I was getting the very soapy neroli note in the air and what I thought was a hint of ambroxan, as the neroli didn’t come off as being by itself to my nose. It reminded me of a soapy neroli with a dash of
Sauvage Eau de Toilette or
Versace pour Homme Dylan Blue Eau de Toilette splashed into it. I didn’t like this scent as much as what I smelled closer to my skin in the opening, and as I would soon come to realise, I should’ve cherished that skin scent for as long as I could.
In the midpoint of the fragrance, the sharp citruses that were seen in the opening were all but a memory now, and it seemed like it took the black tea note down with it. Now that remained was the hand soap scent from the neroli and any shreds of the faint ambroxan that remained with it. If I had to describe this soapiness, it would be akin to that of Softsoap’s aquarium hand soap; clear hand soap with goldfish printed inside of it.
Later on in the drydown the faint ambroxan smell has completely faded and the only scent that remained was the same soapy neroli that has been present all throughout the fragrance’s lifespan. Soapiness in a fragrance is not a bad smell by any means, however what soapiness in fragrance makes up for in being a safe scent, it lacks in being imaginative or creative.
Some say they get all day longevity from this fragrance, I don’t see it. The sillage was about what was expected but the longevity was just as average. I can’t say I was overall underwhelmed by Imagination, as there wasn’t much of any real expectations to begin with. But, with the somewhat interesting note breakdown this thing has, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I wish this was better than it ended up being.
Chinese black tea CO2
Calabrian bergamot
Ambrox
Ceylonese cinnamon
Nigerian ginger
Sicilian cedar
Tunisian neroli
Artistscent
Estbienla
Scmemory
Mauw
Mhanna1013
Alishere
IllParagraph
Dapound01
Zeinse
DevilJuice
