Best Bvlgari Perfumes in the UAE
Article Summary: Bvlgari is a Roman jeweller that has made perfume for a little over thirty years, and the two fragrances the UAE buys from it sit at opposite ends of its range. Tygar, from the Le Gemme Men collection, is a grapefruit and amber eau de parfum by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud that Bvlgari sells at AED 1,790 for 125 ml and features in its Dubai Mall boutique. Omnia Amethyste is an iris and rose eau de toilette by Alberto Morillas, in department stores for under AED 650. MOJ interprets both, from AED 32, and this guide is honest about the fact that two is all we make.
- Bvlgari was founded in Rome in 1884 by Sotirio Bulgari, has been part of LVMH since 2011 and runs its fragrance business from Neuchatel in Switzerland.
- Tygar launched in 2016 as part of Le Gemme Men, composed by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud around grapefruit and Ambrox; Omnia Amethyste was unveiled in 2006 and reached stores in 2007, composed by Alberto Morillas.
- Bvlgari's UAE site lists Tygar at AED 1,790 for 125 ml and AED 1,245 for 60 ml; Faces listed Omnia Amethyste at AED 642 for 100 ml but had none to sell.
- MOJ Tiger is sold only in 200 ml at AED 149 right now; MOJ Omina Amethyst is AED 32 for 30 ml and AED 42 for 50 ml.
- Man in Black, Aqva, Omnia Crystalline and Rose Goldea have no MOJ reading; the section at the end says where to find them.
| Original | Year | UAE price | MOJ version | From (AED) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Gemme Tygar | 2016 | AED 1,790 / 125ml | Tiger | 149 (200 ml) |
| Omnia Amethyste | 2007 | AED 642 / 100ml | Omina Amethyst | 32 |
Who makes Bvlgari perfume
A jeweller, which explains the bottles and the names. Sotirio Bulgari opened his first shop in Rome in 1884, the family spelled the name with a Latin V on the shopfront, and the house stayed in jewellery and watches for a century before it moved into scent. Bulgari Parfums was set up in the early 1990s and is run from Neuchatel in Switzerland rather than from Rome; the first fragrance the house counts in its own history is Eau Parfumee au The Vert, a green tea cologne by Jean-Claude Ellena that Bvlgari dates to 1992. LVMH bought the company in 2011, so Bvlgari now sits in the same group as Guerlain and Dior, though it keeps its own perfumery and does not publish a single house perfumer the way Guerlain does. It commissions by project, and the two fragrances below came from two of the best-known names in the trade.
Le Gemme is the collection that matters for the UAE. It launched in 2014 as a set of women's fragrances by Daniela Andrier, each named for a stone, and in 2016 Bvlgari added Le Gemme Men, composed by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. Tygar is from that second set. It is the collection Bvlgari puts at the front of its Dubai Mall boutique, which is on the ground floor at unit GF185, and it is priced like a niche line rather than a counter scent.
Why the UAE buys Tygar and Omnia Amethyste
Because they are the two ends of what Bvlgari does. Tygar is a Gulf fragrance in everything but passport: a sharp grapefruit opening over a big Ambrox base, which is the structure the region has preferred since Aventus made it the default for men, and Bvlgari names tigers eye, the stone, as the inspiration. Omnia Amethyste is the opposite, a quiet iris and rose that a woman wears to an office in Abu Dhabi because nobody three desks away will notice it. Searches in the UAE for Bvlgari perfume run at about 4,400 a month, more than for Guerlain, and those two are the ones that show up in the long tail of that search.
Two caveats before the cards. MOJ makes two Bvlgari readings, not ten, so this is a short guide, and we would rather say so than pad it with scents we do not sell. And our Tiger is only in 200 ml at the moment, at AED 149; the 30, 50 and 100 ml are not available as we write, so the cheapest bottle you can buy today is the biggest one.
The two, with the MOJ versions
1. Tiger
The men's one. Tygar is an eau de parfum from Le Gemme Men, launched in 2016 and composed by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, the perfumer behind Acqua di Gio and L'Eau d'Issey who has been in house at Louis Vuitton since 2012. Bvlgari's own description is two materials, grapefruit and Ambrox, named after the stone tigers eye; third-party listings fill that out to grapefruit and ginger up top, ambrette and ambroxan in the heart, musk, vetiver and patchouli underneath. What you smell is a bitter, almost peel-like grapefruit for twenty minutes and then a clean amber that keeps the citrus feeling present long after the citrus has gone. Bvlgari's UAE site lists the 125 ml at AED 1,790, the 60 ml at AED 1,245 and a 125 ml Extrait at AED 2,360; Faces listed an older 100 ml at AED 1,297 and had none to sell. Our Tiger follows the third-party pyramid line for line, grapefruit, then ginger and ambrette, then ambroxan, musk, vetiver and patchouli, and it is sold as unisex, which is fair, because the grapefruit reads fresh before it reads masculine. Only the 200 ml is available right now, at AED 149.
- Top: Grapefruit
- Heart: Ginger, Ambrette
- Base: Ambroxan, Musk, Vetiver, Patchouli
2. Omina Amethyst
The women's one. Omnia Amethyste is an eau de toilette by Alberto Morillas, the Firmenich perfumer behind CK One and Acqua di Gio, unveiled in late 2006 and on counters in 2007 as the third fragrance in the Omnia line after Omnia and Omnia Crystalline. Bvlgari describes it as green sap and pink grapefruit over iris and Bulgarian rose, with heliotrope and solar woods underneath, and the amethyst in the name is the colour of the juice and the bottle as much as any claim about the stone. It is a floral that behaves like a skin scent: the iris is powdery rather than rooty, the rose is a tint, and the woods are soft. Faces listed the 100 ml at AED 642 and had none when we checked; Ounass and Bloomingdale's did not list it. Our Omina Amethyst keeps the same shape, green notes and pink grapefruit, then iris and Bulgarian rose, then heliotrope and woods, and it is the cheapest Bvlgari reading we make. The 30 ml and 50 ml are available; the 100 ml is not at the moment.
- Top: Green Notes, Pink Grapefruit
- Heart: Iris, Bulgarian Rose
- Base: Heliotrope, Woodsy Notes
What Bvlgari costs in the UAE
Two price bands again, and the collection decides which. Le Gemme is boutique Bvlgari: Tygar is AED 1,790 for 125 ml and AED 1,245 for 60 ml on the brand's UAE site, with the Extrait at AED 2,360, and it is sold through the Dubai Mall boutique and the brand's own channels rather than every counter. Omnia is department-store Bvlgari: Omnia Amethyste is AED 642 for 100 ml at Faces, which is less than half of Tygar per ml. Marketplaces list both lower; we do not quote them.
Against that, Tiger at AED 149 for 200 ml is 0.75 dirhams per ml against Tygar's 14.3, about a nineteenth. Omina Amethyst at AED 42 for 50 ml is 0.84 per ml against 6.42, about an eighth. Both sit in our Bvlgari inspired perfumes collection. Tiger also belongs with the best fresh perfumes and the best perfumes for men in the UAE, and Omina Amethyst sits beside the best rose perfumes.
The Bvlgari perfumes you will not find here
Most of them. Man in Black, the amber rum that is Bvlgari's biggest men's line, has no MOJ reading, and neither do Man Wood Essence, Aqva Pour Homme, Omnia Crystalline, Rose Goldea or Goldea The Roman Night. Of Le Gemme we interpret Tygar only, not Yasep, Orom or Falkar, and nothing from the 2014 women's set. If you came for any of those, the Dubai Mall boutique and the Mall of the Emirates boutique carry Le Gemme, and the Bvlgari counters at Faces and Bloomingdale's carry Man in Black, Aqva and the Omnia line.
How to choose between the two
They are not really competing. Tiger is a daytime grapefruit amber that a man or a woman wears from March to October, four sprays, and it is the one to buy if you already like Aventus or Club de Nuit Intense Man and want the citrus sharper and the smoke gone. Omina Amethyst is an office floral for a woman who wants to be the only person who can smell her perfume, two sprays, and it works year round because there is nothing in it that heat turns loud. On size, there is no choice on Tiger today, 200 ml is the only bottle; on Omina Amethyst, 50 ml, because at AED 42 the 30 ml saves you ten dirhams for half the juice. These are rules from character, not longevity figures in hours. For how we build an interpretation, our explainer on what inspired perfumes are covers it.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on which end of the house you want. Tygar, from Le Gemme Men, is a grapefruit and Ambrox eau de parfum by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, priced at AED 1,790 for 125 ml on Bvlgari's UAE site and sold through the Dubai Mall boutique. Omnia Amethyste is a soft iris and rose eau de toilette by Alberto Morillas at AED 642 for 100 ml at Faces. MOJ interprets both: Tiger from AED 149 for 200 ml and Omina Amethyst from AED 32 for 30 ml.
Yes. Bvlgari has a boutique on the ground floor of Dubai Mall, unit GF185, where the Le Gemme collection including Tygar is featured. The brand's store locator also lists a boutique at Mall of the Emirates, and the Bvlgari counters at Faces and Bloomingdale's carry the Man in Black, Aqva and Omnia lines.
Bvlgari's fragrance business, Bulgari Parfums, was set up in the early 1990s and is run from Neuchatel in Switzerland. The company has been part of LVMH since 2011 and commissions outside perfumers rather than naming a single house nose: Tygar was composed by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, Omnia Amethyste by Alberto Morillas and the first Bvlgari fragrance, Eau Parfumee au The Vert, by Jean-Claude Ellena.
Bvlgari describes Tygar as grapefruit over Ambrox, inspired by the stone tigers eye. Third-party listings fill that out to grapefruit and ginger up top, ambrette and ambroxan in the heart and musk, vetiver and patchouli in the base. It opens as a bitter, peel-like citrus and settles into a clean amber. MOJ Tiger follows the same pyramid and is sold as unisex.
MOJ Tiger is AED 149 for 200 ml, which is about 0.75 dirhams per ml against Tygar's 14.3 per ml at AED 1,790 for 125 ml, roughly a nineteenth of the price. The 30, 50 and 100 ml bottles of Tiger are not available at the moment, so the 200 ml is the only size you can buy today.
