Imaginary Authors: The Short Story Collection

Ordering the “Short Story Collection” sample set from Imaginary Authors was such a fun experience. The company has visions of memories in olfactory form, told through the lens of stories – which couldn’t be even more fitting for a girl like me who reads & writes in her spare time, AND has her own fragrance brand built on the fleeting moments of memories! I took my time looking through their collection and found the 8x2ml sample (you choose!) set to be the best value – the little “book” that the samples come in is just adorable, too.

Each little bottle felt like it held its own beginning, middle, and end, the story evolving as time passed on my skin.  

Imaginary Authors added a free sample, which turned out to be: “How to Say Bicycle in French”. At first spray, my nose really didn’t like it – truly, confused by how much I disliked it - but then my eyes lit up when the dry down was complete. It becomes bright, nuanced, intriguing, & lemony – an herbal citrus (which is the best pairing for citrus in my opinion)! It translated better to my skin than on paper. In the first few minutes, this parfum is at the bottom of my list, but after some wear time, hops nearly to the top, which is confusing for sure.  

The website, art prints, etc., are all beautifully done. I do wish that the story snippets and memory evocations were part of the discovery set as well, maybe as a small insert or something, but I had to go back to the website each time to orient myself with the inspirations behind each fragrance. 

Results from the (albeit very short) IA Fragrance Quiz: Yesterday Haze (2nd in my own rankings however, so almost spot on!) 

Quality: 5/5  

Originality: 5/5 

Presentation: 4.5/5 

Price: 4/5

Memoirs of a Trespasser: Although this fragrance does skew rather masculine, I think I will be wearing this one this coming autumn or winter, particularly in the evenings. I adore how evocative this one is - of spiced rum and oak barrels, its smokiness & vanilla presence balanced. This one feels to me like a warm night by the fireplace after a night out in a cozy, European pub.  

Cape Heartache: I am starting to think all of these fragrances are going to be absolutely beautifully evocative & vivid...(I was right). This one leans more unisex than Memoirs of a Trespasser, and more fresh. There is a note in here that I have personally been trying to replicate; it is so difficult to nail down. I have a feeling it is either in the “Old Growth” note or “Mountain Fog” note of this fragrance; it’s lovely to have it as a throughline. To me, this feels like a night in a pacific northwest forest log cabin. For some reason, the pull of this fragrance also does leave me nostalgically thinking of heartbreak. 

A Little Secret: My first foray into an IA gourmand. This one had too much of a patchouli note in the beginning for me; it was quite strong on my skin, but then not as much on a testing paper. But the rest of the notes settled in quite nicely and rounded the rest of the fragrance out in the first few minutes of dry down. You get the rum, you get that bright yet slightly bitter cherry note which I appreciate (not medicinal or cough-drop-y), and the saffron actually DOES come through. It feels overall very classy to me, like the inspiration behind my Ethere fragrance ‘Mon Cheri’, the Reber Mozart chocolate Kugeln. Just a touch too much patchouli for my taste, on my own skin! 

Yesterday Haze: A lovely, evolving green fragrance...I have mixed feelings on this one as it kept changing on my skin the more I went to smell it, but I kept coming back to it, enticed. On some sniffs, I could get this light grassiness, the “orchard dust” coming through beautifully, but at times I could also get a bright metallic lemon-y from the walnut bitters. The opening has the cream & fig, which I almost wish they were held onto slightly longer to balance with the bitters & dusty notes, but it is another very vivid fragrance (that also reminds me of the feeling and memory behind why I created ‘Prairie’).   

The Cobra & the Canary: This deep, masculine scent has such a reminiscent smell of rain on asphalt. There’s a bit of a bite from the lemon, while the tobacco-leather combo comes through quite strong. I read the synopsis while sampling this for the first time and was just thinking “Yea, this is exactly it”. A layered, spicy, very manly concoction. I enjoyed it less on the dry-down personally on myself; it became a bit powdery because of that ‘Hay Fields’ note. I was missing the asphalt note already. But this would be a great masculine fragrance for anyone’s collection.  

The Fox in the Flowerbed: A lovely, fresh floral that reminds me of a mix between my Ethere’s ‘No. 61’ & ‘Spring’. Alpine meadows and wildflowers galore - what’s not to like? But this one has a twist: that honey note + the silver thistle create a musk not unlike an animalic one, particularly on the dry down. I did very much enjoy it on the spray, but on my skin, this muskiness became too strong after a few minutes. Giving it some more time, that musk does die down however. I will say this one is for the women in your life that love those “classics”; it’s not as imaginative as the others in the sample set! 

Untamable: Very masculine, and very animalic-leather forward (even more so on my skin than on paper). At first, I was slightly thrown, but then reading through the scent’s synopsis and memories - it fits to its inspiration and written memories 1000%. This one mellows out a touch after a few minutes, turning a bit more earthy, with a bit of grassy floral-ness to it to soften that harsher, bitter leather dust scent. But there’s nothing even unisex about this scent, and I think that this would be too strong to be a daily scent. I would recommend wearing this one on a special occasion, in the evening, outside, etc.  

The Soft Lawn: Does remind me of a fuzzy tennis ball in the best way. All the listed notes are noticeable and distinct on their own, yet blend together in a truly seamless unisex green scent here. The perfume lightens a bit on the skin as the minutes go by, but the singular core scent here is a unique mix that doesn’t fade. A gorgeous spring or summer scent, whose edges are softened by the fuzziness of tennis balls. 

Unisex: The Soft Lawn, Cape Heartache, Yesterday Haze 

Feminine: How to Say Bicycle in French, Fox in the Flowerbed, A Little Secret 

Masculine: Untamable, The Cobra & The Canary, Memoir of a Trespasser 

Ranking 

Yesterday Haze 

The Soft Lawn 

Cape Heartache 

A Little Secret 

Fox in the Flowerbed 

Memoir of a Trespasser 

The Cobra & The Canary 

How to Say ‘Bicycle’ in French 

Untamable 

Overall, these perfumes were really impressive. The memories they hold are so beautifully expressed through scent, which is something I hold as one of the most important aspects of a fragrance. The originality and quality are truly superb and the longevity is great. While skewing slightly pricier for full size or travel size bottles, it is reasonable taking the weight of the other scores into consideration (and the price of the sample sets are extremely worth it!)