Fox in the Flowerbed
Imaginary Authors (2021)

Peppery white flowers with notes of real honey and dark green thistles. It comes up very sweet on me, full face florals, and dies down as a simple Little Girl Perfume type floral. I would have to say that the jasmine lacks the dreaded indoles that come up on me as mothballs or halitosis, but it's very sweet. I would have prefered more of the green notes, or alpine air or even a hint of the frankincense. It's mostly honeyed jasmine on me. I adore the leaping fox on the bottle though.

I’m not sure how anyone can smell this and not immediately think, “Diapers”. That’s all I get from it. It hit me hard and fast and wouldn’t leave my brain. I wanted to love this, but it’s diapers.

This is a completely unisex scent. Far more than most It’s gonna mix with your chemistry and with your natural pheromones to become a you scent. IMO this is Imaginary Authors first signature scent.
The opening blast of Jasmine is so real and intense then moves to the back seat for some tulip with its spicy almost saffron like scent, it intermingles with the frankincense you’ll feel a very fresh and clean scent. As this begins to warm up with your true scent the wildflower honey sweetens it up a bit, Absolutely the best use of Pink Peppercorn to date, meshing with the dry grassy Thistle. All of the notes get some playtime while in the end all meshing together and mixing with your chemistry making a truly remarkable and long lasting experience.

Sampling the latest release from Imaginary Authors, Fox in the Flowerbed, probably the most floral-forward fragrance from the line since the likes of L’Orchidee Terrible from the earliest days of the house. Fox in the Flowerbed combines white and yellow florals (jasmine and tulip, respectively) with frankincense, wildflower honey, pink peppercorns, sliver thistle, and alpine air, as the notes read, with the last of these being the imaginary note, as much as it would be lovely to capture some air from the alps.

For me, the fragrance is “fresh floral” first, with a lightly spiced background, and finally the frankincense underneath, but as with any effective fragrance, it’s really the combination / intersection of several elements that makes it so interesting. It’s at the same time light and robust, refreshing and invigorating yet comforting, and I get a bit of déjà vu when wearing it but at the same time, I do not recall a floral fragrance so balanced in its various elements.

Is it inherently a bit feminine-leaning, to my nose? Sure, but not distractingly (let alone prohibitively so), and even though I do not generally gravitate toward floral-leaning fragrances myself (with notable rose exceptions), Fox in the Flowerbed works really well for me, and I imagine it’s going to be a surprisingly big winner for a lot of otherwise floral-weary men. As with pretty much everything in the Imaginary Authors catalogue, though, this new release is quite comfortable unisex.

Fox in the Flowerbed has the same outstanding Imaginary Authors pricing of the past six years, at $95 for the full-size 50ml, and $38 for a 14ml travel size, with individual samples and sample packs available. I believe it may only be sold on the IA website for now but should be available in all of the usual points of sale (i.e. great boutiques like Perfumology) soon.

Bravo to Josh Meyer for this latest creation. Leave it to him to create a beautifully blended floral fragrance, with a lovely story and fox imagery to accompany it.

8 out of 10