Whispered Myths

Opening is a blast of Cedar and melon. After 5 minutes the melon is gone and you just get cedar. Around 30 minutes the oud starts to crawl into the mix. 45 minutes in and all you're left with cedar and synthetic oud. I get the honey in there. But you gotta sniff your way to it because it's very faint. To the point that most people would say they don't get any honey. Nothing special. It's just straight forward simple oud like many others out there.

One of the recent releases by Josh Meyer of Imaginary Authors, done semi-secretly on the website and by word of mouth, is Whispered Myths, no doubt promoted substantially less than the release that followed it, "O, Unknown!". Whispered Myths marks the first occasion in Imaginary Authors of oud being a prominent, and in this case, a dominant one. The oud used in Whispered Myths is seemingly neither toward the animalic nor soberly smooth extremes of what oud can be, resting somewhere in between. And in that respect, it seems to both a nod to true oud-lovers as well as a movement toward the middle as far as ease-of-wearing. Even at first smell, it's one of the easiest oud fragrances to wear that I've smelled, and one need not be a fan of rose (as in the many rose/oud combos) or another pronounced note to like the fragrance as a whole. The other contributory notes, minor players by comparison, of cantaloupe, cedar, and honey, sweeten and smooth out the oud further, harmonious making it even more wearable. It's sweet and enjoyable while still being bold and oud-intensive. Performance is quite great, stronger than average in terms of both projection and longevity, albeit not quite the beast of some of its Imaginary Authors siblings, such as A City on Fire, Cape Heartache, and Memoirs of a Trespasser. Higher than the usual pricing (of $95 for 50ml), Whispered Myths is priced at $120 for 50ml, due likely to the cost of oud, I imagined, and this was confirmed by Gents Scents on YouTube. 8 out of 10

really loved how this scent started out but the dry down smelled absolutely horrible on me... an almost sweet rot smell you get when fruit starts rotting under a tropical sun

Ugh, this one is like a torrid love affair with an art school kid. Controversial, challenging, and certainly not for everyone. But also artsy, dramatic, and once settled in, much more approachable. At first sniff, I wanted to be around you all the time. I introduced my friends to you, and they turned their noses away. "Yep, that's interesting." It was an intense affair, burying my nose in your "salvaged shipwreck" dry down. I always hoped someone would ask me what I was wearing, so I could confidently say this most pretentious name, "Whispered Myths," like an art gallery after party in a friend of a friend of a friend's loft. But then, things changed. Something was off. The melancholy, subversive drydown I adored was still there, but you seemed clingy and desperate for attention. Our chemistry was gone, and my fascination wore off. Now, when I woke up in the morning, I was annoyed instead of delighted that you were still in my bed. I'll still try you on from time to time, just to see how things are. But like an ill-advised "wyd" text at 2am, it's never really a decision I'm happy with.

Smells like old books & my grandma's house, love, love, love!