Compare and contrast this millpond with IA’s other oceanic fragrance, Every Storm a Serenade.

Listed notes

Lemon, bergamot, lychee, tropical flowers, warm sands.

Top notes

Every Storm a Serenade, the other seaside flavoured fragrance from Imaginary Authors, is a veritable slap in the face with cold seaweed, so it was with some trepidation that I approached Falling Into The Sea. Instead of being met with a blast of cold seawater, Falling begins with a gentle and delicate citrusy bouquet. Lemon and bergamot mingle to give a cool, refreshing lift. So far so easy going.

Under the citruses, a silky creaminess starts to build which gives the impression of sun cream slathered on skin, but quite delicately so. For all the boldness that IA pack into many of their fragrances, Falling is one of the more delicate and quietly pretty scents in their range.

Lychee is the final noteable element in the initial phase of the fragrance. It is cool, fleshy but also watery and succulent too. This, coupled with the citruses at the start do give us the impression of sherbet lemons a little bit, making taste buds water, but there isn’t too much sweetness, so the overall impression is tangy rather than saccharine.

Heart notes

Falling is very much an easy going and easy to wear, cheerful fragrance. Where in the start the individual elements are easy to pick out, the fragrance melds and mingles as it ages. All those facets we noticed at the start seem to melt into one another and a note comes through which has a kind of sweet melon-like feel to it.

Falling, despite the backstory to accompany the fragrance (which is about a girl’s lover falling into the sea and being consumed by the waves), is a very cheerful scent. It has a bright, uplifting but relaxed quality about it which is maintained throughout. This is an inoffensive fragrance which would be a good introduction to the brand for Imaginary Authors newbies, and one which you could wear for almost any daytime occasion without hesitation.

Base notes

The final phase of the scent has a facet which is slightly scrubbier, slightly more herbal, reminiscent of the plants which grow on the fringe of the land, where it meets the sea, but again this is deftly, lightly handled. Wafts of the final throes of the citruses caress the face of the scent like tendrils of hair blowing in the sea breeze, and a faint, salty tang may be detected – or is that just the imagination playing tricks again? The wateriness of the lychee has faded, but there is the warm, sweet closeness of clean skin to take its place, giving the fragrance a certain sort of intimacy which feels friendly and companionable rather than saucy.

The tropical flower element of the scent is blossoms brought to you on a breeze, rather than sniffed up close, and they add a cheerful and relaxing tone to the final bars of a wear. If you want a holiday fragrance in a bottle, then you seriously have to look no further than this relaxed and gentle-charactered scent, guaranteed to cheer up any miserable autumn or winter’s day.

The other stuff

The longevity of Falling is good, lasting six to eight hours following an application even though it is a relatively quiet scent. Likewise, although the fragrance is delicate, it projects to further than you might imagine, surrounding the body with a soothing aura of fragrance to perhaps a little under handshake distance. This scent is well suited to most daytime activities, and would be a safe fragrance to wear to work or the gym.

As the brand suggests, Falling Into The Sea is the sort of scent which can cheer up the dark days of winter, and I would agree that that would be a lovely time to wear it, along with autumn and spring. In summer it may not compete so well with extremes of temperature or things like suncream, but it certainly won’t clash with them either.

The brand

Imaginary Authors are a brand with a brilliantly imagined concept; their perfumes take the form of books written by imaginary authors. It’s wonderfully storied but has little bearing on their scents which are largely capable of standing alone without any of the smoke and mirrors that good marketing brings. In the main, the fragrances are bold, strong, and very distinct. They’re the type of scents that you either love or hate, and if you love them they’ll become your signature fragrance. This is a consuming type of love affair.

From the Imaginary Authors line up we’ve previously reviewed the fun flirty Fox in the Flowerbed, the sun kissed orange vibes of Sundrunk, the gorgeous boozy-sweet tones of Saint Julep, the thick and syrupy Violet Disguise, the mysterious O, Unknown and the magnificently ozonic Every Storm a Serenade.

Buy it

Falling Into The Sea is available from Bloom Perfumery London, where it is priced at £90 for 50ml of EdP. You can also buy the scent from the Imaginary Authors web boutique.

We received a sample of this fragrance in the box when we purchased another bottle of one of their fragrances at our own cost.

Header image by Debi Brady from Pixabay.