Imaginary Authors

Imaginary Authors is an independent American perfume house based in Portland, Oregon. It builds each fragrance around a fictional book written by an invented author, pairing every scent with an original story rather than a licensed name or celebrity face. The brand launched in 2012 under founder and self-taught perfumer Josh Meyer, with Ashod Simonian as creative director and co-founder [11][9].

The house remains active and independently run. As of mid-2025 it carried a regular line of around 20 fragrances and continued to release new work, including candles and collaborations with culinary partners [9].

Josh Meyer came to perfume as an enthusiast before he made it, discovering niche fragrance in his mid-twenties and, in his telling, "buying, selling and trading as many fragrances as I could" [8]. Around 2010 he quit his job and began blending scents in his basement in Portland [9]. He has described the venture as growing out of his passion for scent "as art to connect with others," and the niche-fragrance press has consistently identified him as the brand's owner and perfumer [8].

The "imaginary authors" idea came from Ashod Simonian, the brand's creative director. Rather than license existing intellectual property, Simonian proposed inventing fictional authors so the pair "could write the stories" themselves, and he envisioned packaging shaped like books with bookmark-style sample cards [11]. Simonian is credited with the illustrations and visual identity, while Meyer composes the fragrances.

Sources differ on when the company began. Editorial accounts that track its commercial launch place the founding in 2012 [11], while others date Meyer's start as a perfumer to 2010, the year he first began mixing fragrances at home [9][10]. The 2010 date marks the basement origin; 2012 marks the launch of Imaginary Authors as a brand.

The company frames scent as storytelling. "At Imaginary Authors, our mission is to conjure and create memories," the brand states, adding that it views its fragrances "like books," with the suggestion that "it doesn't make sense to own just one." Each release is presented as a narrative experience, and the names read as invented book titles, among them Memoirs of a Trespasser, Cape Heartache, The Soft Lawn and Yesterday Haze. American Perfumer, a US niche-fragrance retailer, summarised the approach as "scent as art and art as provocation," with each fragrance following "a compelling storyline" [10].

The house markets its fragrances as unisex and rejects gendered scent categories outright, calling the idea that perfumes are feminine and colognes masculine "factually incorrect" and describing its own range as "solidly unisex." It also clarifies that, by concentration, "all of our products, by definition, are perfumes," a reference to fragrance-oil levels at extrait strength rather than lighter eau de toilette dilutions. The company names creativity, love and joy as the values guiding its decisions.

Fragrance is the core of the business, supported by extensions such as candles, body oils, soaps and shave products. According to the brand, its perfumes are composed from "a harmonious blend of essential oils, absolutes, isolated molecules, safe synthetic molecules, CO2 oils, and resins" — a mix of naturals and synthetics rather than an all-natural claim.

Several releases began as limited collaborations. A City On Fire, developed with the clothing brand Machus, proved popular enough that it "joined our regular line up," according to the company. A Whiff of Waffle Cone was created with the founder of the Portland ice-cream maker Salt & Straw, and the brand has also produced an espresso-martini eau de parfum with Absolut and Kahlúa, along with limited candle sets and culinary scents described as "100% edible and 100% wearable."

On ethics, the claims are the company's own. Imaginary Authors says each of its perfumes is "crafted in accordance with vegan principles" and contains no animal product, and that its fragrances are "free of parabens and phthalates" and made without animal testing. No third-party certifications are listed.

As an independent house, Imaginary Authors has drawn coverage from niche-fragrance media rather than mainstream awards. CaFleureBon featured Meyer in its "Profiles in American Perfumery" series, framing him within Portland's growing indie and natural perfumery scene [8]. Beautytap published a founder spotlight on Meyer and Simonian in July 2025 [9], and the brand and its founder appear in Fragrantica's designer profiles [12].

Imaginary Authors is an active, independently owned perfume house. No parent company or acquisition is recorded. In a July 2025 interview, Meyer described work in progress including new candle releases, a collaboration with a culinary publication and a seasonal autumn perfume [9], and the brand maintained its full regular lineup. It distributes directly to consumers and through wholesale stockists, including retailers in the Nordic market.