Saint Julep

Hey all! Just wanted to come back to just to let you all know how the body oil shapes up compared to the perfume. Perfume: Opens with this bright and sweet mint and tangerine combo that quickly settles into a tangerine mojito on my skin. It is very cooling, sweet, and yet fresh all at the same time and I love love love it. Like I said in my previous review, this is THE SCENT that got me into the hobby, and is still probably one of if not my favorite fragrance to date. If you like mint, you have to get your nose on this fragrance. Mediocre projection and performance and projection but the projection really comes alive under high heat. I have easily gotten 6 ft with this fragrance when I was sweating or when it was really hot out, but you do kinda have to do 10+ sprays in order to project. 10/10. Body Oil: Since I loved this fragrance so much I had to get the oil asap when I saw they had it. When I put this on, it's not nearly as bright and cooling as the perfume is, but that is also to be expected from oil and not perfume. The oil does improve the longevity of it, I now get 8-10 hours on my skin compared to the original 4-7, and it bumps up the mediocre projection from 2-3 hours to 4-6 hours depending on the weather. The oil is reminiscent to the dry down of this scent, the sweet orange and mint but this time a bit more boozy, but holding that for the 8 or so hours it sticks on you. There is a fair amount of ambroxan in the oil compared to the perfume, but that's not a complaint. I have taken a liking to mixing this with my lotion when I moisturize after the shower in order to really let it soak into me when I'm planning on wearing St. Julep for the day. It's nice, and even better when layering under the actual perfume but only get this if you really love the scent. TLDR: Not as fresh and cooling as the perfume, makes it last drastically longer (at least on my skin), and is a great base to spray the perfume on top of. If I had to buy one, I'd buy the perfume, but if you love the perfume but hate it's performance like I do then you should try this oil. Pretty good bang for your buck, and mixes well with lotion.

Saint Julep: I'm definitely an Imaginary Authors fanboy, first of all. This is an incredible fragrance. Very different and complex, which is refreshing with so much mimicry out there that there's still frontiers to be explored in fragrance. The initial blast is that of fresh mint and clear, bright citrus notes. When I say fresh mint, I don't mean double mint gum or listerine fresh, I mean out in the wilderness fresh. The mint has green notes in it that push it into smelling like grass or fir needles. As it starts to dry down there is an animalic note that comes out, which smells mostly like opening a car door that's been sitting in the sun with leather seats. In its entirety it keeps a candy sweetness that smells kind of like having an open package of sugar coated sour licorice. I drink bourbon every so often, and smelling a glass filled with bourbon does not smell like this. But, I can definitely feel the deep, alcoholic notes creating the backbone for the fragrance. It is simultaneously fresh and syrupy sweet, warm and cool. It really does conjure up a summer evening for me after the sun has gone down and the aroma of the herbaly plants start to emanate from the earth, sitting outside with a sweet cocktail in front of you as an evening cool starts to creep into the air. The only bummer about this scent is it doesn't seem to jump off the skin, it stays close the entire time. As it currently stands it also seems to only stay relevant for about 4 hours. I can see myself wearing this a lot during the summer, but with it's performance issues I might literally go through the bottle in one summer. At $95 for 50ml, it's not the worst thing in the world that I might have to restock sooner than later, but pretty much every other IA fragrance I have lasts for 8+ hours. Do yourself a favor and get a sample at least just to enjoy the experience

Besides Slow Explosions by Imaginary Authors, this was the first scent that I smelled from IA that REALLY got me into the niche fragrance world. This is such a wonderfully playful and happy scent, like sweet and boozy summer nights. This is one of my favorite scents of all time, and I don't say that lightly. If this scent had the longevity and sillage of something like a Mancera or Montale I honestly think I would never need to buy another scent in my life. This is such a boozy, sweet, and minty scent and it was love at first smell. In my opinion, this is a very similar vibe to "Batucada" by L'Artisan Perfumer but unlike the airy, loose linen shirt, mojito feel of Batucada. This is when the sun starts to set and the true fun starts to begin. Cocktails are being served on all sides, the smell of freshly muddled mint and sugar with a boozy splash of whiskey carries you through the hazy night. The smell of the salty water mixing with this sweet green to form this beautiful memory I'll never forget. That's the thing though. Just like any good night, they all must pass in time. Unfortunately for St. Julep, it passes too quickly for my liking. I have to LATHER myself in this scent for it to really smell like it for more than 3 hours. Granted, you get a good 5-6 hours out of clothes. I absolutely love this scent and spraying it for me will forever be a guilty pleasure. So, where does that leave us? Well it leaves us with a very simple conclusion. Enjoy this scent and enjoy this night, and let the good times flow.

as many other reviewers have noted, the biggest downfall of saint julep is its staying power. i have a sensitive nose so i'm usually very conservative with my perfume (1 spray for the whole day with very few exceptions), but saint julep is mild and inoffensive enough that i can slather on like 4 pumps at a time and still not be overwhelmed by it. even with ample application, however, i get maybe 30-60 minutes of bright fresh sweet floral mint and mild citrus before it fades into a soft, gentle creme brulee burnt sugar scent that sits very close to the skin and has fully dissipated within about 2 hours. it's a beautiful smell, smooth and light and refreshing like an iced cocktail on a hot summer day that goes down almost too easily (and before you know it, you're 4 drinks in and way drunker than you expected to be). there's nothing about it that i find particularly challenging or nuanced, it's a pretty linear smell that delivers exactly what it says on the bottle. and perhaps there's something poetic to be said about the fleeting nature of sun-drenched breezes and hot afternoons in the shade, but "pleasant & fleeting" doesn't necessarily feel full-bottle-worthy to me, and i would need a full bottle because of how quickly i'd go through it chasing those delicate lovely opening notes. maybe if i were rich, i could indulge in a saint julep habit and happily bathe in the stuff, but for the price, i'd rather splurge on something with more depth and longevity.

Unexpected Winter hit! I ordered this before Summer, but it was stolen off my porch and I finally got it back. Unfortunately, the atomizer only squirts now, but that's probably a result of all the bottle has been through. This is a sugary and refreshing treat that does evoke sipping a mint julep on a stuffy Southern Summer day. When I sampled this in the Summer, I at first interpreted something about the "watery" note as Stevia, which was very off-putting. Thankfully my brain somehow corrected that after a couple of wears. This feels "lighter" than I at first hoped for: delicate rather than biting mint, light rather than dark alcohol, delicate rather that pungent citrus, and white rather than brown sugar. It's a flirty cocktail, not a sexy drink. I didn't plan to wear this in colder months, but I realized that the holidays carry associations with Mint, Sugar, Rum (whiskey), Orange (tangerine), and "Frosted" (icy/watery) so this mixes magically with sweet coffee/chocolate/mocha scented hair/body care products, giving snow fairy or peppermint bark. This performs better than I expected. I get unexpected whiffs of airy white sugar/musk to the end of the day from my clothes.

I adore this scent—it's bright, fun, fresh, a little flirty and sweet without being entirely 'gourmand'. At first spray, you're met with the heavenly combination of mint, tangerine and soft florals. The mint is sweet and not too sharp, the tangerine lends some brightness and tang without overpowering the rest of the scent, and the florals delicately provide support with a bit of richness to give the fragrance some body. It smells like sitting outside of a restaurant on the first warm day of spring while enjoying a mojito with the person who will be your summer fling. Overall, this is pretty linear as are most of Imaginary Authors' scents. It remains this way for the first few hours before the citrus begins to fade by hour three, at which point the mint begins to fade as well. The sweet and refreshing qualities remain for the rest of the wear. The sillage is pretty intimate, sitting closer to the skin, and the longevity on my skin was about seven to eight hours. This is a wonderful perfume that is sweet without coming close to cloying and refreshing without being soapy or overbearingly citrusy. I couldn't detect the whisky note specifically but I enjoyed this as it was.

Imaginary Authors' Saint Julep smells truly phenomenal but has disappointing longevity and projection. This opens with extremely realistic mint, like you went into a garden and rubbed mint leaves between your fingers. After about 5 minutes, the delightful sugar and tangerine notes come out, and this begins to smell like a lovely mint drink! I can't smell much of the ambergris or the water lily, but everything else comes through. This is perfectly blended together, and smells mouthwatering to me. This really smells stunning, my jaw dropped as soon as I sprayed it. It is reminiscent of sipping a mint julep (as the name suggests) on a porch at dusk during a heatwave. So beautiful. Unfortunately, this does not last. At all. It entirely vanishes in about 2 hours for me, which is very very saddening. I am considering investing in the body oil instead, to see if that has any better longevity. I can't justify spending almost $110 on something that has such poor lasting power, even if it smells incredible. 11/10 smell, 2/10 longevity.

I think this is easily Imaginary Author's most popular scent, it's at least the one that got pushed to me the most on ads and wow did it live up to those expectations! At it's core, it's exactly what it describes: minty, boozy, sugary. I definitely can detect the notes of magnolia, which either contribute or bring out a lot of the "watery" aspect which I just love. The tangerine is far more subtle, and if I had to make a guess I'd say contributes a lot to the sugary aspect. Speaking of the sugar, on dry-down for me was very caramel-y which paired with everything else I think adds to that booziness and maybe the "sour" so many people mention. Finally, the mint isn't a biting oppressive coolness, but rather a grassy fresh nuance that just brings everything together. Everything about this perfume is just so so good, the only negative being that it's gone so soon! I really do wish this would last longer but it's so good that I'm willing to only slightly overlook it.

This is one of those ones for me. Imaginary Authors is one of the houses I was pretty hesitant on trying given the multiple reviews calling a lot of the scents synthetic and stale. One day, I just decided to bite the bullet and order a custom box from their website. Saint Julep hit me like a truck, and I'm not talking about the one that kills you; but like a truck that Isekai's you into a world full of beautiful landscapes, magical abilities and hot thiren women. It hits you with a blast of mint and sugarcane like you're enjoying a nice Mint Julep on a warm and breezy autumn night and settles into a nice, boozy scent with a bit of body to it that keeps it grounded enough to work all day off of your skin. Given my hometown of Louisville Kentucky, and our Mint Juelp's being popular because of the worldwide Derby craze, this one would be one to remind me of home if I leave. 10/10 and I need it.

I'm going through the entire collection for Imaginary Authors. I like alot of them and this one - Saint Julep - in no exception. It's really nice and sits somewhat close to my skin. It does seem a little weak yet I only sprayed 2 sprays from a sample sprayer; that said if I had a full bottle (which I may do) I could overspray. It's very affordable. I liked it when I put it on and was goon aboot my day and my wife commented that I was wearing Baccarat Rouge 540 by Maison Francis Kurkdjian. I don't get a lot of the notes listed off my skin yet she is right that it smells very similar when I'm not wearing both side by side. So I feel that if you like Baccarat Rouge 540 by Maison Francis Kurkdjian you would like Saint Julep and in my opinion it would be redundant to have both. I plan to test both side by side at some point, yet this is my initial reaction to spray test.

It sits super close to your skin, but I had not issues with longevity, especially on clothing. I sprayed it on my sweater and could still smell it 1-2 days after. Very fresh, minty and I do smell some frankincense/myrrh that you smell in a church. I love this imagery and the backstory! It is sweet, like a mojito (or rather julep ;)) including some boozy elements. I get tangerine, but not explicity tangerine but the sweetness of tangerine if that makes sense? A tiny bit of salt and some fresh spices, maybe rosemary. It is such a nice mixture, uplifting and mysterious at the same time, I must have it! There is one note in this that remind me of Baccarat Rouge 540, but my nose is not trained enough to tell what it is. Both should contain ambergris, maybe that one?

This is such a a beautiful captivating fragrance to my nose, I absolutely adore it. Extremely realistic, natural smelling, fresh, and green. The opening is a blast of whiskey and mint, sugary with slightly bitter aromatics: the name is appropriate as it smells like a bourbon mint Julep with a dash of Angostura bitters like an old fashioned! Settles down semi-sweet remaining green with light woody undertones. One of the best and most natural mint notes I have ever smelled. Longevity and projection are middling, but the quality is incredible. Great for summer, spring, and the booze and sweetness will carry it through early fall. I really wish the performance was better. If anyone wants to trade a bottle let me know!

Was absolutely shocked when I came down to these comments and saw people comparing this to BR540. I hate that scent, meanwhile this is my signature. That out of the way, this is the best minty fragrance on the market. It's fresh, sweet, not pepperminty/toothpastey, and has the complexity you need to make sure you're not just smelling like a mojito. I feel like it's light enough for anything in the day but sophisticated enough for wear throughout the night. I am super into more unisex fragrances too and I think this, while being sweet and more feminine, could definitely work for both genders. I just wish the sillage was higher-- it's a skin scent mainly, just aim to get close to the person you want to smell it ;)

Let me start by saying I absolutely love Saint Julep by Imaginary Authors. That being said, it’s not strong and it does not last. If it did, it would literally be in my top 5 spring fragrances. I still love it and use it, I find buying the Saint Julep oil they now have on their site and laying that on your skin before using the fragrance that it lasts longer. This is a sugary Mint Julep in a bottle. Not very alcoholic at all though. Which I’m not mad at. It’s super refreshing on a nice spring day. The mint and addition of tangerine just take this other the top. Please IA, please make this stronger! I’m begging you lol.

'Saint Julep' is predominantly a sugary mint fragrance that's balanced out with some citrus notes. The tangerine and ambergris add a nice aromatic freshness. The mint here is not cool or "pepperminty," but rather on the greener, herbal side. Everything is well-balanced; nothing is too sweet, or too green, or too citrusy. The sugar note is not syrupy or gourmand, but is drier and crystallized, which is probably why people compare it to BR540. However, the two smell nothing alike to me. This is a very nice unique scent, and I'd gladly wear it more often if it performed better on my skin.

I love this one. Smells like refined sugar sprinkled with tangerine juice and a couple of whiskey drops. I don't really feel mint in it, and if it does show through, it doesn't feel refreshing, more like warming. Longevity is really not the best but not catastrophic. If you want to smell like it all day, you will have to renew the scent once or twice. But on me the scent definitely does not disappear in one or two hours, it vanishes approx. after 4-5 hours (3-4 sprays). In my opinion, it sits quite close to the body and I wouldn’t say that it tries to reach everything around.

Saint Julep is beautiful. The mint here is dominant, and it is done to perfection, none of that toothpaste, spearmint nonsense. The addition of sugar and tangerine and a dash of bourbon makes it oh so very pleasant to the nose. It projects well and lasts around six hours for me. Saint Julep is a great addition to the Imaginary Authors line because it is so easy to wear, pleasant and highly versatile. I can smell it very well even in the autumn cold. Full bottle worthy, I will surely invest in it for the spring and summer next year.

An incredible opening of mint, fizz, whiskey and sugar lasts for about ten beautiful minutes before segueing into an equally beautiful lemony magnolia which also lasts about ten minutes or maybe a little longer if you’re lucky. These are replaced by a softly fragrant ambergris, vanilla and wood base which is really at the heart of this perfume and which lasts 4-5 hours. Every stage of this is perfect in and of itself, and all are light and suited to summer wear- I just wish the first two stages lasted longer.

I bought this sample off of the notes listed on the IA website and I'm glad I did. It's BRIGHT. Lord its briiiiight. Wakes you up. It's sugary but balanced by the notes of whisky and tart citrus. Very likely going to buy a full bottle because my partner liked it so much he wants to wear it too. I could understand if some may not like the way it settles on their skin if they're expecting a stronger mint scent. (it definitely dissipates after a few mins) I see this working for day or night, any season. 9/10

One of the best smells I've ever smelled - no joke. Immediately sweet and minty, but not "toothpaste" minty - this doesn't come off as super green to me. It stays in the sugary sweet, cool category and evokes pure happiness. I also get more whiskey in the drydown which just makes this all the more well rounded. It's a springtime breeze, summer evenings with a mint julep in hand, and embodies the free-spiritedness of being out in the countryside. Completely inoffensive - everyone will love it.