How To Say Bicycle In French
Eau de Parfum, Imaginary Authors (2025)

I usually find Imaginary Authors scents interesting but not fully wearable, often feeling a bit incomplete. This one is an exception. It’s an intriguing blend with herbal touches—I pick up some lavender, though the basil, thyme, and rosemary stay in the background. It’s nothing like Basilica by Milano Fragranze, where the rosemary and thyme feel straight out of a bakery’s focaccia. Instead, this leans more floral and green, with a sweet, almost fruity nuance that I assume comes from the gentian. I’ve never smelled gentian on its own, but here it feels more floral-green than herbal.

It’s slightly rough around the edges—there’s a faint synthetic quality, likely from the aldehydes—but in the air it comes across as floral, lightly sweet, and aromatic. Many describe this as lavender-heavy, but for me the lavender is softened and blended with the gentian, so it never dominates.

Performance is solid, and it’s completely unisex, though the airy floral aspect tilts it just a touch feminine. Definitely worth sampling. My only real critique is the aldehydes: they add a light laundry-detergent vibe that I find distracting up close, though it fades in the air and doesn’t overwhelm the fragrance.

Sampling the latest release from Imaginary Authors, How to Say Bicycle in French, a vibrant, fresh mix of primarily savory elements, including basil, rosemary, thyme, clary sage, lavender, and gentian oil, the last of which I needed to look up as I’m unfamiliar with it. It’s pretty remarkable that this assortment of most food-connoted ingredients comes together in a harmonious ensemble. It opens frankly almost a bit spicy and sharp, albeit fresh, green, and vegetal, but calms down a bit as it dries down. Overall, though, it remains a bit provocative throughout its lifespan, despite becoming a little more pleasantly subdued over time. It’s a very effective intersection of concepts and would ordinarily not be something I’d expect to enjoy so much based on the note listing but it feels so carefully considered and well executed.

As with the rest of the line, it’s EDP concentration and priced at $115 for 50ml (with a travel size available at $46 for 14ml), sold via both the house website and an assortment of US boutiques like Perfumology. The pricing for the line remains extremely reasonable, with only one jump in pricing in the past decade, pretty remarkable in recent years. Performance-wise, it’s not among the house’s more robust performers, but its quality is still palpably great and I think I might find the opening a bit overwhelming if it were significantly stronger, anyway.

A real innovative creation and yet again something quite new for the catalogue. Bravo to Josh Meyer once again!

8 out of 10