Imaginary Authors — Decisions, Decisions
Essence
Decisions, Decisions is a 2020 limited-edition oddity from Imaginary Authors, described by perfumer Josh Meyer as a “perfume for perfumers”: a polarizing tuberose-and-sarsaparilla composition that most people describe as smelling like root beer next to lit incense. Built specifically to use up a kilo of unusually expensive tuberose absolute, it pairs creamy white florals with a spicy, boozy, effervescent root-beer accord over a resinous labdanum-amber base. It is divisive by design - a “love it or scrub it” curiosity that became a cult object precisely because it’s strange, discontinued, and unlike almost anything else in the house’s catalog.
Scent Profile
There is no consensus opening, which is itself revealing. Official copy leads with tuberose and creamy white florals, but wearers report wildly different first impressions. The single most-repeated note is sarsaparilla rendered as root beer - sweet, spicy, effervescent, vaguely boozy - and the second most-repeated is a startling sour, savory “pickle juice” accord that hits some wearers hard at the opening and never appears for others. Fans describe a syrupy, vaguely boozy quality that works harmoniously with the florals and resins; more skeptical accounts parse the heart as an accord of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, licorice, and vanilla-toned sweetness that gradually displaces the tuberose.
The tuberose itself is the engine but rarely reads as a classic indolic white floral - several wearers say they barely register the listed jasmine and tuberose at all, finding the scent lactonic with amber undertones instead, or entirely dominated by the root-beer and incense effect. Raspberry adds a tangy fruit edge that some wearers can’t detect at all. The drydown settles into labdanum-amber warmth with a persistent incense-like quality and lingering root-beer sweetness. Development varies enormously by skin: an evolving, shape-shifting scent for some, stubbornly root-beer-and-incense for others. The signature idea, whichever way it reads on you, is tuberose meeting root beer - nothing else in the genre smells quite like it.
Performance
Imaginary Authors fragrances are known for skin-dependent performance, and this is a textbook case: aggregated wearer feedback points to moderate-to-good longevity with modest projection overall, though individual experience varies enormously - some report it as an all-day projector, others find it fades to something quieter and more intimate on their skin. The sweet-resinous base provides most of the tenacity. Expect a strong, hard-to-ignore opening regardless of how it develops afterward, and apply cautiously given how assertive and divisive that opening can read.
Wearing Context
This leans cozy and cool-weather: the spicy, boozy, ambery-sweet root-beer character reads as autumn and winter to most wearers, though some find it works fine in warmer weather too. Day or night both work, since it functions more as an expressive personal-pleasure scent than an occasion-specific one. Social perception is the real crux here - this is a conversation piece and a genuine risk in close quarters, intriguing to some and off-putting to others depending on whether the sour or root-beer facets come through. It skews feminine-leaning by virtue of its sweet-floral character but wears as genuinely unisex, since geranium and the spicy-resinous base balance the florals. Best worn for yourself, in casual or creative settings, rather than as a safe, universally flattering choice.
Comparisons & DNA
Decisions, Decisions is deliberately hard to compare, which is part of its appeal, but a few reference points recur. Olympic Orchids’ Mardi Gras is the closest cited match, sharing a spice-forward, balsamic depth. More broadly it belongs to the small family of root-beer and sarsaparilla fragrances and to the boozy-spicy-ambery tuberose niche, though it shares little with polished tuberose icons like Fracas. Within Imaginary Authors’ own catalog it is a genuine outlier - the house is better known for scents like Cape Heartache and Memoirs of a Trespasser - and even devoted fans are split on whether it lacks the house’s usual charm or represents its oddest, most interesting work. No meaningful designer equivalent or clone exists.
Reception
This is one of Imaginary Authors’ most polarizing releases, full stop. A devoted minority adores it, describing it as something they can’t stop thinking about and unique enough to buy multiple bottles of. A substantial contingent recoils, calling it sour, sickly, or “possibly their worst release.” A middle group lands on finding it interesting but not personally wearable. The dominant fault lines are whether a given nose reads the composition as sour and pickle-like or as warm root beer, and whether the whole root-beer-and-incense concept reads as charming or repellent. It is broadly classified within the oriental sweet-floral family, and reaction to it splits along exactly those lines.
This is emphatically not a safe blind buy - it is the archetypal must-sample-first fragrance. Even loyal fans of the house frequently bounce off it, and its strangeness and skin-variability make it a poor gamble, especially given how limited the remaining supply is.
Versions & Reformulation
Single composition with no reformulation, but it is a discontinued limited edition - that scarcity is the defining fact about this release. Josh Meyer has said it was limited primarily because of the tuberose absolute itself, a kilo of which he bought for an undisclosed but extraordinary sum and couldn’t justify using at scale in the permanent line. It launched in December 2020, was pulled from the brand’s own site, and lingered briefly at a few third-party retailers before largely disappearing. Meyer has mentioned working on a follow-up sharing some of the same components, though no re-release has been confirmed.
Acquisition Notes
As a discontinued 2020 limited edition, this fragrance is now scarce and trades above its original niche price on the secondary market. The most practical way to experience it is through decants and samples from established splitter sites, typically in 2 ml to 10 ml sizes. Full 50 ml bottles surface occasionally at lingering stockists or on resale, where limited-edition status drives prices up considerably; expect a real discontinuation premium if you find one. Given the polarizing profile and skin-dependent behavior, starting with a decant is the sensible strategy rather than a full-bottle gamble.
Notable Facts & Lore
- The fragrance began as a project to use up a kilo of tuberose absolute that Josh Meyer had purchased for an undisclosed, extraordinary sum and had been experimenting with for years.
- Unusually for the house, the scent came before the story: Meyer developed the tuberose-and-sarsaparilla concept first, and the fictional backstory and label design followed afterward.
- Its fictional-author conceit centers on Jasmine Duchamp, leader of a group of young activists turned outlaws called the “Wishbone Girls,” reflected in the bottle’s wishbone artwork.
- The release has been connected by some wearers to a cause supporting racial-justice activism, in keeping with its underlying fictional narrative.
- The house won two first-place spots in reader voting for Best American Niche Fragrance in 2021, around the same period this fragrance released.