Imaginary Authors — The Soft Lawn: Edition 2.0
Essence
The Soft Lawn: Edition 2.0 is a 2021 reboot of Imaginary Authors’ 2012 original, and its identity is unusually clear: a green, airy, synthetic-fresh fragrance built around the smell of a tennis court, especially the rubber-felt note of a newly opened can of tennis balls. That alone makes it distinctive, but what keeps it interesting is how the tennis-ball accord balances between believable sport nostalgia, cucumbery lawn freshness, and a very real risk of tipping into cleaning-product territory depending on the wearer’s nose.
Scent Profile
The opening consistently starts with green freshness - grapefruit, cut grass, damp greenery, and a linden-lit floral air - before the signature tennis-ball accord takes over as a rubbery, felt-like note. Wearers describe it as everything from a photorealistic tennis ball with a flower on top to a green, herbal, synthetic composition where vetiver, ivy, and laurel dominate. Compared to the original 2012 formula, this reboot runs warmer and muskier, adding a fragrance-like wearability the earlier, more mineral and conceptual version didn’t aim for.
The drydown reads less like a traditional base-note reveal and more like a shift from fresh-cut greenery into rubber, moss, and warmed, musky-cashmeran texture.
Performance
Performance is genuinely debated. Some wearers report thin wear - little projection after half an hour and disappearance by the four-hour mark - while others describe a stronger opening with an overall life of five to six hours before it settles into a skin scent. A smaller group reports good longevity and sillage throughout. The realistic expectation is moderate longevity with better-than-expected projection in the first hour or two given how airy the composition reads - not a ghost, but not a steadfast all-day performer either, and unlikely to satisfy anyone expecting dense niche-level longevity from a green fresh scent.
Wearing Context
This wants spring and summer, daytime wear, and situations where a little conceptual weirdness is welcome. Its grassy, citrusy, floral-green profile with nostalgic sport imagery makes it more natural outdoors or in creative-casual settings than in conventional daily rotation. The rubber-and-cleaner axis can feel out of place in conservative office or formal settings, especially if oversprayed - this shines when you want to smell interestingly green rather than conventionally fresh.
Comparisons & DNA
The most important comparison is to the 2012 original, which read greener, fresher, more mineral, and more like a statement piece; this reboot is warmer, muskier, and more relaxed in its tennis-ball effect. Outside its own lineage, the original Soft Lawn has been compared to the house’s own Falling Into The Sea, with less beach and a more earthy, grassy opening, and one review of the original caught a short-lived resemblance to Chanel’s Platinum Egoiste in its green-vetiver-oakmoss profile. Edition 2.0 belongs to the atmospheric green-fresh family broadly, but its conceptual rubber sport accord keeps it from sitting comfortably beside standard grassy or citrus-aromatic fragrances.
Reception
Reception favors the concept more than it favors universal wearability. Edition 2.0 sits at a comfortably positive but not overwhelming aggregate reaction, running slightly below the original 2012 version’s own reception, and wearer commentary alternates between admiration for the creative execution and frustration with its synthetic, rubbery edge. Positive reviews praise the realism of the tennis-ball note and the vivid tennis-court atmosphere; negative ones compare it to cleaning spray, sanitizing wipes, or an aloe-cucumber deodorant, and simply don’t want to smell like rubber. Some wearers report being drawn to it precisely because they feel they should dislike it, which sums up its overall reputation well: respected, memorable, polarizing, and much safer as a sample than as a blind full-bottle purchase.
Versions & Reformulation
This is explicitly a reformulation. The original Soft Lawn released in 2012 and is now apparently discontinued; Edition 2.0 arrived in 2021, reportedly reworked to better suit the perfumer’s current taste, running warmer, muskier, and more conventionally fragrance-like with less of the original’s cooling greenness and minerality.
Acquisition Notes
Edition 2.0 remains in current production and is one of the easier releases in the house’s catalog to acquire directly. The main buying guidance isn’t about authenticity or batch codes but about sampling first - the tennis-ball accord is distinctive enough that blind buying carries real risk for wearers who aren’t sure they’ll enjoy that specific note.
Notable Facts & Lore
- Perfumer Josh Meyer has said the concept began with the image of sitting at Wimbledon eating cucumber sandwiches.
- Meyer has specifically noted that the tennis-ball note matters because it’s one of the smells people instantly recognize.
- This is an explicit 2021 reformulation of the brand’s original 2012 Soft Lawn, rather than a wholly new concept.
- It remains one of Imaginary Authors’ most talked-about releases across both its original and rebooted versions.