A City On Fire 2014

A City On Fire by Imaginary Authors
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6.8 / 10 173 Ratings
A perfume by Imaginary Authors for men, released in 2014. The scent is smoky-woody. It is still in production.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Smoky
Woody
Spicy
Resinous
Earthy

Fragrance Notes

Burnt match BerriesBerries Cade juniperCade juniper LabdanumLabdanum CardamomCardamom Clearwood™Clearwood™ SpikenardSpikenard

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
6.8173 Ratings
Longevity
7.7135 Ratings
Sillage
7.3136 Ratings
Bottle
7.2131 Ratings
Value for money
6.949 Ratings
Submitted by Franfan20, last update on 10.03.2024.
Interesting Facts
Imaginary Authors developed this fragrance exclusively for Machus, a men's fashion retailer in Portland.

Reviews

12 in-depth fragrance descriptions
7
Bottle
5
Sillage
6
Longevity
7
Scent
Chizza

273 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
Chizza
Chizza
Top Review 16  
Straw fire in the city centre
I was on standby and was just cooking a supper for my crew. We were all a bit frisky when suddenly the siren went off! Butch was already yelling at me, "Hank, drop the bowl, we're goin' in!"
Let's go! A fire was reported, according to the citizen who called us, it must be burning brightly! We quickly got into our suits and then off to the cars. Everyone turned on their sirens and off we went in our fire trucks!

We drove through the night and the smoke came closer and closer. "Man, did somebody light up acres of juniper bushes or what's that smell? It's crazy!" In fact, it smelled like smoke, which had a kind of herbaceousness to it. A hint that also the berries and therefore the juniper bushes must have been on fire in their entirety. It was no smoke that was intense and glowing heat betrayed why we were all curious what kind of fire there was. We all thought of a kind of smouldering fire at that time. But we would be proved wrong.
The closer we came to the supposed location of the event, the more the smoke was lost. We wanted to turn back first, but then we made sure that we were on the right track. Now and then we came across a woody, earthy and spicy cloud of smoke, we had to be right even if the circumstances were strange.
Then we had finally arrived, the citizen who reported the smoke was already running towards us. "At last you are here! I don't know what's going on and where it's coming from! Can you smell that?" "Yes of course, but has the fire burned out yet? It is only cold and fading smoke! Then I need Pummpopf (affectionately named by the little daughter of the chief), our smoke sniffer dog!"
No sooner said than done. The dog picked up the trail, searched and searched until it finally struck. We all ran to the place, but saw no fire, no billows of smoke rising to the sky

Then we saw him: a young man, dropping a burned match and yes, that too was this smoke. That smell of cold, burnt black match. It was in the air.

"Young man! Are you responsible for the chaos here? You smell like a smoking man, too!"
"Hank, are you sure? I hardly notice anything anymore?"
"That's just it! As fading on him as the smoke itself! Case solved!"
Then the young man exclaimed... "Hands up! What's in your hand? Drop the gun!"
The young man did as he was told and put the bottle with the inscription A City on Fire on the floor.
"We've got you now, laddie," Hank growled contentedly.
A City on Fire is a successful smoky fragrance, but not as good as other fragrances that rely on smoke. In my opinion it is too harmless, too linear and not dense enough. It lacks originality. I'll stick with Broken Theories here. Especially since I am very displeased with the durability and sillage here. If smoke, then I would like to smell it as well
8 Comments
PBregovich

23 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
PBregovich
PBregovich
Very helpful Review 8  
Replica Vol. 2
My last replica comment dates from May 2018 and treated Gucci's "Guilty Absolute pour Homme", a floral-leathery fragrance that was still too strong for me at the time. In the meantime I got used to him and have to say that I see some areas of application and like to wear him from time to time.

Today there was a sample of "A City on Fire" with an order and I immediately had to think of my reaction to the Gucci fragrance at that time. Therefore a small comment on a fragrance that is very exceptional and special.

"A City on Fire" is a fragrance I've had on my watch list for a long time. Some YouTuber from the US recommend this fragrance and I must also say that I am very impressed by the aesthetics of the brand and the namings. On the website, the manufacturer describes the fragrance as a comic that resembles a film noir. Rupert, the matchmaker of a factory in the harbour district, and Frances, who writes dating columns, are both remote people and witness a murder. In an effort to clear their names, they join together in an unexpected duo of vigilante justice.

How it goes on one can probably think and the smell implies this also. The most prominent fragrance is smoke, smoke and smoke again. However, smoke can have different sources. Smoke from burnt wood smells different from paper and again different from rubber. The smoke you can find at A City on Fire is very woody. Further down a user also named incense and I can well imagine that. Now I think of the burning office of Frances, where the furniture and the newspaper of the next day are ablaze in flames. But what's that? Does that smell like...? Bacon? I just hope that Frances and Rupert made sure that the trainee from the 5th floor didn't slave away into the evening hours again...

But my description is different and I formed my own associations with the fragrance before I was allowed to read this interpretation:

REPRODUCTION OF FAMILIAR SCENTS AND MOMENTS OF VARYING LOCATIONS AND PERIODS
Originally: Bulgarian Winter Roads
Provenance and Period: Kyustendil, 2006
Fragrance Description: Burning wood and clear snow
Style Description: ????

When I lived with my parents in Bulgaria and visited my family in Macedonia, we always drove the distance from Sofia to Skopje, which took about 3 hours by car. But as we have a smaller bladder as a child, we had to take a little pee break from time to time. I loved it most when those breaks were in the winter. It was freezing cold as the villages in the Kyustendil area were already snowed in, but the smell was unique. At first I always felt the smell of the snow, which is not really a smell, but fills the lungs with ice-cold air and lets it burn a little, similar to holding snow in your hands for too long. What was added now was the smell of burning wood, since in the villages on the Balkans very often wood is used for heating. This smell is very authentically recreated by A City on Fire in my opinion. A great masterpiece of art.

Unfortunately, this also leads to wearability, which I consider to be very bad. Maybe like Gucci's leather armchair my opinion will change after some time, but I can't imagine a situation where I wanted to smell like that. User Caligari said that many smoky fragrances often add another component to cover up the smoky more or less. Maybe that's what this scent needs. I can well imagine wanting to get a taste of him from time to time in the near future, but it will probably not happen that I will wear him extensively. I don't want my environment thinking there's a fire somewhere.
3 Comments
5
Bottle
7
Sillage
7
Longevity
8.5
Scent
SmellGoodGuy

58 Reviews
SmellGoodGuy
SmellGoodGuy
Helpful Review 2  
Only for Lovers of Avant Garde/Niche in the True Sense of the Word, Fragrances..
If you're into dumb reach frags, you'll hate this. If you think fragrances like: Hamdani, Guilty Absolute pour Homme, Tyrannosaurus Rex, L'Air du Désert Marocain, The Night, etc... are unwearable or are only to be appreciated and not worn; stay away from this. You will think the same.

However, if you ARE into those fragrances, then you'll absolutely fall head over heels for this composition.

It probably sounds crazy but, to me, this smells of a medicinal, black soap from a high end source. One i would definitely buy if there were one.

True to it's name, it smells of smoke, but it also has a subtle sweetness to it, attributed to the "dark berries" accord, no doubt. The cardamon helps to marry both the cade oil and the sweetness, creating one well blended composition. I'm not too familiar with the note of labdanum, but i do understand it can have a powdery sweetness to it and probably accentuates the smoky aspect of the composition, helping to make the fragrance a wearable "city on fire" and not a sad, municipal, accident.

Overall, if you like literal niche fragrances and want to project the avant garde type you are, you'll like this.
0 Comments
9
Bottle
8
Sillage
10
Longevity
9.5
Scent
Carboytony

116 Reviews
Carboytony
Carboytony
2  
Burn baby Burn!
I'm a huge fan of smokey scents and this never fails to deliver. It's very smokey, yes, but it's not a typical burning wood and leaves fragrance. Indeed, the some note is almost sweet, it's more opaque in texture. It's the scent of a burnt match, supported by notes of Cade, Spikenard, berries and cardamom. Labdanum in the base adds a dirty, leathery note to this. Smokey and seductive.
0 Comments
9
Bottle
9
Sillage
8
Longevity
9
Scent
Venomrock101

32 Reviews
Venomrock101
Venomrock101
1  
Takes Time to Warm Up Too
I’m going to be completely honest here, at first, I absolutely hated this scent. Being really new into niche scents, and cologne in general, the smoke note hit me like a truck. I actually coughed and had to pull away my nose from the card I sprayed it on when I first tried it, and then after that attempt I put the sample away for a while. But one day I was going through my samples and was like, “Oh, I haven’t tried this in a while, I wonder why?” and sprayed it on my wrist. While I still didn’t like it, it smelled a lot better to me on skin than it did on the card. From that day forward every so often I’d spray it on my wrist and each time it became more and more and more inviting to me, and then I found myself actually wanting to wear it. The smoke got way less chokey, and the other notes actually started to open up to my nose which led to this probably becoming my favorite from the house. Just a nice, clean, smokey scent with a hint of berries. The smoke has honestly become the best part of it to me as it just smells like you are burning the darkest wood to ever exist, an ebony fire. Once again, try it before buying a full bottle because like me, you might not like it at first, or you may just not like it at all. But this scent definitely gets my recommendation.
1 Comment
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Statements

7 short views on the fragrance
MRothMRoth 4 years ago
5
Bottle
8
Sillage
7
Longevity
6
Scent
I love smoky scents (Arso, Hamdani etc) but this is full-on BBQ complete with sticky sweet BBQ sauce. Yum for some, but blind buyer beware.
0 Comments
GeorgeReidGeorgeReid 1 year ago
7
Bottle
9
Sillage
8
Longevity
5
Scent
A 10/10 as an enthralling artistic statement.
A 0/10 for typical usage; smelling like a burnt match won't appeal to most users.
0 Comments
BoBoChampBoBoChamp 4 years ago
8
Sillage
7
Longevity
6.5
Scent
A unique, yet challenging male-oriented Winter fragrance slowly shifting from heavy spicy-smoky to a more balanced earthy-woody drydown.
0 Comments
NgarciaNgarcia 3 years ago
6
Bottle
7
Sillage
9
Longevity
0.5
Scent
Awful, just smoke smell, other notes try to make it more dry and green but they fail, just smoke, but amazing longevity.
0 Comments
KatemorganbKatemorganb 3 months ago
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
7
Longevity
7.5
Scent
Photorealistic burnt match, a little barbecue-y but could be satisfying for smoke lovers.
0 Comments
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Images

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