Scentzilla!

As a forewarning, this is not a formal review: to describe the notes in this perfume would be a dishonest reflection of my impressions. Moreover, I feel it would be useless for me to try at this point. Perhaps there will be one forthcoming later, much later. “Spicy leather, dying embers, approaching storms” is as far as I’m willing to go at this moment. If you wish to see specific note breakdowns, please see Legerdenez or Perfume Critic for formal reviews.

Like the previous two fragrances by Tauer Perfumes, Lonestar Memories compels the senses with emotions first, rather than notes. I am undone by it. It is a masterpiece. I don’t throw that word around too much, and in fact a quick search reveals that the only other perfume I’ve labeled a masterpiece on this blog is Jean Desprez’s Bal a Versailles. (Though I must point out, Iris Gris and Shalimar amongst others also reign as masterpieces.) This is the best leather-themed fragrance I have smelled in a long while, and at the very least, it is the perfume of the year, which I say with confidence though we’re only halfway through 2006.

It is not merely a “cowboy perfume,” nor a “prairie perfume.” Despite the namesake state embraced by title, it is not the smell of some place you can geographically locate: it can not be travelled over by road or by plane. Lonestar Memories smells of the examined life. Inside there is joy, and there is tiny heartbreak, existing only in reverie. The scent unravels into the consideration of past experiences, and pinings for future joys and heartbreaks.

The only prairie I know well, that of South Dakota, is struck by sudden daytime storms that I am only ever able to explain by comparing them to bed clothes ripping free from a clothesline. Out of the sunshine, comes dark wind and rain, like a sheet passing overhead. You can acutally feel and see the storms rise up to meet you across the horizon. Moody weather sails over the land, only to finish as suddenly as it began. The sheet’s shadow quickly flies overhead. It passes by and lets the sun shine in through blue skies again. All occurs within an hour, as if nothing had happened at all. Here are some photos that show how it happens: click here to see ’storm’ by Flickr member JKonig, or you can click here to see ‘air by Flickr member gradschool4life.

Why do I bring this up? I don’t know, precisely. I never thought about this type of day storm when growing up there. I only realized and admired it upon revisiting South Dakota when I got older. What an amazing phenomenon. It’s an experience unto itself, but is also a metaphor for something I cannot name.

Perhaps my connection here is this: Lonestar Memories smells of a bittersweet materialization of things taken for granted, things only thought of in passing at the time but appreciated later. I am reminded by its fragrance of my homesickness for a place I do not call home.

Lonestar Memories is scheduled for wide release on the 15th of this month. I urge you to give it a try. There is nothing else quite like it. You can find more information by going to Andy Tauer’s blog or by seeking out his website at Tauer Perfumes. The order information can be found directly through Tauer Perfumes at this page.

*I feel I must run a disclaimer here that I am working with Laurent Le Guernec at Made by Blog to create my own leather scent. It may be a silly thing to worry about, but I felt like it would be unethical not to mention it.

Image in this post is a photo by Flickr member patryczek i ewelinka, and is covered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 license.