It’s the dead of night. You’re camped out in the New Mexico desert, two hours by horseback from the Santa Fe city limits. Cheap coffee burns over the campfire as your neurotic partner blasts a cigar, stamps it out, and lights another in the dying cinders. The air is thick with smoke. You gaze, with difficulty, to the stars above. Welcome to Lonestar Memories.
Lonestar Memories Notes
Top Notes: Carrot Seed, Geranium, Clary Sage
Heart Notes: Jasmine, Leather, Galbanum
Base Notes: Sandalwood, Tonka Bean, Vetiver, Myrrh
Andy Tauer’s fragrances tend to share a pair of key characteristics – rich, dry spices and a robust smoky base. Lonestar Memories takes both of these to the extreme.
Lonestar Memories opens with an explosive barrage of base notes in a style reminiscent of Slumberhouse. Myrrh and leather grant the fragrance a rich smokiness that lasts throughout the fragrance. The top and heart notes are almost as brutal in their approach, levying a bewildering bouquet of spices that recall charred woods and desert rock. This is truly the predecessor to Zoologist’s Hyrax, but where Hyrax illustrates desert heat through animalic notes, Lonestar Memories conjures the effect with the ashes of a human encampment.
The beauty of Tauer’s creations lies in their tenacity. Lonestar Memories evolves not by withering, but quieting. The burning blast of Lonestar Memories’ top notes simmers over the course of the fragrance. This allows the jasmine in the middle of the construction to peep out among the herbal topnotes, creating an impression of a floral oasis among the dust. Despite all the harshness of the heavy base notes and biting spices, Lonestar Memories often opens up to betray the beauty of its quieter elements.
I remember the first time I smelled a Tauer fragrance – L’air du Desert Marocain, which has since become a legend within niche perfumery. L’Air has a similar effect to Lonestar Memories. It frontloads the fragrance with both resinous basenotes and heaps of spices, constructing them in a way to allow its dry-down process to act as an ever-revealing veil.
Each note, rather than fading into dullness, gingerly settles into the background to other elements to shine. However, where L’Air captures the fragrance chaos of a spice market, Lonestar Memories angles for the darker atmosphere of an isolated campfire. It’s somehow richer, deeper, even more spiritual than its older sibling. Those enraptured by the dream of a desert journey will surely find Lonestar Memories as a constellation to guide the way.
If you’d like to try this scent, you can pick up a sample for $3 over at Luckyscent. A full 50 mL bottle, for those of you wanting to take the plunge, runs at $153 through the same site, or, if you are able to order from Tauer’s website, the same size bottle is $107.95.
The Fandomentals “Fragdomentals” team base our reviews off of fragrances that we have personally, independently sourced. Any reviews based off of house-provided materials will be explicitly stated.
Have strong thoughts about this piece you need to share? Or maybe there’s something else on your mind you’re wanting to talk about with fellow Fandomentals? Head on over to our Community server to join in the conversation!
[rwp_box id=”0″]
