Reviews of Lonestar Memories (2006)
by Tauer

Smokey, florals with a bit of a meat-factory weirdness to it. Very strange.

The opening blast was just too harsh but, within a couple of hours, it did settle into something almost wearable. I easily noticed the tar notes throughout its development, while the drydown was slightly creamy.

Unfortunately, my overall impression (especially when compared to L’Air) was that it came across as somewhat unfinished. I also found the drydown in need of a slight kick (but not as OTT as the top notes).

It’s pretty good (after a little patience) but not really for me.

The openings notes are a big wow! But it dries down to something close to Pinesol.

I really wanted to love this scent but something in it lingers much too long on me. The sweet and sharp parts of this scent pierced for hours on me. I normally love birch. leather and smoke scents but something gets in the way of this one. It reminds me of an auto repair facility with all the chemical and petrol scents. Perhaps this scent is meant as a former cowboy who is now working as an auto mechanic? The scent also reminds me of my father's workshop, full of dusty electronic parts and soldering tools.

I admire the uniqueness of this scent and I think it would work on some people, but it is not for me. It is like a piece of art meant to provoke rather than soothe.

Lonestar is heavy, thick, dark, and greasy. I had really hoped for images of a dusty western US landscape, with tumbleweeds rolling past, cowboy boots, horse saddles, maybe even horses, but instead I get the image of working on a tractor in an old barn, wearing greasy, dirty, leather gloves in the darkness and the dead of winter. I've spent more than a few winter evenings repairing machinery, so this image is very real for me, and not an altogether pleasant image. Those who have never spent a night hungry and cold, working on machinery that tears open your frigid, stiff, and dry skin might want to romanticize such imagery, but for me, it's not all that pleasant. I have a hard time getting past this notion when I smell Lonestar.

Being more objective for a moment, Lonestar very much reminds me of Tauer's first men's scent, Desert Marocain, only here the tar and dirt elements have been amped up. There is still that smoky woodiness that to my mind defines Tauer's first three scents. Lonestar dries down to a scent very similar to Marocain. In fact, Desert Marocain does a better job of bringing to my mind the western US imagery I had hoped for with Lonestar.

I don't want to give the impression that this is in any way a "poor" scent. I like it for what it is, and I can see how, for many, this would bring to mind the desired imagery. It just takes me somewhere else entirely.

A really evocative one. I get more campfire than leather, and there's also woods and maybe some fields, and lots of other little things that keep coming and going. My only problem with this one is that on the drydown it loses most of its interesting original notes and becomes just another of those nice inoffensive sweetish niche scents, in the vein of L'Artisan or Miller Harris.