03 Lonestar Memories

I can see how its very polarizing, super spicy dusty ambery in an ancient type of way.. Also it smells like Francesca Bianchi type of perfume

Was I pranked by Luckyscent? I bought a 1 ml decant from them and this smells unbelievably similar to Eternal Oud by Lattafa or Grand Soir by MFK. The Intense labdanum and ambers are the only thing I'm picking up from this. Not a bad perfume persay, but from all the reviews I was expecting something TOTALLY different.

I had followed a perfume course where I combined a ton of birch tar and labdanum and jasmine together, and it comes really close to this, my formulation was really amateurly done, and it annoyed me and funny enough it smells really close to this, therefore can't take it serious

Continuing with another fragrance from Tauer after my review of L'Air du Désert Marocain, today we're looking at Lonestar Memories. Released in 2006, just a year after L'Air du Désert Marocain, it has become one of Andy Tauer's most recognizable creations. It's meant to evoke the smell of worn leather, open air, dry woods, and smoke rising from a campfire after a long day outdoors. So, let's head into the desert as evening settles in and the campfire starts to crackle. The opening is a bold combination of sage and geranium with a touch of carrot seed. The sage and geranium create a camphorous, almost cooling introduction with dry herbal and lightly floral nuances, while the carrot seed adds a musky, earthy quality that gives the fragrance a but of an animalic backbone. After about 15 to 20 minutes, the labdanum begins to emerge, bringing warmth and an amber-like richness with a subtle leathery character. It has a sun-soaked, well-worn feeling rather than the smell of fresh leather, and it's rounded out by just a touch of jasmine sweetness. A couple of hours into the wear, the fragrance settles into a base that's very much Tauer. The sweet amber accord takes center stage alongside resinous myrrh, while vetiver and sandalwood contribute a dry, gently sweet woodiness that carries the scent through the remainder of its life. The easiest way I can describe Lonestar Memories is by comparing it to L'Air du Désert Marocain. If you've tried that fragrance, imagine it with a more pronounced, almost menthol-like geranium opening and stronger animalic undertones. If L'Air du Désert Marocain is the cowboy getting ready to ride out into the desert, Lonestar Memories feels like that same cowboy after spending the entire day under the hot sun. Despite being commonly described as a leather fragrance, I don't actually get much leather from it, and surprisingly, I don't get much smoke either. Instead, what stands out is the warm, musky labdanum, which sits just on the edge of being leathery. There's also an animalic quality that could remind you of well-used boots or an old saddle, but not a distinct leather accord in the traditional sense. That was a bit disappointing because I was hoping for something with a more obvious leather presence. The overall character also reminds me of vintage masculine fragrances. It has a subtle barbershop-like feel mixed with vintage-style animalic nuances. I don't mind either of those styles individually, but for me they never quite come together into a blend that feels completely cohesive here. As much as I respect what Andy Tauer has done and the artistry behind his work, this is another fragrance that ultimately didn't click with me. I really appreciate the concept and the atmosphere it's trying to create, even if the execution wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

heavy on the tauer gummy sweet base. skip

Heavy warm woods on steroids with leather and some hint of flowers. Little like Rhino by Zoologist. Very grounding and artistic. Not for everyone. Not for mass pleasing. To make a statement, a strong one. Or to enjoy in cold winter when sitting alone and drinking tea or alcohol. Niche

This is not just the crown jewel of my collection. This is the bottle that makes the rest of the shelf behave. Tauer No. 03 is not merely a perfume to me, it is a antigravitational object. Every time I open the bottle and smell it, time seems to fold in on itself. There are fragrances that smell beautiful, fragrances that smell expensive, and fragrances that smell artistic. Then there is this: something that feels almost impossible to reduce into notes, or to be even produced. It has that unmistakable Tauer signature (of course)... a storm of smoke, amber, spice, resin, and desert heat, all moving like one living devil creature rather than a list of notes. But what makes it extraordinary is not any single material. It is the way everything fuses together into an accord that feels completely outside the vocabulary of modern perfumery. It's not here to give you pleasure. The notes do not sit beside each other but they interlock, melt, and radiate as one singular entity. Nothing in the market smells like this. There is depth, but not heaviness. There is richness, but not excess. It has a dry, glowing, almost sacred quality, as if incense, woods, spices, amber, and desert air were compressed into liquid form. It feels ancient and futuristic at the same time. A fragrance with soul, structure, and a kind of emotional authority that very few perfumes ever achieve. Andy Tauer, whatever you are doing, keep doing it. This is a masterpiece. I say this without irony: if I had to pay €50,000 for a bottle, I would understand the price. It sits in the very center of my collection, not as decoration, but as a lighthouse. A reference point. A reminder to every other bottle around it of who the king is.

If for a moment we can agree that perfume is a form of art, for this is more than something you’d just wear to smell nice. It’s transformative and artistic, and like most art, it’s not going to be for everyone. The leather gets a bit lost at the start under all the smoky, resinous woods and that big slab of labdanum. Together they bring a real animalic bite that is undoubtably the most challenging part of the composition. Not astringent or sickly, just a deep and growling, dirty leather that sits in the background momentarily, juxtaposed by this clean, soapy thing poking through the muck. The contrast feels strangely at odds, and although it’s subtle you just can’t ignore it. Once the top notes burn away, the leather finally comes out properly and it’s exactly what you want. Dark, tanned hides that are completely filthy, with a resinous sweetness underneath that’s so much more interesting than any of the modern leathers of today. This is real “worn in” saddle leather that’s been pushed, pulled, and manipulated to expose every facet. Some perfumes are linear. Some move through clear stages. This does neither. It just won’t sit still. Constantly shifting, ducking, and weaving as Andy’s signature framework slips in and out, tiptoeing around the aforementioned base. Only many hours later does it finally settle, and when it does, it’s somewhere completely different - soft, powdery, and far lighter than where it started. Every phase feeling deliberate, and the whole experience genuinely rewarding. For what it’s worth, I have both a newer bottle and a vintage version, and they’re distinctly different perfumes. The newer one is much easier to get along with, but if this style excites you, it’s worth tracking down an earlier release. The floral top is far more prominent and the labdanum significantly more animalic. The whole composition in fact feels more intense, and unrestrained.

One of the true masterpieces in perfumery.

Sweaty saddle, spicy, sultry. Smoky, dark (not too much), sunset in front of a fire, after a long ride. The last gusts of warm air bring a mix of the whole set's aromas. Beautiful perfume. A shame I got it at the end of the winter. Nevertheless, I will try it during springs night being cautious with the trigger.

Up there in the greatest hits of Tauer. Very cartoonish display of masculinity with a tongue-in-cheek delivery. Herbal medicine drank straight from an old cowboy boot. A bit too macho for me to wear so it'll never convert to a full bottle but my sample never fails to move me. I'm surprised people can pick out notes (besides the obligatory Tauerade), it's almost too evocative to even begin breaking down and ruining the illusion. The challenging facets are completely hidden by the fact this is something I'd drink and likely enjoy. A good litmus test to see if someone grew up on root beer or not.

Update Feb 2026: I thought this time around would be different, many years later after composing my original review (but only posted here in 2025), compelled to understand why people love it so much. It wasn’t, I couldn’t. The massive camphor opening still made me cough and heave, grating and disparate to Tauer’s much-reused amber stretching from top to bottom that is still too soupy, droning, and fakely balsamic. The animalics still not convincing me of leather, still just salty sweat and dried herbivore feces. The smokey woods still not convincing me of leather either, rather… umm… just smokey charred woods… that have been doused in water and left to grow acrid in the fire pit. The smell of many menthol cigarette butts in a dirty ashtray. All them made sweet, as if those notes made sweet would be appealing. And still, all of them grasping onto that off-putting camphor, a Vicks Vapor Rub or some other material coroners put on their upper lip to cover up the smell of rotting corpses when they go into a morgue. Still not for me. Oh well. Original review posted May 2025: I'm having a very hard time with this perfume. Is it the power of suggestion that makes people think this is a leather perfume? If a certain someone, or enough people repeat a point, does it then form the illusion/hallucination in the receiver's mind? Smell Lonestar Memories side-by-side with Knize 10, Cuir de Russie, Cuir d’Ange, Ombre Leather, etc. and honestly say that Lonestar Memories is a leather perfume - like those others definitely are - more than it is actually a camphoraceous smokey amber. This, to me, is definitely a camphoraceous/mentholated/wintergreen amber, not leather. The opening is a full-on blast in the face of geranium; imagine a citronella candle amped up to three times the olfactive power and then doused in a half-gallon of mint essential oil. Toss in some carrot seed to deliver some earthy, spicy, and sweet notes and you have menthol, or the strongest wintergreen, you've ever smelled. It's hard for me to put my finger on exactly what's creating that amberic accord sitting behind the menthol at the top, but it’s cold and dusty, and it’s Tauer’s favorite amber base that he reuses a lot, but some facets are not placed where you’d expect it. I would believe that part of it is the sweetness and earthiness of the carrot seed, but the other part is maybe faint touches of castoreum (probably the only thing faintly resembling leather in this perfume) delivering a bit of an animalic bent, but more apparent than that is a very warm and lumpy labdanum note, which would certainly help explain some of the slightly warm and woody underpinnings I'm picking up as well. As it slowly but surely dries down it sort of shifts gears into a green and spicy nondescript incense resin accord. This resinous incense note has no smoke at all, but it's as if you've left incense resin on a hotplate and let it slowly melt - never mind, it's as if you've left pounds of resin on a hotplate and let it ooze and overflow to the point where it's in every fabric of your home for weeks on end. This imagery is not entirely accurate though, because I've been using woods and images of things warm and melting to describe the feeling of camphor/menthol. Let me try again. This is the strongest citronella candle you can smell, if you can imagine a citronella candle smelling very strong while frozen. This is a cold, doused campfire (woody and smokey) in the frigid, icy snow. Melting resin that somehow manages to sublimate into liquid nitrogen or like dry ice. A warehouse storage unit of near freezing temperatures containing thousands of freshly-packed menthol cigarettes. From beginning to end, Lonestar Memories is all about slightly-shifting and evolving expressions of the same menthol amber story, and the final dry down to the base and skin scent is no different, where the green resinous note mixes with semi-sweet, earthy, vanillic tonka and a spicy sandalwood. All of this said, Lonestar Memories is a leather perfume in the same way that furniture polish is a lemon scent; there isn't a lick of lemon in furniture polish, but when you combine multiple notes into one, step far back, and get very general and very liberal with your imagination, you could say lemon. Neither my nose nor my imagination are capable of doing that, but I am very happy for those that can because I would definitely want to smell that instead of this. Lonestar Memories is a superbly crafted and highly unique perfume, but it friggin’ stinks and I have absolutely no desire to ever smell it again.

I love how when I spray 03 Lonestar Memories, it shouts out to everyone in the area to let them know it has been sprayed. Then it continues to announce it's presence for maybe 30 minutes before it quiets down and lives out your day with you. I'll give a review another day. I'm definitely going to buy this lasts pretty much as long as you might want it to. Projects very well. Had multiple people say it was really strong, but smelled really good.

To me, it’s 02 l’AdDM but with smoky leather. The smoke really hits you in the face but mellows after a couple minutes. Then Tauer’s signature sparkly top notes are more detectable. As a Texas resident, this doesn’t evoke Texas for me, for what it’s worth.

Why does everything smell like root beer to you people . Any spicy amber is compared to it. Anyways this is good stuff I don’t need it bc I have enough of these kinds of ambers but it’s high quality. Dryer end of things to me and not blind buy safe. You’re getting ur moneys worth. Really enjoy the mint tingle I catch whiffs of

The sasparilla/root beer accord is pure genius especially when mixed with the leather and petrol. Completely evocative of Texas.

This one is really remarkable. Leathery, herbaceous, and a bit floral, too. I can't believe wintergreen is not listed on the notes breakdown, as it seems to be one of the main characters here. The dry down brings out some sassafras. reminds me of root beer. One of my all-time favorites!

Sweet powdery herbal leather into plush resinous myrrh amber Every 2-3 Months i feel an urge to revisit the early Tauers, a sort of exercise to remember my first encounter with true niche perfumery, aka perfume as naive expressive art rather than structured commercial product. While I still love 01 Maroc Pour Elle the most and have dedicated a whole essay to its beauty, Lonestar Memories is just as noteworthy. When sampling this fragrance, try to remember the fact that its Tauer's 3rd release from 2006. So in case you smell it for the first time this year and think, aha, ive smelled something similar in Le Lion or Royal Tobacco, consider that they are several decades apart. Essentially Lonestar Memories, is to me, the sparkly herbal thing Tauer does in the top of most of his releases, that bubbling/fizzing almost champagne-like bergamot meets coriander and/or lavender/clarysage before fizzing morphing into the Tauer-typical push oriental territory. The main construct here is a potent yet delicately polished powdery leather, built around brooding myrrh against fresh smoky frankincense, but enveloped in woody dusty character, perhaps something like guaiac crossed with creosote (wood char essence). Its this phase that really evokes the desolate bonfires cowboy barbeques. There are plenty ambery facets, and indeed, as the leather fades and soft fluffy vanillins remain, my mind slowly starts to travel to Morrocco rather than the Wild West. Beautiful creation, I find its powdery leathers are practically ubiquitous nowadays, so I often feel like Lonestar Memories has lost some of the initial impact of its time. I find Incense Extreme to be the logical evolution of this fragrance and ultimately a more complete work in its radiance and. complexity, although perhaps too refined for some, whilst Lonestar Memories has that distinct unabashed raw indie quality.

Peculiar. Beautiful. It’s insane to think that a self taught perfumer made this stuff in his basement. At first, there’s an acrid, burnt birch tar, and a dusty, worn leather accord. It’s a far cry from the smooth, clean aniline leather you’d get from Tom Ford, or the traditional russian leather. It’s a rough leather but it’s not overbearingly animalic and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Then there’s a sandy, resinous, ambery warmth, a bit of indolic jasmine, and lots of mentholated geranium. As it dries down, the birch tar and the leather take the back seat, the composition becomes smoother and more chalky, and the geranium takes the wheel, from then on it’s dry amber and a soapy, smoky, dark greenness all the way until it fades. That opening is very rough but the drydown is fantastic, it’s hardy, medicinal and a bit puzzling, it tends to shift and smells a bit different every time you wear it, which makes it an interesting scent to explore and become familiar with. Fortunately, none of the above prevents it from being wearable, the introduction may test your patience, however, that scruffy, ruggedly handsome drydown is just as likely to win you over.

I was gonna say it smells like a citrusy oud, but, myrrh forward, supported by the vetiver and fleeting clary sage, with a geranium undertone is a bit more accurate. As a whole, it's an interesting citrusy take of the Magnetic 1 Blend profile, albeit not as "sweaty", but it leans in that direction while also taking on a musky bias. It's a tease, but I'm generally not too enthused with citrusy fragrances to begin with, but, I guess only time can tell. No detectable leather. Interesting perfume overall, with average performance.

99% Geranium 1% Leather, An 80's barber shop fragrance with a crumb of leather. Unbelievably disappointing. I don't know how anyone can call this one of the best "leather" fragrances when it hardly has any leather and smells more like Drakkar Noir than a proper niche leather fragrance. I'm truly shocked and disappointed. I get 6-7 hours of moderate projection with 4 sprays. The bottle is nice but the atomizer is trash. Massively overpriced "niche" fragrance that smells like a bargain bin special from the drug store.

I wanted to like this, I just want a damn fragrance that smells like a cowboy and they all keep disappointing. I love smokey leather scents, and heard great things about this one so I bought a sample. It straight up smells like a crystal store, likely the sage. It’s okay but not at all what I was expecting

I was very trusting of the reviews with this one, because im not the biggest fan of leather fragrances, but im shocked at how pleasing this is. The myrrh and labdinum smooth it out nicely. It's not a massive leather bomb like other things I've tried in the past.

oily 'leather' over tauer's signature amber. leather in air quotes because it's not a distinctly leathery leather. opens a dense, oily, diesel-y 'leather texture' that coats tauer's fizzy amber in a layer of grime. after a few minutes it converges into one and it's like that til the end, which is a great thing masterpiece, i dread the day i don't own this

I picked up samples of this, Au Coeur Desert, and L'Air Du Desert Marocain. On test strips, this was the only one I liked. On skin, they are all nice. This is a wonderful amber/leather frag. Very smooth. A bit of smoke in the opening. Great performance and projection. With the cost, I am not in a hurry. But I will add it to my want list.

Moje prvo stavljanje, bilo je: odlucim staviti špric "na blind" . Ispade Lonestar Memories. Ispade simpatija na prvo mirisanje. I tako je sve do danas. Vrlo neobičan, vrlo zanimljiv, vrlo....da ti preokrene cijeli svijet u jednom dahu. I od simpatije došlo do - želim biti pored njega! Doduše, ne svaki dan. AAAAA.... za kraj: neodoljivo me podsjeća na Kingdom od AMCQ (kao niti jedan do sada) 😊❤️. Oboje provokativni, ranjive senzualnosti, oni koji pomiču granice. Možda sam neupućena ili gledam u drugom smjeru, ali reći ću: osim ove spomenute sličnosti ne nalazim ništa "tog tipa" , ni blizu.

Leather and the softness of some vanilla, but quite ordinary — there are others at better prices.

It's a no for me! Why do all the perfumes I dislike have to have the best projection and performance? As a born-again dyed-in-the-wool Texas honey, the only Lonestar Memory this perfume gives me is the crystal shop in Austin I used to go to when I was a teenage witch. Which is a great smell for a shop, where incense is burning and slightly stinky people are milling about drinking hot chai in the middle of summer... But on a person? It just smells like you work there. After three hours it's just cinnamon. Isn't even in the notes, but I promise they snuck it in somewhere. I can see someone liking this. But I really really don't!

WOW. I’ve experienced it before, a long time ago. Just don’t know when or where. It could have very well been the pack-outs we used to take with the horses in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Fantastic. It’s not just a smell, it’s an entire experience. Also, this stuff wears like a Parfum. Stetson is also a fine fragrance, and this somehow does what Stetson does but with so much more depth and character; a richer leather and something much more tangible. There is a custard like accord in here that is very good, like what you’d find in a homemade fruit tart. You can almost step right onto a mountainside with the fire crackling, the horse tied nearby, and the faintly lit horizon and stars above as the night spreads itself over the land. I’ve never had a fragrance give me such a vivid picture. This one is a keeper and will be worn with pleasure. The cap idea is a great one. I love the O-ring’s to hold it on and the lightweight cap, obviously meticulously crafted. The cap and bottle are a great design together. My guess is that this perfume will go down in history, and one day be in a museum. It has that kind of potential; a true work of art.

L'aire du Desert Marocaine is probably my favorite fragrance of all time, so I was looking forward to trying this. I tried to distance myself from the narrative - the leathery old cowboy out on the range - as such narratives can color perception. I like this, but I don't love it. This opens with a rubbery sweet vinyl jacket accord, nice hits of jasmine and geranium, a smoothing tonka, and a very light leather and incense. After a few hours, a distinct nagarmotha element has joined the scent, bringing to mind Dunhill Century. The leather is still in the background, and I can't understand how many other reviews mention its prominence. I guess everyone smells things differently. Ultimately, that vinyl jacket mixed with the nagarmotha is too dominant for me. If the leather, incense and sandalwood were higher in the mix, that might have made the difference. But for now, LADDM will represent the Tauer line in my collection.