High Desert

I just tried this out for the first time (on my fiance, not myself), and I can see why it's so polarizing. On the initial spray, I was shocked at how strong the smoke and cedar were. A few seconds later, it started to settle into his skin. Hours after that, it mellowed into a much softer fragrance, but one that I catch a whiff of as he moves. It seems a lot of people don't like it, but to me, it smells very unique and very sexy, but not overtly provocative. There's something about it that evokes a muscular southern man, skin kissed by the sun he works under, resting his feet by a bonfire made from cedar logs he'd felled that day. His leather jacket, heavy and showing signs of wear, is draped on the log next to him. The sky above is clear and you can count every star. It's almost photorealistic for me- I smell it and the vision in my mind is so clear. It also has a warmth to it that I can't quite describe. I grew up in a small southern coal mining town, and something about it smells like home to me. I also spent a lot of time in my late grandfather's woodworking shop, and taking a whiff of this makes me remember his warm smile and his kind eyes. This scent has a duality to me; equal parts sexy and comforting. With that said, I think it's a perfect scent for my fiance- hot and home all in one. (And my dear fiance, who isn't particularly gifted with a strong sense of smell, says to add that he likes it and it smells "fresh" to him lol)

Has kind of a campfire smell. Makes me think of camping. Not necessarily the desert though. Some national park somewhere. It’s woody and the birch tar is interesting. I can see why some people, like my husband, wouldn’t like it. (You know with the ‘why can’t you wear things that make you smell womanly?’ and I go I do! Like a hippie chick!) I kind of love the birch tar though. Kind of reminds me of doing wood burned designs as a kid. I can detect the cade and the sage but mostly it’s just cedar. Something slightly, very slightly, medicinal about it. Now this isnt something to wear out on the town. The campfire thing is going to be off-putting to a lot of people. But if you happen to visit a state park you'll match the scenery. You’ll smell like Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec. It is rather strong so if you’re headache prone you may want to avoid. i think this would be really hot on a rugged outdoorsy kind of guy. Kind irresistible really. Or husbands pretending to be outdoorsy and rugged?

Opens strong on first spray with the bitter citrus of grapefruits mixing with dry herbs and woody smokiness swirling around. Almost like you kicked open the dusty swinging door of a saloon with an armload of dried firewood with a bunch of grapefruits balanced precariously atop. The bar goes silent...staring you, a stranger in town, down. The silence is broken by a regular patron who speaks up..."Partner, you smell just like my grandpa-pa used to". A compliment of the highest order, in this case. High Desert comes through like a dancing tumbleweed mixed perfectly with ancient dust and fresh air, and paints a picture of a time when things were less digital and plasticized, and folks were a bit rougher around the edges. While the fragrance might also be a bit rough around the edges, there is still an air of refinement and curation here. Completely natural in composition and aroma, High Desert is a refreshing break from modern perfumery that stands out from the crowd to my nose.

I'm questioning the validity of these reviews. It smells like aftershave, and I don't get any smoke?This thing is loaded with birtch tar and I'd love to know what generic aftershave this smells like? I grew up in the desert and this thing is spot on to a dusty southwest + coal fired railroad train. Maybe we're smelling different juice or it's been reformulated. I understand fragrance is subjective, but these reviews are wildly inaccurate. I've let friends, family, and people I know and trust in the fragrance community try this, and I've never heard aftershave or bug sprays. You people need to get outside more.

This is a great scent. Boyd's of Texas uses natural ingredients, so as such this is a strong, but not "beast mode" performer. But the ingredients used are of great quality and do evoke a ghost town with sagebrush and leather. The birch and vetiver are blended in well...there is no strong dominating note. I get reasonable performance and decent sillage. Which I am perfectly OK with. I wouldn't want this to have a "beast mode" at all. It's a great scent that evokes the southwestern desert. Very good!

This is a ghost town in a bottle. Max Mellows below me explains it very well. If you've been to old west towns, this is that smell. Dry air and desert plants; the heat radiating off of the sand and rocks. Unburned and burned coal from a vintage train. I couldn't believe how realistic this smells on skin; it's truly uncanny. If you have an affinity for the old west, try this fragrance. It's a photorealistic experience.

Really love this. Smoky and green fresh. Some RL Green notes were coming through. I think that will evolve into something different later. This is a bottle I was looking for. Really me. Love it. Great bottle. Waited couple months for this bottle. Blind bought and glad I did. If you know high deserts this has captured the environment. Kudos to the composers.

This scent is exactly as described. The cedar comes out very strong and woody, but as I was told, this is considered a young batch (less than 30 days old) and it will continue to cure over the next 90 days. I personally love it. It reminds me of my grandpas aftershave, but in the best way. It’s smokey and earthy with just a hint of citrus.

My papi tells a story of riding in the back of a flatbed in mexico city. He fell asleep in the afternoon heat, and had a vision of his own death. 70 years later, after a life and after love, his vision comes to fruition. This is how that smells.

The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, and Boyds managed to put that in a bottle like youre on an outing on the rugged canyons of the Rio Grande and pushing out further into Hill country. Scent is woody, smoky herbaceous, and dirty in an animalistic/leather way. This is by no means a pleasant scent, you're not gonna wanna put this on for a date night but you are gonna smell like you just came out of a jaripeo so very polarizing for some, very nostalgic for others. Alternatively, also a great scent if you're interested in dressing up as Arthur Morgan from RDR2.

reading the description and hearing about this perfume, i first smelled 'cedar barn'. my coworker said 'smells like a boring spa perfume'. just another example of the power of suggestion. ill give my sample another try, it is a nice and comes off as a dried lavender scent but perhaps not exciting enough for a FB

A little too tarry at first, but it chills out after about a half hour. At that point, true to its advertised notes, I get coriander and grapefruit over the heart of cedar, and it's nicer than the opening led me to expect. The grapefruit morphs about halfway into vetiver and coasts through the rest of the dry-down. It's not terribly unique, but I'm not well enough versed in this genre of rustic/cowboy/campfire scents to offer a comparison.

a restrained smokiness with edges of sage and coriander, the cedar dominates the fragrance but the woodiness peak is surrounded by spicy herbal elements and a sophisticated base

Smells like mezcal. With maybe a twist of lime. To a startling degree. It's certainly different, but while I love tequila, I don't think this is for me.

Woof. This is a lot. I am surprised by the reviews for this claiming they're soft, but the two samples I've tried from Boyd's (High Desert and Cuero) are ridiculously strong. Overwhelmingly so. Headache inducingly so. Both smell quite similar. Very strong, traditional, barbershop, aftershave fragrances. This starts with strong herbs, and I detect patchouli in it despite not being a listed note (though perhaps that's what trailside herbs means) and maybe even a little lavender. It gets very powdery very quickly, and then comes a citrus note that I do like but that is just overpowered by the herbs and powder. The smokey woody drydown never comes. It just stays a very powdery, old fashioned, overbearing smell. Have lived in the desert all my life, do not get that at all from this. No creosote, no dusty trailhead, no smokey burning wood, no wood really. Just aftershave. Just not pleasant at all for me. Cuero was slightly better, but has a similarly strong aftershave thing going that just didn't work for me. That being said, if you WANT a very old fashioned cologne fragrance, you should give these a try. But I was expecting a much more natural, smokey, desert, modern experience based on how this was described. Didn't get that at all. These are a good example of this type of fragrance and the packaging is lovely, but they feel pretty similar to a cheap old cologne so I dunno if I'd call I worth a purchase.

I'm 0 for 4 on Boyds. WHO in their right mind would want to smell like this? This smells like I'm Billy Bob Thornton sifting through the remains of a gas station that burned all night long. The smoke is wayyy too strong and the rest is just a mess of woody notes that come and go. There's a strong gasoline note in there that fragrantica should add. It is a worse, smoky version of Stel by Treading Water. This is the worst of the Boyds line up, for sure.

Again, I hate to not support a Texas house, but save yourself the money and just go work out on a ranch for like 15 hours... you will probably smell better than this perfume. I definitely will give it credit for emulating the smell of a hard day's work. But spraying this on my skin is not in my future.

Smells like aftershave that some older gentlemen use. I agree with the initial bugspray smell others mentioned, in fact, it's an issue that this perfumer has with all of their fragrances. Headache inducing and absolutely not worth the price.

Smells like my hoodie after sitting around a campfire.

Uber smokey. Smells like tires that have been sitting in the sun.

I'm the kind of guy who seeks out perfumes that offer a unique experience, as opposed to the guy who smells as though he just doused himself in free samples at a department store. So when I heard about High Desert, I hoped this might be a scent I would fall in love with. I just received a sample of High Desert from Lucky Scent -- $5 for a 1 ml.vial.(no 2ml samples with a sprayer were offered). After opening the package, I dabbed a small amount on my wrist, and smelling it...I was immediately disappointed. But after showering in the evening, I wanted to give myself the full treatment...and High Desert a second chance. As I opened the vial, it slipped between my fingers, and over half of the sample spilled over my wrist and fingers. I wish I could say that my second experience smelling this perfume was more positive than the first, but instead, I had visions of needing to scrub this smell off my skin with steel wool, or else risk my wife sentencing me to a night sleeping on the couch. When I ordered High Desert, I fully understood the notes that composed this fragrance...and was not surprised that this perfume smelled as close to its description as any that I had ever put my nose to. With that being the case, why would I be disappointed? Answer: I was hoping to find that the perfumer was able to soften the edges of this fragrance without losing its uniqueness. But what I found was that while I didn't find its smell to be respulsive, I had no doubt that others would. If this were a scent that I wanted to wear around the house, simply for myself and no one else...fine. But even then, I didn't enjoy the scent enough to want to pay $128 plus tax and shipping for a 50 ml. bottle. So what did I find to be disappointing about High Desert...and believed that others would find to be repulsive? To my nose, the culprit was definitely the birch tar. While I consider myself to have a fairly discerning nose, I fully admit that I struggle to explain what I like or dislike about a particular fragrance or what it smells like...in a way that paints an accurate picture to others. With that said, I'll tell you what High Desert reminds me of. I grew up on a farm, and this reminds me of how my father smelled after he came in from the fields on a hot summer day, smelling of green grass that would soon be cut for hay -- fresh soil -- and sweat, mixed with diesel fuel that spilled on his hands and clothing as he worked on the tractor that had broken down in the field. This was a very familiar smell that brought back pleasant memories of my father and the farm where I lived and worked throughout the time I lived with my parents. But despite the nostalgic smells that came back so clearly to me, this isn't a smell that I can see myself wearing...at least not in the company of others. Tomorrow night, my wife and I will be going to a Lyle Lovett concert, and I had hoped to wear High Desert -- after all,Lyle Lovett practically spells out "TEXAS"...and High Desert is a perfume from Boyd's of Texas. But I wouldn't dare think of ruining the concert experience of those sitting near us by forcing them to endure a smell that they had likely never experienced...and hope they would never have to experience again. Lastly, please understand that it's not my intention to imply that this is a horrible-smelling perfume, for it's not. We all smell things differently, and some of you may enjoy High Desert enough that it becomes your signature perfume. Bt I would definitely encourage you to proceed with caution and to NOT make this a blind buy.

I'm a massive fan of Loewe's Pour Homme. I'll wear it just about wherever, whenever. High Desert is comparable, in my honest opinion. It's similar, but also unique on its own. I wouldn't say this smells like the desert or that it's "smoky," per se. The initial spray is a bit rough. It's borderline "bug spray," but the magic happens in that dry down. It goes from a medicinal citrus to something rich and sexy. It doesn't get dark. It stays light and fresh. I think that's mostly due to the Labdanum and that citrus note that definitely lingers. The cade oil gives it dimension for sure and that vetiver is almost creamy. The cedar doesn't give me the usual "hamster shavings" that I somehow manage to get from every other cedar note in almost every other perfume. It adds a delicate woodsy touch. Again, it's sexy. It's fresh. It's probably best suited for a middle-aged gentlemen. I know that this was in Pedro Pascal's repertoire for a while as well. Great sillage here. When I spray it on, it pretty much fills the room for about an hour. I wear this to bed often and it stays on the whole night (and smells even better in the AM even). Definitely lasts.

the only thing ive smelled that's "smokier" than this, is trex by zoologist. now high desert is definitely more herbaceous and "dirty" whereas trex is like an insanely smoky bbq sauce. this genuinely smells like your clothes after a rough and rugged camping trip. it smells of smoke and dirt and foliage. its crazy that this is Pedro Pascal's signature scent, but i can lowkey see it. this is one of the FURTHEST things from "blind buy" safe. this smells like what a cowboy in the wild west would smell like in the 1800's. its insanely earthy. do i like it? kinda. i dont know if i would wear this tho. im gonna try it and see how its perceived by others, but off a tester strip its a little rough.

"WHO in their right mind would want to smell like this?"....wrote a member called Fortlandia. I don't know if you're new to the fragrance world and just don't realize that people smell perfumes differently...or if you're just rude. Regardless, I'd suggest you learn a better way of giving a review...one that is honest without being needlessly offensive. No one should have a problem with your not liking the scent, but if you've read the other reviews, you'll notice that many others do. I urge you to think before you type, and respect the perpective of others.

very smoky & woodsy - birch tar and sage with some vetiver slightly medicinal lavender or patchouli it's a very safe outdoorsy woody guy scent my only critique is that it smells like a simple woods & sage essential oil blend you could probably find cheaper in the holistic oils section of an organic food store 3 sprays medium projection, lasts 3-4 hours

Your car broke down and you are stranded in the desert somewhere between Texas and New Mexico in the dead of night. You put on your old leather jacket, get out of the car, and make a fire. Your leather jacket absorbs the scents of dried grasses and smoldering wood from the fire.

It smells like cedar sap on a lumberjack's flannel and his morning grapefruit accidentally squirted onto his flannel as well