El Cosmico

Deserts are my favorite landscapes. I grew up around them in Southern California, and I've spent plenty of time in many of them throughout the American Southwest and the Middle East. I haven't been to Marfa, but this fragrance reminds me of deserts like the Mojave Desert and the Chihuahuan Desert. The herbal scents of low desert shrubs and the medicinal aroma of the driest woods on the planet sear your nostrils as you inhale a bone-dry gust of hot air. This scent perfectly captures that moment when a soft gust of air swirls together all those scents lingering over the hot desert floor, suddenly stinging your nostrils as you inhale, invigorating your senses and awakening you to the purity and grandeur that is the desert. I blind bought a full bottle despite reading the negative reviews comparing it to wicker baskets and Cowboy Grass. It's true that this fragrance shares a dry woodiness that's reminiscent of wicker goods, but El Cosmico is so much more than that. As others have noted, there are herbal/medicinal notes as well as a soft dry and sweet creaminess. As for Cowboy Grass, I fully appreciate that it also evokes an austere, isolated landscape. But for me Cowboy Grass is a prairie fragrance, not a desert one. The Great Plains extends into much, if not most, of Texas, so the association with Texas is not surprising. But as someone who grew up by the deserts of the Southwest and who currently lives in the Great Plains, the scents I associate with each are distinct. That brings us to the issue of wearability. Cowboy Grass is certainly the more wearable of the two, and could even work with a t-shirt and jeans. But given its name, it's apparent that El Cosmico is meant for individuals who are not of this world. This isn't for someone flying under the radar with khakis and a button up. This is for rugged pioneers donning boots, large belt buckles, and wide-brimmed hats; avant-garde misfits clad in monochromatic tones; and New Age shamans meditating under the desert moon. For these eccentric individuals, El Cosmico feels right at home.

El Cosmico is not my favorite from DS & Durga because it contains a note that I don't like (khella). The scent of most plants from the Apiaceae family, like celery, angelica, cow parsnip, etc. make me very literally want to vomit. It's an inexplicable physiological reaction. That aside, I still respect this fragrance and would enjoy it if that particular family of plants didn't bother me so much. El Cosmico smells dry (i.e. opposite of sweet) and herbal, with a muted celery/parsley-like quality, and a bit of very natural smelling wood. I would say oak more than pine, as this does not smell like an evergreen fragrance whatsoever to me. I notice a rubbery scent that I attribute to creosote bush (which I know better by the common name of chaparral, or the Latin name Larrea tridentata), since the taste of it is very medicinal, much like antiseptic. I think the use of chaparral here is clever because it hints at a distant smokiness without being overtly smoky. It's like a campfire that is hundreds of miles away, the smoke having drifted across the barren landscape for hundreds of miles. Along the way, it picked up the scent of the volatile oils oozing from the leaves of the hardy desert brush. I don't see frankincense listed here, but I swear that I smell it in the base. All of this adds up to a very unique and fascinating scent, like an herbal, vegetal frankincense fragrance. Perfect when your "church" is the great outdoors--in this case the starry desert skies. Longevity is several hours with soft projection. Verdict--An extremely compelling fragrance that makes me wish I didn't loath the umbel family so much, or I'd surely need a full bottle. I had to vote "Love" regardless of the fact that the khella makes me queasy. Edit: I just realized that the scent of khella reminds me of an ingredient my mother uses in one of her dishes, and she refers to it as "Chinese celery," but I am not 100% certain what the correct name is. The taste is indeed a cross between celery and parsley.

Almost freakishly evocative of a bone-dry, big sky desert, complete with thrilling wafts of dry herbs, desiccated wood and natural resin. It took me right where it was meant to, to the arid American Southwest, despite the fact I've never been there! I smelled this in the recent exhibition in Somerset House, London, called "Perfume", which is all about provoking your other senses to consider how you perceive and react to scent - and it was a hugely successful experiment. This has a natural beauty and magnetism to make you linger and it's a brilliant example of scent which evokes a specific spot. Some might think it more the smell of a wonderful place, than a perfume they'd want to apply to themselves ... but it's their loss... this is pure olfactory magic, imho, verging on witchcraft in its conjuring power. At D S & Durga prices I am unlikely to ever afford a FB of this, but it is an experience that anyone who enjoys scent and has a chance to sample, should try - even just once. It truly takes you on a journey - sorry if that sounds pretentious, as well as being a terrible cliche, but it DOES! (Unless you already live in Marfa, West Texas, and go on a lot of hikes anyway, of course.) I didn't get to apply any directly (at the exhibition you had to sniff it from some sort of weird stone diffuser?) so cannot comment on how it behaves in real life, though.

it has pine and gasoline with an hot incense that hits you in the back of your throat. it makes your nose open. i see why it can be described as camphor, but not in scent---its the effect of opening lungs for tonic air. it has a really piercing almost synthetic note at first smell. its the pepper no doubt. i find it so appealing, its unmistakable. on skin its has a round wooden warmness that keeps your feet in cooling sand. works so well on skin especially when its hot. warms up incredibly and you get less pine and more of a fresh, dirt after rain resin smell. on me there is a faint sweetness. barely and soft. it doesn't really last too long on me, which makes me so sad. it is pretty assertive when first sprayed though. i was living in Chicago at the time when i bought it. i'm from LA . it was summer and i was missing the west and camping. its fresh and green with out being light or shallow. its so sexy in a supernatural way. i would wear it when i was first dating my partner and every time i put it on they smile. it reminds us of organic, sweaty, pure nights . like falling in love with a landscape not a person. i find that most unisex scents are based in musk and amber and really lean in skin and that commonality. this one has none of that. it feels human because of the experience it evokes.

So let me start off by saying that Marfa holds a place in my heart, and some of my fondest memories have been at El Cosmico. I can honestly say that this particular scent, the more I sniff, the more it unlocks those fond memories. With that said, I don't think this perfume will be for everyone, and if you're looking for a more straightforward, smokey, cowboy scent from this house: Cowboy Grass is probably the scent for you. The way this perfume opens I did not like. It is really acidic and bitter, almost like gasoline or metal, like some of the other reviewers have mentioned. Its magic is in the dry down. There is a sweet woodiness, and more importantly a warm sandiness that accurately captures a hot windless afternoon, swaying in a hammock at El Cosmico, sipping on a Coke. I get the cola scent that others pick up on, but in this particular perfume, it works for me at conjuring up the memories of El Cosmico. If you wear perfumes for others to enjoy, you might want to skip this one. If you wear perfumes because you want to recall a memory, and that memory is a pre-Covid evening at the Trans-Pecos music festival, a dip in a fire powered hot tub, or your first experience of photographing the Marfa lights, then give this one a try.