El Dorado

My previous worries about El Dorado being a standard mens body soap/aftershave fragrance have been washed away by a crisp, stone like, underripe apple note. Wild and bitter and bright. Followed by a breeze of wet field grasses and hay baled under a stormy sky. All of these blend as it dries into a lush, dense juniper paired with it's own berries. Dry, wine like. What I assume is lemon balm feels more like a dry bergamot peel. Thick and pithy. This fragrance, to me, clearly takes after Macanudo from Maison d'Etto. Really quite surprised and delighted. It's a beautiful, fresh, earthy green fragrance that I'm sure will be in my weekly rotation. Edit: Final edit on these reviews since I don't like deleting things. I cannot express just how fucking sad and embarrassing it is for a grown ass woman to say the shit SDW has said online. With her entire chest and name behind it too. What a miserable person. I can't imagine this brand survives very long.

I never thought I would relate to the nostalgic feeling people talk about with this but I genuinely do. The coniferous notes being introduced with petrichor immediately reminded me of my grandpas old house in the mountains of Northern California, and it also reminds me of the park I used to frequent as a young child in a Utah. It’s a cool and serene scent that makes me remember the head clarity from walking in a park surrounded by trees. I can definitely see this being someone’s signature scent for the cooler seasons!

El Dorado is by far one of my favorite green scents. The lemon balm note lingers in the most beautiful way, creating a scent that truly wavers back and forth between feminine and masculine. As it wears the petrichor note grows stronger, settling into a serene and grounding sensation. Like laying out in the sun by a still lake or pond, this note might be my favorite thing about this fragrance. I purchased the discovery kit & found this fragrance to be my absolute favorite of the three.

This one would be my personal favorite from Scout. The lemon balm is so refreshing and adds to the woods layered throughout. It’s so simple but also as you inhale you get a new layer every time. The only reasons I’m not rushing to 1.) it’s more masculine than I typically lean, 2.) longevity on paper was the worst with this scent. But maybe a skin test would be the real test! I will probably update after I have the chance to try it that way.

I love this one, haven't had El Dorado long enough to parse out all its intricacies though! First impressions are that this smells like a version of Fischersund No.101. This one is a little more focused on the woody aspects and does give the impression of an American coniferous forest rather than the icy feel of Fischershund (obviously lol). Great frag!

Very romantic and nostalgic, reminds me of my childhood spent running around in the forests. The juniper, fir and rosemary really stand out. A cozy yet captivating scent for colder temps. Great longevity - I love how much it lingers on my sweaters.

I’m surprised by the reviews saying this is one dimensional. When I first sprayed this, I liked the smell. After letting it sit for an hour, I was blown away. The layers when smelling this are so intricate and beautiful.

Scout the genius you are. I haven't let this dry down yet but right now it is beautiful photorealistic juniper. I’m not from nor cal but this reminds me so much of home in the high desert and I am so beyond obsessed.

Just got the sample set and I love all three scents but I am absolutely obsessed with El Dorado, which took me by surprise based on the notes and what I usually like

Smells like the cool sibling of French Lover by Fredric Malle but lasts way longer. Immediately added this to my full bottle wishlist.

Very nice scent: woody, wintery, calming. What I really like about it is how light the scent is; it's not overpowering.

I ordered a sample of this when I had absolutely no idea who the influencer who markets it was, simply because it was promoted on luckyscent and I've had good luck with their recommendations before. I do want to note that what this influencer said sounds despicable, but I did not find out about this until I had already tried the sample. Divorced from the news (and the person) behind it, this sample actually smelled great to me--it's one of the best evocations of petrichor I've ever tried in a man-made fragrance. Unfortunately, it does not last very long, but while it does it smells terrific to me--like a forest after a rain. But it dissipated from my skin within two hours.

I consider El Dorado to be the “safest” out of the three Scout Dixon releases - It’s a very refreshing, green, naturesque feel. The first spray is reminiscent of a masculine after-shave, but it settles nicely into a citrusy, damp, petrichor scent. I detect the lemon balm and juniper most clearly on my skin. It reminds me of the aroma left behind on your hands after picking wet herbs from the forest floor. It also lingered on my skin for the whole day. This is beautifully made.

very aromatic! its not too much of every green! its a pretty pleasant unisex green smell! its also a bit warm and woody from the vetiver and wood!!! its not the most complex but at the same time it feels like it is? its definitely interesting and worth smelling.

I absolutely adore the scent, but I wish it had a longer-lasting duration. In my opinion, it’s overpriced. Scout, you broke my heart, but you’re still incredibly hot.

Fat Electrician by ELDO layered with this is straight up Christmas tree. Absolutely beautiful -- problematic perfumer aside.

This is such a beautiful fragrance. Really clean and lovely. Reminds me of an early fall hike in the PNW.

I purchased these samples before learning anything about Scout (lesson learned that all influencers are not to be trusted even if I think I'm not susceptible to falling for it) and am not going to just waste my money and toss the product, especially since I'm new to fragrances and am trying to just learn what I like/don't like and what certain notes smell like. Scout's deplorable personality aside - the fragrance is nice but just very one dimensional. It smells like when your parents had to lug a fresh pine tree into the house in preparation for Christmas. It does have this really bright and foresty quality to it that was pleasant at first, but I was a bit disappointed that the fragrance just sort of ended there. Maybe I just can't differentiate between different evergreen trees, but the only change I really noticed as it dries down was a slightly sweeter note to it but nothing overly distinguishable.

i have no idea what california's forests smell like, but to me this smells like every arab dad's cheap supermarket aftershave. especially that peppery, lemony opening - smells like my dad just got out of the shower and is off for work. nostalgic, nice to smell, not for me

A wet woodsy scent. Not very exciting tbh. It's like a damp and quiet forest. But there are better executions of this theme and it does not project. I don't know any drama about this brand but the 2 frags I have tried are not that great.

I dislike cancel culture but racist tweeting is probably not good for your new lil "cool" business.

Immediate no. This smells like cheap cologne. Extremely overpowering.

Damn, all the stuff surfacing about Scout is a bummer. I read some racist tweets from her that def destroyed my fan feelings. Her online bread crumb trail isn’t looking good. I guess I didn’t love the way she talked down to people anyway :/ I had previously liked Coney Island Baby... However I strongly believe that, in this capitalist society, the way consumers choose to spend our money is the most basic leverage we have. So important to research the things we buy whenever possible. If you like the Coney Island Baby scent profile, but would rather support a true baddie, go check out Chris Rusak, Caji! Rusak makes his own fragrances & even forages some of the materials himself! I appreciate the approach he takes in his craft & his radical politics. Caji is in that ‘sweet gasoline’ arena. - dreamy mechanics shop with a dose of Orris butter!! If u are like me & can’t get enough of those smoggy motor oil gasoline perfumes you will want to try this! I found this hour long interview of Rusak on YouTube that made me want to buy all of his work: https://youtu.be/EGkUpFtkriE?si=8hJ3DjUjdtU6WyIe If you like Incarnate go check out Cuir Fetiche by Lvnea, another radical perfumer (again who makes her own fragrances) from Montreal. Lvnea has posted about human rights online this whole year, even when it’s been very unpopular. Honestly this person is the MVP in my collection - everything she makes is a star. Cuir Fetiche is a leather incense with a juicy backbone that is out of this world gorgeous & very affordable. All the people wanna smell me when I wear this. If you like El Dorado check out Undergrowth by Rook - (also makes his own fragrances) Rook has been very outspoken online about their values & has supported ‘watermelons’ with his full chest - he is a real one - & Undergrowth is impossibility beautiful! I personally did not like El Dorado (smells like ax body spray to me). Undergrowth doesn’t smell at like El Dorado but it is in the same category of clean, light, forest petrichor. It smells like a morning rain in a mint garden in the mountains - it’s the most precious little petrichor I’ve ever smelled. Anyway, there’s tons of cool perfume makers out there with much more interesting work & who also don’t say absolutely horrid things online :/

No offense, butI don't understand how people like @alphairone are surprised considering Scout, Taylor's character, always had the personality depth of a acid rain puddle. Very performative and one-dimensional. She always gave me desperate energy like always talking in a sex hotline voice that old men use. But 24/7 too which is extra creepy. Plus her 13 year old boy edgy "that's what she said" humor felt like the pick me girl at your high school who would do anything for male attention. Her being exposed as racist homophobic Trump fan is hardly a shock.

Not all these astroturfed comments popping up over the past day from random profiles/bots with 1 or 2 reviews lmao. So transparent and sad. SDW is a tarnished brand by her own doing and the fragrances are absolutely MID at very best; just cheap imitations of much better scents on the market.

The description makes you think it’s going to be some really deep woody pine fragrance but it has the depth of a puddle. There is something so shockingly bland about this scent

Pine scented car air freshener. Really synthetic, unbalanced, and not pleasant to smell. This is before learning of her disappointing proclivities.

Smells like shaving cream and mens deodorant, I dislike it, it fells synthetic and cheap

No balance in the fragrance, pretty screechy.

What’s transpired with this brand is a cautionary tale about what happens when the value of a perfume is 100% tied to the persona of a social media influencer. As soon as that persona was found to be, er... more complicated than the audience believed, all that brand caché went *poof!* within hours. SDW herself had not fully understood that the social contract of TikTok between creator and audience is based on the creator’s authenticity, or perceived authenticity. That’s why creators film themselves without makeup, or getting dressed—things we can see in retrospect that Scout never did. Instead, she cosplayed a gender-bending radical in a suit when on another social media platform she presents as a cruel, Trump-supporting ultra conservative social reactionary. All the reading and writing she’s done that was in evidence in her articulate perfume reviews never translated—on Twitter at least—into empathy or openness to the world. For their part, independent perfumers are likely to be far more gun shy, so to speak, about working with influencers. Meanwhile, SDW will be ruing the day she did not shut down her Twitter account when she launched a brand, which after all, is Business 101. The upshot of all this controversy is the new visibility of the politics of perfume influencers. With so much choice in the perfume market, it’s good to know which voices we want to amplify and which have said more than enough.

I was lucky enough to test all three Scout Dixon West perfumes before Lucky Scent lost their damn minds and pulled her work. Is this really where we're at, people? What a bunch of infants you all are. This is how the mob rules, and I can only hope your life is so squeaky clean, your behavior so carefully patrolled, that no one comes after you one day. All three of these perfumes are exceptionally high in quality—carefully considered and beautifully crafted. El Dorado in particular prompted me to buy a full bottle, because I love a good, bracing vetiver. This one is especially luminous, interwoven with citrus, spice, pine, and herbs. But there's nothing Christmas pomander about it. Instead, it runs more barbershop, as one reviewer below points out, and its masculine edge would sit equally well in the boardroom or in the saddle. Or on anyone, really, who doesn't insist on filtering their aesthetic choices through internet innuendo and pearl-clutching faux moralism.

This is really beautiful. I also grew up in NorCal gold country, and think this really hits the nail on the head in capturing the feeling of walking around the trails of the foothills with the ground and needles still wet from recent rain. I usually hateeee juniper but it’s needed here. It blends well with the fir, and the entire composition results in something bracing and revitalizing. It brings me back to christmas tree farms in the winter time. Cold and comforting at the same time.

This is so soothing to the senses. I have been tense all week and sprayed my sample for the first time just as I’m starting to ease my mind. It’s Friday afternoon, my belongings are in boxes, the fall breeze is in the air. New beginnings are coming. This smells like the relief that comes spiritually when the weather begins to cool, you’ve done all the dishes, you’re fresh out of the shower and the windows are open. Change is coming and it’s going to be good.

What a mindbending experience reading your comments. I was looking for a green/petrichor type of a scent and this name came up. I was immediately put off ..because I have lived in El Dorado (county, California) for a few unfortunate years and it was the most vile, hateful place/community I have experienced. But we'll, it's just a name, right? Right?? Apparently there is more to it... I'll skip, just in case in brings back the memories.

Not to be annoying and nitpicky, but the ad copy bothers me as a lifelong citizen of Northern California lol. El Dorado county does not have redwoods. EDC is much too far east, it borders Nevada and is deep within the Sierra Nevadas, the climate is completely wrong for redwoods. Those only exist in the western CA counties, like Marin, Sonoma, Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, and parts of Trinity and Siskyou.

This is a review for the fragrance (it is insane that I need to qualify a review this way, but here we are (thanks, progressives)). I was not a fragrance person before discovering SDW, but because of their excellent marketing, I was compelled to buy their sample size (genius because now I will buy the other scents). Forest after a rain; this hits right.

Of the three, this is the one I was most excited for. After initial spray, I got an fresh after shave scent...no one note standing out. Unfortunately, within 30 minutes this went rank and sour on my hand. I don't know if it's my body chemistry or what - usually only citrus' have done this on my skin but a major let down.

pine heavy with a base of sunscreen. reminds me of a summer camp in east texas (rosemary and cypress). fun and happy with lemon balm notes, this smells like outdoors. sunlight streaming through a dense forest is always a little mysterious and magical. might mix well with sweat.

I’m so confused by this and the buzz surrounding. There’s nothing realistic about it. It smelled very familiar to me upon first spray and then it hit me... Aspen. A more intensely synthetic version of Aspen. There is a scent here that is just hostile to me.

At first I wasn’t totally pleased. First spray I got a balmy scent, I figure it’s the lemon balm. It quickly fades and I’m left with a translucent, really well rounded coniferous fragrance. As someone who spends a lot of time in nature, it makes me happy.

Amazing amazing amazing!!! The next purchase I make will be a full bottle. I love to support Scout Dixon. Pay no mind to the spiritually corrupt little bugs in other reviews, they should be ashamed of themselves for bringing politics into perfume.

Citrus heavy with an undercurrent of pine firs, a very bright green scent. Dries down to such a pretty, natural scent that evokes a fresh green forest after the rain.

This smells so delicious i want to eat it, i was really surprised it smells so savory, herby and almost nutty. Nom nom nom

Out of the three SDW fragrances released so far, this is the weakest. It's very "Pledge-y." 3/5