Tim Blake Nelson in the Ballad of Buster Scruggs, 2018
Two lonely figures on horseback in a deep valley are sauntering like they’ve got all the time in the world. Dust kicks from hoofprints, and he’s singing loudly as he rides underneath a vast expanse of never-ending sky. In the dying sun, he calls his name off the mountains and it echoes over and over like an oft-repeated joke. Rifle slung over her shoulder, pistol holstered, she laughs and swigs from the canteen, grinning at the trees and shaking her head. The smell of camp nearby; woodsmoke and parched earth. As they dismount, he reaches into his worn, leathery satchel and pulls a flower, half wilted now, and puts it behind her ear. The red satin smell of rose mixes with the metallic tang of gun oil. This is Colorado country, circa sometime, and the fragrance is Aether Arts Perfume Gunsmoke & Roses.
Solange Knowles by Tim Walker
Described by Aether Arts Perfume founder and perfumer Amber Jobin as a masculine floral, Gunsmoke & Roses must have been what the spiffy gunslinger Buster Scruggs sported as he warbled his way into frontier towns. But it would work for Annie Oakley, too. The fragrance barrels out of the bottle like newly fired pistol with a combination of biting rifle smoke and warm, waxy carnation, the smell of melting candles, milky flowers, a touch of chili and clove. Sidling up right behind is a whiff of gun oil and leather. Jobin’s choice of choya ral, with its facets of old leather and dry wood, works brilliantly to give the impression of worn saddle and smoke as Gunsmoke & Roses moseys along.
Now quit playin’ and put that pistol away. The flowers got work to do The carnation opens up, all spicy and sweet. But just as its smouldering into the gun smoke, it gets walloped by a butch punch of Texas cedar as big as all outdoors. There’s some dirt kicking around from patchouli, and the fragrance goes all John Wayne for a few minutes.
Photo by Catherine MacNeil
But aw shucks, if this ain’t got just the sweetest little rosy heart hidin’ ‘neath all that desperado swagger. The middle section gives way to a jaunty rag played on a tinny piano in the saloon. The ladies upstairs are beckoning, and the heady, juicy fragrance of just-plucked rose wafts from the landing. At the same time, the gunsmoke recedes into firewood, the carnation embraces the rose in a slow waltz, and everything gets a bit more genteel.
Stock photo
As Gunsmoke & Roses dries down, worn leather and flowers mingle quietly and each comes forward again to remind you it hasn’t made its last stand: wax and carnation, smoky rose, gun oil, cedar all hang together and separately like a chain of paper dolls. Atmospheric, accessible and really quite lovely, Aether Arts Gunsmoke & Roses is one of my favourite Amber Jobin creations.
I reckon it just about makes a person want to ride off into the sunset.
Notes: Juniper berry, rose, carnation, gun powder, gun oil, Texas cedar, choya ral, birch tar, patchouli.
Disclaimer: Gunsmoke & Roses sample kindly provided by Aether Arts Perfume. My opinions are my own.
— Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Editor’s Note: Amber Jobin is a multi award winning perfumer and received an Art and Olfaction Award in the Artisan category for Burner 4: John Frum
Image by Aether Arts
Thanks to the generosity of Aether Arts Perfume, we have a 2 ml rollerball of Gunsmoke & Roses for one registered reader worldwide. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Aether Arts Perfume Gunsmoke & Roses based on Lauryn’s review, where you live and what Wild West figure you would like to see inspire a perfume. Draw closes 2/6/2020.
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