El Cosmico

Marfa, Texas is a not-so-secret place far from anywhere else. Since Donald Judd brought his art (and then artists) to this crossroads in the high plains desert, people have flocked from all over the world to experience its magic. Something is in the air. UFO-like lights dot the horizon. (I saw them with my own eyes!) A confluence of cultures leads to a very free-spirited ethos. Liz Lambert started El Cosmico, her boutique campground, she says as an oasis for “nomads.”

Bands, artists, and seekers of all type travel out of their way to soak in the Spirit of the arid land. There is vibrancy and newness in Marfa that contrasts with something old timeless and spiritual. For this scent, I made a study of the plants surrounding the town in the Chihuahuan desert. Many of these desert plants have oils with strong aromas that they produce presumably to ward off predators, protect from the harsh wind and sun or to retain moisture. For the perfume that would take you there, I placed desert pepper and sumac, with the landscape dominant creosote (that smells of oily desert rain), over a sand accord with dry mesquite wood.

The scent is otherworldly like the area. I don’t think it smells like anything else. It is white smoke, the magic of aldehydes, and strange alien plants in the desert.-D.S.