The scent of rain on sagebrush isn't a universally-experienced phenomenon, so it's hard to explain it to people who haven't spent any rainy days in the Southwest.
"You know, like rain on sagebrush."
It doesn't make for a very compelling description for people who've never smelled rain on sagebrush.
Perhaps I was making a completely unrelatable scent, or worse, perhaps I was making a vanity scent (something to scratch the personal itch of the owner but not to meet anyone else's needs).
Nonetheless, it was my personal white whale (or if you're a Wes Anderson fan, my own personal Leopard Shark).
But one day, when I walked out onto our deck after the rain, and I felt the sun on my face, and I smelled the wet dust, and I stepped down off the deck and walked into the sagebrush... the sagebrush almost seemed to be breathing off some steam in the sunshine... and I knew nothing else mattered, I just had to make that scent.
So, after a dozen fits and starts, quitting in discouragement, starting again, quitting after realizing it was impossible, and starting again, I finally got the scent done last Fall.
And then it went into the production queue, had to be branded, packaging ordered, etc etc etc (the thousand steps it takes to get a product into market), and finally, the time has come.
If you know the scent of rain on sagebrush, this will be an exciting moment. If you don't, I hope you put the experience of standing in a field of sagebrush after a rain on your bucket list, because there's nothing else like it.
Get it here: https://liveoutlaw.com/collections/rain-on-sagebrush
Rain on Sagebrush…I received a sample cologne in the sample pack last week and all I can say is “Thank you and CURSE YOU!” It smells exactly as sagebrush in Wyoming does after a rain and because it smells exactly that way, I’m more homesick for a place I’ve never lived in this lifetime than I have been in a very long time. Thank you for “taking me home”, even if just in my memories.