Targhee Forest Rogue 2023

Would you like to come with me to the woods? I still have half an herb candy, we could share it. You can trust me. There are lots of fir trees there, they needle like in the rain after Christmas. You don't need to be afraid. There are rose geraniums that entwine themselves in them, which is why there are sharp mists wafting like the silver clouds from the hair around my cold eyes. Do you want a moss coat like me, the same one our grandfathers wore? Go on and it will grow on you. Can you see the dark, soapy tracks like soft furrows in the earthy soil between the dry, damp trunks? In their long brown shadows, musk tracks still creep, invisible but intertwined with the ghosts of times past.
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Californian self-taught perfumer Manuel Cross has only been creating fragrances for his own Rogue label since 2017. Anyone who has smelled a few of his perfumes will be able to blindly recognize his very own DNA, as it is mostly heavy, earthy, rather vintage-oriented mosses that carry his fragrances in combination with balsamic notes, as in "Targhee Forest", which is dedicated to the national forest of the same name in the northwest of the USA.
You enter this forest through a rugged, cool mist of ethereal green desert mugwort, damp conifer needles and sharp, slightly hairspray-like rose geranium. In combination with nuances of fir balsam, one can soon think of an herbal candy, albeit one of the spicier variety, before Cross's typical oakmoss, heavy, earthy, discreetly soapy and, in combination with the musk, slightly animalic, dominates the bright aromas. A retro moss, as we know it from the fragrances of our fathers and grandfathers. Patchouly contributes its part to the damp, earthy overall character, cedar adds a dark, woody tinge, the fir balsam is a yellowed, resinous film through which you look at this forest, which projects its images clearly to moderately and for an above-average length of time on my skin. A wonderful journey back in time.