Description
In Argentina, an Estancia is the ranch where Gauchos live and create their unique lifestyle around horse & cow wrangling.
Over the many years that I have been creating perfume, I have had many requests to create a fragrance around horses, horse riding, and the like. It’s taken all of these years to find just the right inspiration to develop a fragrance to speak to this concept and feel authentic (since I have little direct experience with horses, except for my cousin’s horse from my childhood… which was so massive compared to me at the time, that I was petrified around it’s majestic beauty).
In researching Gaucho culture, I became entranced by the beauty of the images I found as well as the romantic nature of their surroundings on the Estancia. It’s all so beautiful and yet remote. I hope that I have done them justice.
Tamara Holubar (verified owner) –
Simply beautiful. Perfectly described & very transporting. Also very long lasting!
BostonScentGuy (verified owner) –
Beautiful and atmospheric–stables, hay, leather, wood. While “oud” isn’t in the notes listing, it does conjure up for a me a more pastoral, beautiful, and nuanced scent in the same universe of Dior’s Leather Oud–I enjoy Estancia much, much more, though!
Quick Fragrance Reviews (verified owner) –
An absolute love for me. This scent unlocked my love of “horse” fragrances – I never would’ve expected it, but there’s something about the saddle leather type of smell and the sense of intrigue here that’s completely captivating. I’m very picky about what I love enough to want a bottle of, but this is full bottle worthy for me!
Ricardo Rico (verified owner) –
It’s hard to place why I love Estancia so much… it’s not so much a combination of scents or notes as much as it is a singular time & place. A memory if you will. To me, this is the sign of a great perfumer at work.
The leather is definitely there. But not a designer leather, this is well worn, equestiran leather, maybe boots, maybe chaps? The animalic nature of a horse is there. But *not* of horse manure, this is the faint smell of a horse IFYKYK. The grass or hay is there, again… faintly. Together, Dawn has really created something special.
My first experience with Estancia was through a sample and I was blown away. I immediately knew it was full bottle worthy. Its unique. I think my love for this stems from the fact that it reminds my of my mother and her love for horses. Her love of riding through the mountains of Montana or the deserts in Arizona. Its something that she would have loved to smell and to wear. Don’t be thrown off by the mention of “Gaucho” or “Argentinian” equestrian culture in the description, if you fall in the small cohort of people (like me) that enjoy fine fragrance and equestrian activities (or the thought and smell of it), this one is worth of a sample. Who knows, maybe it will hit you like it hit me. Right in the sense memory of my heart.
I have only begun my journey through DSH’s library and it is prolific. The fact that DSH is not constrained by a house I imagine has allowed her to do what great artists do. That is to create. Not to be held back by marketing timelines or launch dates or distribution, but to allow yourself to be a channel for the ideas that the universe is sending through you. I really hold Dawn in the highest echelon of parfumers because not because of her ability to combine notes but for her ability to create full blown ideas of time and space and to evoke memories through scent.
caroline phillips (verified owner) –
This is such a gorgeous scent. There are so many aspects to it, and they just all fit together so perfectly to create a scent that reminds me of my time with horses, but… maybe in the southwest? It is gorgeous and I am so glad I at least blind-bought a 5ml.
Dawn never ceases to amaze me.