I've had a mini of McGraw by Tim McGraw for over a year and have put off sampling it. Its squat bottle with the plastic, faux-pebbled leather collar and vague cowboy motif didn't allure me. And, frankly, before I looked Tim McGraw up for this post, I couldn't have told you a single song he'd recorded.
When this review posts, I'll be in Billings, Montana, visiting my father, a horseshoer. Maybe we'll be at the Muzzleloader for breakfast, where my dad wears his summer work cowboy hat (dirty white straw, smashed on the top from the ceiling of the truck's cab, distinctly different from his pristine summer dress hat.) My teenaged niece, a rabid George Strait fan, might be with us. I can manage a two-step, used to be an o.k. shot with a rifle, and even go on rare Merle Haggard jags. But for decades my life has been more about the city. I don't have a clue about country western culture today.
One spritz of McGraw tells me if McGraw is the smell representation of country now, then life is pretty easy. No horses, tumbleweed, axle grease, holster leather, or firewood here. If McGraw and Tauer Perfumes Lonestar Memories duked it out, McGraw would crumble before Lonestar Memories had time to creak to standing in his leather chaps. In fact, McGraw is closer in spirit to the haute bourgeois Parfums MDCI Invasion Barbare than it is to anything John Wayne might wear.
Coty Beauty launched McGraw by Tim McGraw in 2008. McGraw is a solid, amber-laden fougère with sandalwood and musk. It opens with what smells like a hint of bergamot and rosy lime before amber, "manly" lavender, and sweet wood give the fragrance heft and sillage. The amber is salty and pungent right through McGraw's impressive wear time. McGraw is not at all original, but for what it is, it's nice — a lot nicer than I'd expected. Anyone looking for an entry level ambery fougère built square and rich would do well with McGraw.
Probably McGraw smells like Tim McGraw's life: polished but comfortable furniture, a gigantic flat screen TV in the den, pedigreed Labrador retrievers on plaid-covered beds, and boots that have never seen the inside of a stable. McGraw is a friendly, predictable, and reliable fragrance with warmth, body, and non-threatening masculinity at an astonishing low price. McGraw can tell you what cut of beef to order in a restaurant, but if you're looking for someone to wrangle that beef for you, keep looking. You won't find it here.
McGraw by Tim McGraw is available in 15, 30 and 50 ml Eau de Toilette ($18-31).
I love how you described yourself as more city these days and that McGraw’s boots may have never seen the inside of a stable. Then posted right before this is McGraw’s lastest release which sounds like it should be named ‘city slicker”! LOL!. I am not a country music fan myself but DH listens to Tim McGraw all the time. He just loves him.
Loved your drug store reviews this week! Thanks so much.
I’m glad you enjoyed this week’s reviews! I imagine if your husband listens to McGraw you get a good earful of him, too.
This sounds quite nice, particularly for the price point. I was always the odd one out growing up in a family composed of lots of farmers given I didn’t much care for country unless it was Johnny or Patsy, was definitely much more liberal in my politics and ended up moving away to “the city”, though it is a pretty smallish one.
So while I can’t properly appreciate the sentiment behind this fragrance, it does sound really nice for fall. And to drag a skeleton kicking and screaming out of the closet, I once got a bottle of Lady Stetson when I was ten as a gift and felt so grown-up when I applied a bit as it was the signature scent of my amazing Aunt Laura, a true country lady if there ever was who helped her mares give birth, went hunting with the guys, and could fix a mean apple pie all in stylish cowboy boots while smoking a Virginia Slim and drifting about in a cloud of LS. I’d be curious to smell LS now just for the memories… If it’s still recognizable, that is.
It sounds like we have lots in common! Lady Stetson is pretty nice these days, really. I’m not sure what it used to smell like.
I sniffed this when it was released and found it to be ‘if you like Lancome Hypnose Homme, you’ll love Tim McGraw.’ Lavender and amber, way too much lavender for me.
Much better to pick up Stetson. Powdery oriental barbershop scent with hints of leather and sandalwood. Better than Old Spice, but I’m not a carnation-lover.
Lavender and amber is a good, quick summary. I think it’s a nice lavender and amber, though! I liked Stetson a lot and reviewed it a couple of years ago, although it’s nothing like McGraw.
I love the last two lines of your review. That says it all, and I wish I had my Lonestar Memories sample at hand!
Now that McGraw has been compared to Hypnôse Homme AND Invasion Barbare, I think I might actually like it for a cheap thrill. I think both those scents are great (and Angela, I still am holding a sample of Hypnôse to send you).
I don’t know much about country music, but I think some classic Merle Haggard is probably more my speed than all this New Country stuff. Actually, I really got into a Nashvill/NYC singer named Laura Cantrell a couple years back — she’s worth checking out.
And while we’re on the subject of cowboys, you might be interested to know that there’s an international gay rodeo circuit and it’s not just a costume party — those boys (and women) are *very serious* about their rodeo (see igra.com).
Joe, I was so excited about the gay rodeo when I first heard about it. Then I watched a documentary of it on Logo and just ended up feeling sorry for the animals.
Oh, well. I grew up with horses, you’d think I’d be a little more rough and tumble. I do think I could probably be a kick-ass bullrider, though.
You wouldn’t get just a bit dizzy? Who cares! I’d pay good money to see you on a bull.
Joe, do try it! I did a side-by-side with Invasion Barbare, and it compared well, I thought, although the IB was not so plainly an amber scent (love the touch of patchouli in the drydown.)
Is the gay rodeo in St Regis, I wonder? I’ll have to look it up. I have a gay coworker who, along with his husband, was off to St Regis a little while ago and all decked out in cowboy gear.
Don’t know anything at all about the McGraw the fragrance, and very little about McGraw the man, except that he and his wife, Faith Hill are lovely people according to my younger brother’s best friend who was Faith’s lead guitar player for years. I do know, however that I would move to Montana in a New York minute! I was lucky enough to spend time with friends in Kalispell a few years ago and absolutely fell in love with the state.
Still enjoying the series, Angela, and am looking forward to tomorrow.
I’m glad they’re nice people! Somehow that makes a difference.
Reading this made me wonder what scents would go well with horses. I know back in the day I would be covered in dirt and horsehair… and in full makeup and all perfumed out. I wish I could remember what I wore in those days. Whatever it was, it had to go well with Hoofmaker. (I had the best nails in those days, btw.)
For reasons I can’t fathom, I feel the need to defend Tim McGraw. (Not that anyone was putting him down.) I wouldn’t recognize a song of his if I heard one either, but he does seem to be very salt of the earth. I must have read interviews with him in People or whatever in doctor’s waiting rooms, because I have no idea how else I would have come by this information.
Laurie Erickson of SSS has made a fragrance Jour Ensoleille that is a recollection of the warm afternoon sunny fields she used to traverse when she went horseback riding. It is an excellent chypre fragrance – big stuff- that has a wonderful rich floral opening and a dry oakmossy base. It always makes me think of Mitsouko and Hermes’ Amazon… Well, if Mitsy had freckles and straw in her unbrushed hair, lol.
Sounds amazing!
You don’t have to defend him to me. He put his name on a decent fragrance, and that’s enough for me!
As for horse scents, I can’t help but think of Bal a Versailles.
Yes! I thought Bal a Versailles would be perfect along with Rochas Femme.
If I were outside the barn in my good jeans and a nice blouse I think it would be Je Reviens or Donna Karan Gold.
Femme plus horses is almost too sensually dirty to be legal!
All i know of him is that he did a pretty good job in movie The Blind Side.
Will have to give this a try… where’s my trench coat and my dark sunglasses….
I brought my mini with me, and my niece immediately snagged it for her boyfriend. If a sweet, baseball playing farmer’s son from the Dakotas can wear it, it must be o.k.
I am really enjoying this series.
So glad I haven’t been by the local Walgreen’s yet (or anywhere, really). Always on the lookout for cheap thrills for my college-aged son. Although it’s my own fault, he’s turning into a scent snob. Dug out the Old Spice he stuck his nose up about a year ago but he still hasn’t tried it. Might see if I can get a small bottle of this and have him try a side-by-side. They’re not the same but he will compare stuff to give me his opinion which would be a great way for him to just TRY it.
Can’t wait to see what you have prepared for your finale!
Hey, being in Billings, you might have a fabulous opportunity to view the Perseids Meteor Shower which could be at its best tonight into tomorrow morning. So humid here the sky is hazy and we’re too close to the city with too many big trees to catch much of it but perhaps Big Sky country will provide a great view!
That sounds brilliant! The first night I was here, I had to get up in the middle of the night to let the dog out, and even without my contacts in I saw a gigantic shooting star drop into the horizon and disappear.
The packaging kind of works against it, I think, but if he likes manly ambers, he just might like this one.
As far as Tim McGraw — I live in big time country music area now and I’ve got all the dip on the country boys from a dedicated fan that works for me. (I myself prefer George Strait, but hey, if there is a steel guitar thing going on, I’m there, be it the good old unclassifiable Cowboy Junkies or whoever. Mr. Strait’s “Wrapped” song is one of my favorites.) Anyway, Tim McGraw’s been doing it for a long time now and some of his stuff is real country boy type lyrics. And his *is* very easy on the eyes. I also saw him once many years ago on VHI doing some experimental thing with some rapper…. I might have to try out the fragrance as it sounds nice – I like a good fougere. Maybe I’ll get my husband to wear it, lol. Thanks for the review!
Thanks for the inside scoop on McGraw!
I like Tim McGraw’s music and do recognize him on the radio, which is often because my DH is addicted to sports talk radio, country and heavy metal.
The fragrance sounds like it’s worth checking out, though I could do without the fake leather saddle top on the bottle. I do love ambery fougeres on my husband, though he has yet to wade through half the bottles I’ve bought him since my crack addict dive into the perfume world.
Do give it a try, then! You can get a half-ounce bottle so it doesn’t feel like too much of a commitment.
Farrier! Just proud to know the proper name for a horseshoer, despite working a desk job my entire working life. As someone who lives where farriers are often required, I have to say that I prefer the smell of “horses, tumbleweed, axle grease, holster leather, or firewood.” Give me Lonestar Memories any day. And lest anyone think I’m a Texan. I’ll just add that I’m from the upper midwest.
Yes! I didn’t write farrier because most people don’t know it. A lot of times when I say my father shoes horses, they say, “he shoots horses?”
A little bit of cowboy is good for everyone, I think.
I live in Country/Bluegrass Music Central, so of course I’d know who Tim McGraw is; I’m not a fan of the genre in general. (I’ll take modern bluegrass like Nickel Creek, or Allison Krause and Union Station, instead, please… or rockabilly Dwight Yoakam.)
I didn’t smell the McGraw fragrance, though I have seen testers for it – The CEO is happy with his Acqua di Gio and not interested in changing until the bottle goes dry, and I don’t tend to wear men’s fragrances myself. I might get a sniff of it, though, because my middle kid will turn 12 soon, and I think a young man needs a bottle of nice cologne for special occasions, and it’s my responsibility as a parent to Prevent Axe!
Its ambery sweetness might be really good for a teen, and you’re right–it’s a fabulous anti-Axe!