This $110 Cologne Appeals to ... Cows

A cow pasture may not be the most typical testing ground for a new cologne, but then new colognes typically don't get written up in Modern Farmer. Such is the case with Farmer's Cologne out of Maine, which goes for $110 a bottle and has the unique selling point that cows seem to like it. That is, a chic farmer could wear it and not upset the sensitive noses of his bovine charges. Creator Lisa Brodar mixed natural oils and essences such as sandalwood, sage, and blue tansy to create a scent that has "a woody, earthen musk, with only a hint of the pungency found in mainstream fragrance," writes Jesse Hirsch. His unscientific field test suggests that cows genuinely like it.

In an earlier story in the LA Times, Adam Tschorn gives the cologne a favorable write-up and says it "was redolent of the grain and hay smells of the cow barn from my Vermont childhood ... with an ever-so-slight medicinal note." If you can't picture an old-school farmer spritzing himself with a pricey cologne before milking, that might be because Brodar doesn't see farmers like that as her key clientele. "It’s for the guy in Brooklyn who wants to move back to the land, to become a homesteader … but who still likes going out at night.” One Green Planet likes that the product is vegan and mostly organic. The curious can check it out at the Portland General Store website. (Click to read about the debunked myth of cow-tipping.)