Indie brands DS & Durga and Joya have collaborated to launch Staghorn Sumac, a new limited edition fragrance…
DS & Durga Poppy Rouge, The Orchid Drinkers, and Five Step Waltz ~ perfume review
D.S. & Durga, the Brooklyn-based, independent-perfumer duo, has revamped its fragrance line for 2011. Some of the original scents have been tweaked a bit, and nine new scents were added; the entire line continues to “take inspiration from antiquated herbal wisdom, native ritual medicine, Americana, outdated lore, geography, history, and gastronomy.” I’ve just tried the three new “feminines,” each of which has its own distinct mood.
Poppy Rouge takes its name from a lyric in Mississippi John Hurt’s “Richland Woman Blues,” and it’s a blend of orange flower, jonquil, and Parma violet. It’s not as impulsive and racy as its source might suggest, but it would make a lovely spring fragrance. It’s a fresh bouquet of orange blossom, the nicest one I’ve smelled since Atelier Cologne’s Grand Neroli. As it evolves, an almost lily-like note (the jonquil?) emerges, but the violet is very, very subtle. Like many of scents from D.S. & Durga, Poppy Rouge smells as though it contains a high percentage of natural ingredients.
The Orchid Drinkers refers to the nineteenth-century taste for a drink called salep, brewed from ground orchid tubers…
Nine from DS & Durga
Brooklyn-based indie line DS & Durga has added nine new fragrances, six for men and three for women.
Freetrapper for Men ~ “Before cowboys, there were free trappers…
D.S. & Durga Pomelo Blossom ~ fragrance review
Citrus-floral fragrances are made for hot weather; the best of them smell light and airy, brisk and cooling (all the sensations I want from a scent on a sultry day). I like summer fragrances to smell “clean” but also possess a hint of sexiness — a “bare” quality. The fat and heavy pomelo (Citrus maxima), which you may have encountered in Southeast Asian cooking (think: mild, sweet grapefruit), is an excellent inspiration for such a summer perfume.
Pomelo Blossom is part of D.S. & Durga’s spring-summer 2010 (limited edition) fragrance collection for Anthropologie, and it contains notes of pomelo blossom, grapefruit peel and white musk. Pomelo Blossom goes on sharp and juicy (smelling like fresh oranges, a mix of cool peel and juice). In mid-development, floral notes become apparent; these floral notes remind me of slightly indolic jasmine and pungent, “wild” orange blossom.
My favorite part of Pomelo Blossom is the oily grapefruit rind note…
DS & Durga Shake Shake Senora, Petitgrain Sur Fleur & Pomelo Blossom ~ new fragrances
Brooklyn-based indie perfumers D.S. & Durga have launched three new limited edition spring/summer fragrances for their collection at Anthropologie:
Shake Shake Senora (shown) ~ “A calypso melody…”