D.S. & Durga Durga was originally launched in 2017 and reissued in 2023, created by David Seth Moltz. A floral green with notes of tuberose, chrysanthemum, melon, orris, ylang, orange blossom, tuberose, jasmine sambac and musk. D.S. & Durga Durga is an eau de parfum, edp.
From the brand - "Kavi and I both love the flower tuberose. It was the scent of Kavi’s early visits to Delhi. Her uncle would place fresh tuberose flowers next to her bed every day. In order to make most of the great flowers sing, the perfumer must employ the “off-notes” present in the real thing. Tuberose with out mushroom-earth will not smell real. Nature does a tremendous job of balancing the off notes with the good notes and that’s why we love flowers (and more importantly pollinating insects and animals do!). For years, I tried to make a great tuberose scent. Some were ok, but they usually smelled like tuberose perfume, not the flower. I tried many things, until I broke down a sample I had over the course of a few days. I started to smell its melon, mushroom, rot, and the slickness of the petals’ grassy green freshness and its haunting tea note. Durga uses the most amount of tuberose absolute I have ever seen used in a perfume. The supporting cast only adds to its richness. This scent is the pinnacle of what we do. It is a scent excited about the materials we as perfumers live and search for. I can see why Jean Patou named the fragrance Joy. Sometimes it is just that simple."
D.S. & Durga Durga REVIEWS
Fragrantica - "So, so gorgeous. The olfactory equivalent of walking through a farmer's market with your sunscreen-scented arms full of fresh tuberose and fruit."
Fragrantica - "For me, the melon and chrysanthemum are on equal footing. They both smell wonderfully natural and fresh, the melon juicy and a tad fruity, the chrysanthemum cool, dewy, and almost chalky (a quality I've always really liked about it, despite the mortuary connotations). These two notes also share an intensely green character, which the addition of tuberose only fortifies, while also providing a slightly indolic backbone. The DS&D website calls this "unimaginably narcotic", but I actually disagree. I'm with the reviewers below who disassociate Durga from something like Carnal Flower or Moon Bloom, in which the heady qualities are accentuated through touches of eucalyptus, jasmine, and/or coconut. The ylang is extremely delicate, almost undetectable, and the orris and musk provide the semblance of a base without adding any true weight. As a result, Durga manifests as sexy but not fleshy, cool but not cold, green but not verdant, youthful but not frivolous. It's definitely got what I'm coming to identify as that cosmopolitan chic common to so many of DS&D's fragrances."
Fragrantica - "It doesnt resemble carnal flower, tubereuse criminelle, or fracas... And I think it doesnt resemble Hiram Green Moon Bloom either. The combination of tuberose, jasmine and chrysanthemum with melon is an original take on white flower genre. Genius, I love it."
Fragrantica - "Chrysanthemum reads a little smoky and papery like everlasting flowers more closely related to immortelle or helichrysum rather than greener tagetes. Perhaps it's the marriage with orris that creates this hypnotic smoldering effect. Along with the creaminess of tuberose and ylang ylang, the flowers combine to create a sweet alluring low-keyed moderately indolic song, never registering soprano, but simmering with a warm, radiant natural hum. R&B tuberose. The smooth greens keep Durga lingering with metered animation, never falling heavily making this fragrance incredibly versatile. Durga is fairly unisex in the way that it plays on my skin as the florals aren't loud or sharp. Creamy, smooth, warm and inviting, completely enveloping like a cup of sweet jasmine and chrysanthemum tea with malted nut milk, served on a tray adorned with fresh tuberose and ylang ylang blossoms. The uniqueness and quality are beautiful and the price is justified."
