Durga

Yes, at long last! I've always loved the smell of chrysanthemums and for quite a while have been on the lookout for a fragrance that foregrounds them. I really wanted that to be Serge Lutens De Profundis, which is indeed a lovely perfume with very realistic florals, but I'm not about to spend $400 on a fragrance that lasts a mere half an hour and even then barely projects. However, when I read the note description for Durga, I was only cautiously hopeful, anxious that the melon note would translate to a sickly calone atrocity or that the tuberose would make this redundant in my collection. I was elated to discover that I needn't worry. Durga is an incredible composition. 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. This is still quite costly for only a 50ml bottle. For me, though, it's worthy every penny. It oozes quality, balance, and modernity. Wear it in the warmer months, as it needs a bit of heat to breathe properly, and it will project strongly all day. Despite the florals, or perhaps due to the melon that recalls some mainstream masculine freshies of the turn of the millennium, Durga is profoundly androgynous. In terms of occasion, it's also incredibly versatile, and would go just as well with a vintage denim jacket as it would with formal evening wear. The bottle is to die for (see my review of Debaser for more info on that). Hats off to you, D.S. & Durga, and thank you!

Durga does Carnal Flower! Actually Durga is its own original take on green tuberose. Common notes are tuberose, ylang ylang, jasmine, orange blossom and musk. If you're looking for a smoother iteration of Carnal Flower without the eucalyptus, Durga delivers. There remains a subtle green nuance, nutty, woody and pseudo-tropical tempered with a slice of warm melon. No lipstick note or coconut/gardenia like I experience with Carnal Flower. 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.

Smell Good? 9 /10 (Personal Favorite) Smell Interesting? 7/10. This is a rare experience. Smelling perfume is a tricky puzzle game for me: my nose only gets a small part of the a fragrance at each time. Take this one for example: when I test it in store, the word "opulent" jumps to my mind. It's three-dimensional tuberose, so vividly openning under my nose, that I can think of nothing else. Then I bought a few samples. Upon opening the lid, the creaminess makes my mouth water; but after applying on my skin, it all when to shit. The only thing I can get is a sour-greenness. I actually love green scents, but no! Not this time! Bring my flowers back! Don't just leave me green leaves and stems! A hint of something mentholated is also noticeable if I get close enough. Just to make sure my nose is not dead, I put Carnal Flower on my other hand, what I get: NOTHING. Well, now I'm sure my nose is positively f*ked up. Interestingly, not unlike listening to a piano concerto with the piano completely filtered out, it looks like I'm only blind to the tuberose, and I can still sense other notes. So here is what these two tuberoses smell like without tuberose: Durga: mint-ish yogurt. Carnal Flower: jasmine, anise+mothball. People, anosmic is real! Don't take your nose for granted!

Smell Good? 9 /10 (Personal Favorite) Smell Interesting? 7/10. This is a rare experience. Smelling perfume is a tricky puzzle game for me: my nose only gets a small part of the a fragrance at each time. Take this one for example: when I test it in store, the word "opulent" jumps to my mind. It's three-dimensional tuberose, so vividly openning under my nose, that I can think of nothing else. Then I bought a few samples. Upon opening the lid, the creaminess makes my mouth water; but after applying on my skin, it all when to shit. The only thing I can get is a sour-greenness. I actually love green scents, but no! Not this time! Bring my flowers back! Don't just leave me green leaves and stems! A hint of something mentholated is also noticeable if I get close enough. Just to make sure my nose is not dead, I put Carnal Flower on my other hand, what I get: NOTHING. Well, now I'm sure my nose is positively f*ked up. Interestingly, not unlike listening to a piano concerto with the piano completely filtered out, it looks like I'm only blind to the tuberose, and I can still sense other notes. So here is what these two tuberoses smell like without tuberose: Durga: mint-ish yogurt. Carnal Flower: jasmine, anise+mothball. People, anosmic is real! Don't take your nose for granted!

I agree that melon is omnipresent in this juice. Starting from the first spray the tuberose and jasmine are only background singers, they never get to steal the spotlight, because the melon is proven to be a wonderful diva here. At first it is creamy, much like lemon yoghurt with floral notes. To be honest I can totally detect the tuberose and jasmine, but it is subdued by the melon. During the middle phase the perfume change the direction from milky yoghurt to chrysanthemum tea. And it stays beautiful like that for more than 10 hours. It projects strong to medium. 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.