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.

What if an evil, plastic cantaloupe shoved you into a hot trunk with steamy, rice-tinted indols. This is the only perfume, besides Lune Feline, that has literally turned my stomach. Nauseating. Edit: I think if you're not wearing this, the scent cloud isn't terrible. Ripe melon, coconut, green. Okay, fine. BTW, Debaser is my signature scent, and it's giving me Debaser vibes, but with so much ripe melon and indolic quality, it's tough to sort it out. She's a little weirdo, for sure, but I'm warming up to her in the scent cloud. I do not recommend actually smelling your skin with this one. Edit 2: I take it all back. She's amazing, this one. Rich. Sophisticated. She carries a pearl handled revolver in her Birkin. Do I need a bottle. lol.

This is the white floral perfume I’ve been hunting for, for 17 years. I have always adored the smell of tuberose and jasmine in the wild. There was a jasmine vine near my home that I used to smell everyday on my walk into town. I always wished I had a perfume that smelled like that. The green sappy alluring rounded scent that wafts with dewy grace. Durga captures the natural allure of tuberose and jasmine, it smells like you are taking a sniff of the real thing. Then it dries down to a gorgeous cozy melt into the skin snuggly scent. This is perfumery magic. I am quite simply in love and wish I could go back in time to wear this on my wedding day and everyday since. (Now I must save my funds to buy a bottle)

This perfume gave me a solid lesson in letting your fragrances rest after shipping. I received this as a gift for Mother's Day and was so excited about it that I ripped the box open and immediately sprayed it. I was disappointed. All I got was the melon and musk. The tuberose was MIA and I was sad. However, I sprayed it again this morning and am in love. The tuberose and other florals are here now, floating on the milky, sweet melon in a harmonious way. Where Carnal Flower is green and sharp (which I absolutely love), Durga is rounded, creamy, and lush. The projection is about arm's length and longevity is sitting at ~8 hours on my skin. I've already received a few compliments on it.

Floral Dress This is opulence floral with wet dirt freshness. It’s beautiful. It’s evocative of a summer dew drop crushed flowers and grass as you step over your floral dress. Tears running down your face as the sun heats up the floral oils that’s been seeping out from the crushed earth and florals. Ahhh freedom. Evocative of a new start. Spring has sprung. It’s full of life. As it wears down you can detect that musk that’s makes it rounded creaminess almost salty on my skin... a clean sweat and a bit or fruity sweet. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. 8.5/10 Picture Midsommar Floral Dress

this smells so so beautiful. every time I pass a ds durga counter, i need to try this on. the only thing that has kept me from buying a bottle is the price point, it is just so expensive. a very jasmine forward perfume, in my opinion, but when reading the notes I do notice the melon (cool and juicy) but it's 100% a white floral perfume, but even though it is floral heavy it has a coolness to it (maybe the melon) that prevents it from being heavy, powdery, and unpleasant. the chrysanthemum and ylang ylang is noticable, but the strongest notes are jasmine and tuberose.

One of my favorite scents, although I think it smells better in another person than the experience of wearing it. Very rich tuberose and jasmine, which can be overwhelming when freshly sprayed, but carries well and smells very pleasant from 2+ feet away. Also get a strong initial citronella scent, which blends together with the rest of the white floral scents after an hour or further away. Does not smell as vintage as the floral notes may lead one to believe.

This smells beautiful but no doubt due to the double dose of tuberose and the melon, it is strongly reminiscent of Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle. This would feel entirely redundant whilst I own CF, but Durga could possibly be the more wearable version without the camphoros mentholated green aspect. Beautiful, feminine, heady, sexy white floral that packs a punch!

When I first sprayed this, I was like, gross! But as it settled you get a beautiful, interesting and somewhat odd tuberose with an herbal note coming from the Chrysanthemum. I can see how you could compare to Carnal Flower. Not sure if I would get a full bottle but definitely enjoying the decant.

Just tried a sample of this today and I am in love! It feels oddly nostalgic to me, like hugging my grandma. This smells very cozy and musky to me. I really wish I could buy it, but I just can’t justify the price point unfortunately:(

First impressions from a tester strip: fruity/floral.... stunning. I cant pull that one, but I want my Lady to smell like this during the Spring.

So, so gorgeous. The olfactory equivalent of walking through a farmer's market with your sunscreen-scented arms full of fresh tuberose and fruit.

the movie Carol (2015) in a bottle

I was surprised how floral this was after how it smelled in the sample vial the first time I opened it. Of course I cannot wait for anything to settle, so when I got it in the mail, I opened it immediately. It smelled very herbal and aromatic then. Now it's been about a week and I'm just wearing it for the first time. Very white floral, in a nice way. I am a little leery of white florals because I am not a fan of orange blossom and ylang ylang is not my favorite, but both of these are subtle here. Tuberose is the white floral star, and it is in no way bubblegum-like to my nose. I love tuberose (I am still chasing a perfume that smells like the Paddywax Gardenia + Tuberose candle), but I don't like when it's too sweet or cloying. This feels like just the right amount of fresh, dewy, slightly green tuberose with none of the overbearing sweetness. Intriguingly, I do smell the chrysanthemum, at least up close on my wrist. It smells like dried flowers, but not in a rotting way. More in a strawflower kind of way, or dried grasses. That and the orris give it a bit of depth and grounding. I don't get the coconut others seem to get. The melon note itself is pretty light, but I think there is something about the way it interacts with the chrysanthemum and orris that makes the fragrance overall smell a little unpleasantly dusty. Like a little too wooly in a distracting and scratchy way. The longer I wear this, however, the more that dissipates, but it's with me for most of the ride. I like about 90% of this fragrance, I just wish I wasn't getting once-damp moth-eaten wool sweater accord on top of it. I'm going to try it in an atomizer to see if that changes the experience. 7.5/10.

This is nicely done. A wall of smell in the best way. These extravagant florals will be the signature of the post-covid year when I look back, to the degree that I'll be able to forget that BR540 / Cloud took over much of public space / zeitgeist. I like the sort of honeydew accord that comes through after the initial spray, it's a little bit playful and salivary. But everything else just makes me feel like I'm wearing a Carnal Flower dupe. This is just such a close copy, as it plays out on my skin. I appreciate the lush and expensive summer maximalism of both scents, but between the two will prefer the Malle because it's even more itself and performs like a beast.

An interesting and unique green floral Durga is a very melon centered perfume. The perfume opens with notes of the prominent melon ( that stays throughout the perfume stay) along with tuberose and chrysanthemum. The heart is mostly floral with ylang-ylang, orris and orange blossom. The perfume settles into a musky white floral base with more tuberose, jasmine sambac and musk. Unisex ( feminine leaning) with moderate to strong sillage, projection and good longevity. Important not to overspray. A lovely modern floral dream. Enjoy!