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!

MELON. The melon is omnipresent throughout the duration of this fragrance, although it begins more floral dries down creamier and smoother. Perhaps not an extremely 'interesting' scent, but very pleasant, and one of the first notable melon scents I've encountered. A beautiful work.

Very pungent tuberose and melon on the opening, powdery and sterile and cool. My girlfriend picked up a pee scent which I don't fully disagree with. Dries down much more agreeably to a softer white floral. GF disliked it at first but it grew on her.

A high end floral that has great sillage. Cozy ozonic but also dewy tuberose, feels contemporary to me. Elegance crystallized.

somehow giving cucumber melon from b&bw but elevated? very white floral also, but not cloying, so interesting...

Reviewers are describing the ill-will of this forceful melon note very aptly. I thought this would be an easy win for me as a white floral enthusiast, but there’s something oppressive about this. And I doubt my ambivalence is just a function of dislike of melon in general—Carnal Flower (which this perfume references) is a cooler and less cloying tuberose-melon accord. Maybe it’s the presence of something sweet like vanilla that tips the scales here...Overall, this perfumer does a good job of capturing threatening vegetation straight out of the uncanny valley (Vio Volta). Starchy, ricey cantaloupe, not totally consonant with the brand marketing of this perfume as narcotic, opulent flowers.

The opening is unique and voluptuous! But sadly after an hour on my skin this turns too ozonic to the extent that it comes across as clean bleach scent which is something I really did not enjoy and it stays on this phase for hours and it is persistence. Great silage and longevity but not great if I smell like a bleach bomb. I think this fragrance is beautiful for a particular skin type but not for mine so best to test first.

Love the opening with bright white flowers balanced with the milky nectary melon. It's super strong like smelling a highly saturated bouquet. I was enjoying this until 1 hr in the musk came blasting through on my skin and now it smells very generic. It smells like one of those perfumes that gets on you when someone hugs you and you keep getting whiffs of musk smells randomly throughout the day. It started out as a youthful and sophisticated fragrance that I imagine a fancy lady would wear, but as the fresh flowers went away it aged about 30 years. It is a better musk base than many perfumes however. Just FYI it does not wash off even with oil or glycerin in between soaping. I would love love to have a perfume like this without the musk if anyone has recommendations.

Smells like sitting poolside with everyone else around you wearing sunscreen and perfume. After having also tried Steamed Rainbow, I think this house does some funky “humid” notes, too funky for me. It’s more “steam from a barely cleaned gym sauna” than a good type of steam, if that makes sense. The orris creates this unpleasant woodiness like an unkempt sauna. I’m kind of astounded by the price point and popularity of this house based on my experience with these perfumes, but maybe I haven’t tried the right one. After an hour, it’s mellowed out to a nice barely-there floral. Still reminds me of poolside.

This perfume to me reminds me of cantaloupe lifesavers + DKNY Be Delicious + (come with me on this journey) a drinkable antibiotic I was prescribed when I was 6 for a bladder infection that was some medicinal taste, poorly cloaked in a tropical scent - it still haunts me. I didn't even realize how much it haunts me until I sprayed this and was *triggered.* So yes, this review looks horrible and yet the scent is not HORRIBLE. It's just meh, if I want to smell sweet, it's not going to be in this way. I tend to feel red berries are the best direction for sweet fruit accords, and this is no exception.

I find this almost unwearable. Smells floral at first, but dries down to a horrible hospital and rubbing alcohol scent.

off-kilter floral. starchy almost matcha-ish?

when I was little I was very afraid of the Rumour Weed from veggie tales. she had a malicious voluptuousness to her; lips that dripped with rotten malice, her vines would entomb you in your final chrysalis and then squeeze you till bursting; a fleshy larvae dripping with overripe sap. The initial biting stemminess of this perfume quickly goes rancid on my skin, reminding me of the time my mom left sliced melon in the fridge far too long. It truly smells like flowering decay - and I don't mean the note of crysanthemum, which I've never smelled. Mother Weed has reared her venomous head in this one: I can hear her tongue flicking; I can feel the buds on her tongue swollen with saliva. Shudder.

Its floral counterpart, Durga, has been kept squarely in the back of all sales shelves I have seen it placed on — and if this article accomplishes nothing, I should hope its purpose would be to free this milky-narcotic white floral masterpiece from obscurity and place it among widely-circulated names like Frederic Malle’s Carnal Flower and Hiram Green’s Moon Bloom. Opening with an instantly attention-grabbing blast of herbal chrysanthemum, Durga’s conceit is the juiciness of fresh melon set against bubblegum tuberose. A fine-quality orris is used deftly here to support the smooth and buttery aspects of the central white flower. Where D.S. stumbles in revealing the true nature of its high-quality ingredients (and justifying its incredibly high price point at $380 for 50ml) there is no question in my mind (or my nose) that Durga contains an overabundance of high-quality tuberose absolute. The smell is unmistakable and almost obscene. Most clearly referenced in Carnal Flower, there is a reason, of course, that Malle purports in thick French that “the woman who wears [it] is saying come, kiss me!” Of course, Durga is not merely another tuberose-melon-eucalyptus Carnal Flower clone. What sets it apart is the crucial presence of chrysanthemum. It replaces eucalyptus in this now-notorious combination, lending a somewhat musty, prickly, and off-putting accord to this generally enchanting lineup. I can hear the tiniest, faintest echoes of Serge Lutens haunting funerary masterpiece De Profundis in what chrysanthemum accomplishes and unsettles here. It clings to the skin for a full day, and in the meantime, gives you tendrils of titular tuberose to last in your memory for weeks. If I had all the money in the world, Durga would be my signature perfume from the house.

The way I was ready to drop all money when I smelled this on a test paper - it is majestic! I knew I loved tuberose but this fragrance is next level. It smells so luxurious and sophisticated on my skin. In a way, I feel I am not mature enough to wear this scent. When I say mature I mean in no way "grandma," it's like a version of me that has their life completely together. This perfume is elegant, beautiful, true art. I love a melon note in fragrance, and the rich cantaloupe in this opening has a touch of sweetness and depth to carry the tuberose star-of-the-show. I pick up the ylang-ylang and a touch of musk. This is obviously very floral but not powdery, it's got a thickness to the scent that I would describe as syrupy but without the associated sugar/sweet aspects. I'm prone to feel nauseous if a floral fragrance is too sweet and I didn't feel even a twinge of it. I did get a little lightheaded from constantly pulling my sweatshirt over my nose to take deep breaths all afternoon. I love this so much but my initial enthusiasm has faded slightly because the price point for a bottle is higher than I have ever spent on a fragrance. For me this would be a special occasion fragrance, it is so lovely and I feel like it deserves to be treasured. I imagine that this would age beautifully and become even more warm and luxurious with time.

Durga by D.S. & Durga is deliciously weird. I honestly would never buy a bottle of this fragrance for myself as it is a difficult scent to wear, but I admittedly love to smell it for hours on end, if only from a tester strip. Melon is the star of this fragrance, not tuberose as some may expect. Don't get me wrong, the buttery, green tuberose note is definitely present but the melon gives it that sweet, watery aspect which drives much of the composition. I wandered the shopping plaza for some time after spraying Durga on both my wrist and on a tester strip. A stranger behind me on the escalator was as enamoured with this scent as I was after I found myself absent-mindedly waving about my tester strip, and in doing so intoxicating everyone around me. I don't get many compliments on my choice of fragrances, yet Durga was quick to turn heads. Not surprisingly this fragrance is a 'beast' when it comes to sillage. Many reviewers hail this fragrance as D.S. & Durga's version of Frederic Malle's Carnal Flower. I would beg to disagree. Durga is buttery and sweet, even a tad fruity. Carnal Flower is much headier with a somewhat earthy undertone. They may share a common scent pyramid, but I personally find them to be quite different.

This fragrance tells its story in chapters, each one a pleasure to inhabit. 1. Intrigue: Waxy, savory, earthy tuberose with a wet hay quality and a sprinkle of cantaloupe. It somehow captures multiple elements at once: earth, water, and air. I picture air moving from sky to soil, spherical and dewy. If you’ve ever smelled real tuberoses, this closely approximates their odd mushroomy allure when you stick your nose into them. 2. Surrender: Settles into a heartbreaking floral comfort accord, comparable to the drydown of Serge Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger. Lightly fruity-sweet, softly musky, heady. Disarming, like the soft perfume emitted by tuberoses at night. 3. Reverie: A velvety, powdery musk note emerges, still with a whisper of salted cream and white and yellow florals. Climbing into bed, remembering something you haven’t thought of in a while. It stays with you into the next day. A stunner from this brand.

This is the weirdest experience for me, because it opens in a way I absolutely hate on my skin, but evolves into an absolutely gorgeous tuberose after about half an hour of the weird opening. I'm not certain, but I think it's something to do with the melon mixed with orris, or something like that, that turns tarry or rubbery, just something that rubs my nose the wrong way. But the tuberose that develops later is worth waiting for. I can say it truly transforms over time, something that rarely (for me) happens this dramatically in perfumes. I don't think I could do a full bottle just because of the opening, but might want it for the later tuberose. It's truly a hate and then love.

This should be described as musky instead of white floral. I think the below comments of oatmeal, starchy, woolly, thick and indolic are all correct. This is a very dense scent and the effect is white flowers if they were made of musky human skin. The first effect is mildly soapy (unpleasant) and powdery with a strange and unidentifiable bouquet underneath (pleasant). As you try to get closer to what it is, this humid perfume cloud turns really white floral-powder-skin like and quite prominently indolic. Like one of the sisters from the Virgin Suicides hadn’t washed for 2 days. I don’t dislike it. But something about it repulses me.

Omg talk about a journey! The floral nature remains throughout - an almost cold, thick tuberose. Initially over top of that is a melon, adding a little more coolness but also a juiciness. After a half hour, the orris takes over almost completely. It becomes much more dry. I’m only at maybe 2 hours now and it’s like pure orange blossom sweetness! Really lovely and interesting.

They use a powerful base here that gives melted crayon, or a wax candle. After 5 minutes this waxiness is all I smell. I do agree with another reviewer who says this is similar to Debaser (I like Debaser), but I scrubbed this off after 2 hours. I am really surprised to be writing this review on this particular frag, I had a lot of hope for this one.

I agree with Tigerlillian! "R&B Tuberose" is a perfect description for this deep, warm, green tuberose, that lacks the high pitch lipsticky notes that could make this more of a feminine fragrance. I feel this is unisex, stays fairly close, is not a sillage monster. Quite beautiful, comforting, day or night.

it's a spring day back in the early 80's and I am stepping in my favorite stationery store in this small village in Southern Italy where I grew up. I approach the shelf with some freshly printed magazines next to the scented pastel color erasers I like to collect.

My first impression was ‘Debaser with a couple tweaks.’ The singular and well known green coconutty accord that forms the backbone of Debaser is front and center in Durga. Owning both fragrances is redundant though I actually prefer the slightly sweeter Durga.

Floral, figgy orange blossom on a grounded woody base of cedar or sandalwood. Ripe fruit. The coconut milk DNA from D.S. & Durga’s Debaser. Wet dirt. An interesting namesake house scent that’s all about fruit, florals, & wood. Medium to strong projection.

extremely white floral upon arrival, doesn’t let up at all with that cantaloupe holding it up by its lapel. finally got to the melon on an exhale 30 minutes in, but it still doesn’t help the fact that this smells like hairspray and church mothers to me.

Loved the opening of Durga stunning fresh and something spectacular, narcotic, could not stop smelling my wrist <3 As the base notes appeared at the end it smelled almost like Reminiscence Les Notes Gourmand Dragée, pure musk good or bad?

It has a very very similar DNA to Debaser, at least from what I smelled in the store (i.e. it might develop more on the skin). They're siblings, though not twins.

cool, dry take on tuberose ... not sweet or heady honestly smells like oatmeal a bit