Radio Bombay

Aha! OK yes - after a bit of fiddling about with the dial to tune into what was special about it - I'm convinced. Sandalwood resonates with my soul, and I'm usually on DS&D's wavelength. All those naturalesque outdoorsy woods and aromatics, not too many flowers, unisex-ish ... and as hipster-cliche as some of their schtick may be, it works for me, NEARLY all the time. There can be misfires though, and when they're bad they're bad. I'd been unimpressed by this on a rushed store-test (never a good idea), but trying again from a vial at home, in quieter conditions .... oh my. Not super-sweet, and mercifully not smothered with roses. It really does have a sort of chemical-mineral-metallic edge to it (?ambrette's useful dirtiness, maybe?) which somehow does conjure the inside of retro cabinets, a tang of 'factory manufacture' in amid the smooth, aromatic woodiness. There's a definite waft of real copper wiring in there. Almost spicy-bitter, but not like a true Santal de Mysore-a-like - this is airy rather than thick and overwhelming. Not at all over-gourmand'ed either - despite the coconut, this seemed to me perfectly in the middle of the sandalwood spectrum, neither the harsh/masc/dill/'blue' savoury end nor the often rose/coconut/vanilla/peach/femme/tropic-flowery end. Instead this is some warm, mellow, welcoming space in between, but with that extra tang of weird (wired?) from the industrial-chemical-sawmill tinge. It's the smell equivalent of proper, analogue crackle & static on the airwaves - that imperceptible texture that tells you you're dealing with real-world skills, played on real instruments by real people. Dammit. Thought I could safely ignore it, but no - it's going on my own personal Top 20 selection of sandalwoods and I hope to get it into regular rotation whenever my pocket allows. One for the sandalwood or DSD fanatics, I feel - because if you're only exploring, and you just like sandalwood in general, but not THAT much - then there are many similar things at much more reasonable prices. But this really does justify its existence (if not the full RRP) by being distinctive, different and robust. If I were on the panel: I still judge it a smash hit.

Radio Bombay has got to be the most fabulous creamy sandalwood out there. I don't detect many of the official notes. Instead this smells like sandalwood and other woods mixed with the humid aroma of steam escaping from a rice cooker. The coconut is one of the most realistic that I have ever encountered in a perfume. It vividly brings back special memories of my grandmother grating coconuts to use on some sort of Filipino dessert (puto or cuchinta)—now I'm drooling. The scent seems to come and go for the first couple of hours. A few hours after spraying, it comes back full force as sandalwood mixed with temple incense. In a way it's reminiscent of a sandalwood incense stick that hasn’t been lit (not smoky). I see it reminds people of Santal 33, one of my favorites by Le Labo. I can understand that because they are both woody, tropical, moist, greenish. I smell mango in Santal 33, although it's not listed in the notes, and I feel as though there is a perception of mango in Radio Bombay because I keep picturing one of my favorite Asian desserts--glutinous rice with mango and coconut milk. It also reminds me of a local dish from the island of Cebu in the Philippines called hanging rice, which is rice cooked in weaved coconut fronds. I also keep imagining a touch of salt in these dishes, so maybe the "copper" note is this tempting saltiness. Truly a sandalwood gem. Especially if you love the scent of rice. I bought the large bottle.

I’m stunned by some of these reviews. I think Radio Bombay is a phenomenal juice. Beautiful, creamy, REAL coconut opens but doesn’t stay, folds itself under a loud copper twang to make way for sandalwood, cedar, a playful amount of Christmas-y green, and a big hit of ISO E Super. My nose skips over peach and boronia if there really is any but certainly catches some comforting powdery iris, tempered by a woody, metallic drydown. Glad the iris is there, too, otherwise the copper and green together might make this more interesting than wearable to me. Shocked the copper isn’t listed, suspect it’s a phenolic result of the ISO E, but that does keep it interesting, the kind of interesting I hope to find in a DS&Durga formula. Smells like the stereo, exactly as promised. I love it. It works well with my skin and feels sexy and cool but unfussy, not boring, not trying to convince anyone it’s sexy and cool. It just is. If you’re unhappy with it I’d recommend layering with another sweeter, more gourmand sandalwood fragrance, it becomes very pretty and easy when worn with a vanilla or gooey caramel note. My one qualm is that it’s named Radio Bombay while Debaser got to be named after a Pixes song. This smells exactly like a Black Francis whine and I think it’s unjust.

The first time I sprayed this on, I was very nervous. The very first burst was a crackle of static electricity and my first thought was to scrub it off immediately. But I decided to grit my teeth and wait it out, and it dried down to a fantastic dry, dusty peach skin scent. Now I've worn it half a dozen times and the opening no longer hits me in the same way. I get a sharp, coppery jab, but it's pleasant rather than jarring, and it still dries down to the lovely peach skin. If there's any coconut, it's coconut flakes, not milk or meat. This isn't what I would personally call "creamy" or "powdery". This leans more feminine to me, and it's not girly sweet, which I really appreciate. Nobody has commented on it, and I haven't asked, so I have no idea how good the projection is. My impression is not very far, but I'm not looking to make an impression when I walk into the room anyway, just to like how I smell. I also don't find it lasts more than maybe 5 hours? but that's my experience with pretty much any perfume I've tried so far, so I don't really hold that against it. Love it! Looking forward to trying more DS & Durga once I am flush.

First review here and glad it’s Radio Bombay. I went looking for my scent memory of amber resin and landed at the fragrance counter of Mertz Apothecary in Chicago. After describing this and additional woodsy scent preferences we tried a few different fragrances and when I got to Radio Bombay I was immediately taken aback - stunned really as a grin spread across my face. I didn’t even want to try any others. The scent immediately radiated warmth that embraced me. Yes, undeniably sandalwood all over with an underlying soft accent (that word seems too sharp - maybe more like the feeling of touching a smooth finely lacquered wood grain - is there an English word for this?) of hearth. For this reason I can see why others lean towards the autumn season. RB is heavy and a few sprays may give too much projection. However I’ve found wearing on my skin on a hot summer day the projection is noticeable and intriguing and a bit mysterious. For a richer experience I would recommend DS&D’s Amber Kiso, another favorite.