Rockaway Beach

Rockaway Beach is inspired by late 1970s New York City, a time when the music scene buzzed with raw energy and teenage angst found its voice in simple, catchy songs. Bands like the Ramones captured a universal fantasy, escaping the oppressive heat and grime of a New York summer for the coast. Sunscreen on skin, salt in the air, ocean winds rolling across Queens, and privet hedges blooming beside pastel beach condos all set the scene. With that picture in mind, it’s time to leave the city behind, drop our bags in the sand, and tap into the beach. I bought Rockaway Beach as a Christmas gift to myself in December 2023. On paper, it looked like everything I wanted: promising notes, a well-regarded niche house, and a perfumer who grew up on the Atlantic. But with its discontinuation and rising resale prices, the real question became whether it is worth it or if it was discontinued for a reason. The opening is immediately salty, mineralic, and faintly sandy. That mineral saltiness almost reads like a pool float on an unbearably hot day, the smell of sun-heated plastic and chlorine clinging to a towel you have already dried off with once before. It is oddly transportive and very evocative. After about ten to fifteen minutes, the scent softens and opens up. A light suntan lotion note emerges, subtle and understated, as if it has been washed off by the ocean or worn off rather than freshly applied. Alongside it is the privet flower, green, slightly sweet, and summery, the kind of floral that feels like it might trigger a mild seasonal allergy, but in the best possible way. Around the ninety-minute to two-hour mark, the laurel really comes forward. It adds a crushed leaf quality that feels fresh and herbal with a faintly spicy, slightly camphorous, and gently bitter edge, almost bay-leaf-like. This phase blends beautifully with the lingering sunscreen and mineral, skin-like notes. This is not a loud fragrance. It wears close and feels more like an olfactory artwork than a statement scent. There is no funky seaweed and nothing fishy or challenging here. Instead, this is the experience of a crowded, scorching hot beach. You arrive late, haul your stuff half a mile to find a spot, struggle to set up a discount canopy you bought at a local surf shop the day before, give up, jump in the water, then dry off as salt cakes into your towel. You sit on it anyway, and enjoy a turkey sandwich, chips, and a soda that may have picked up a bit of sand along the way. The only thing I think might put some people off is the salty, mineral opening, but beyond that, it is highly wearable and remarkably well balanced, especially for summer, making it a very rare true fifty-fifty unisex fragrance. Rockaway Beach is fantastic, and there is not much more to say. Many fragrances, along with candles and lotions, try to capture the idea of the beach, and this does it better than all of them. It feels like it should be synthetic or gimmicky, yet it never is. If you are going to the beach, or simply want to feel like you are already there, this is the one for you.

This fragrance took a while to grow on me, but is certainly has! As others have mentioned it is a very photorealistic "cold water" *marine* scent. Whereas most beachy summer fragrances lean into aquatic and solar notes, paired with a citrus of some sort -- salt, seaweed, and sand (rocks) steal the show here. I am typically drawn to fresh, aquatic, citrus, solar fragrances (Think LV Afternoon Swim) and this fragrance is not that, but still manages to sit nicely on my skin. I would not recommend it as a blind buy because I could see it working poorly with some skin chemistries. Unlike typical (citrus, fresh, solar) beach fragrances, I think Rockaway Beach could be easily worn in other seasons. In some ways it feels like this fragrance captures equally well what the beach smells like on a cold crisp day as it does in the heat of summer. I really think the distinction between marine and aquatic (and the lack of citrus) notes is driving this along with the fact that the "target" here is a New York beach (as opposed to a typical tropical warm water beach). If you like *marine* scents this is an all season wear. Another reviewer pointed out similarities to Coney Island by Bond No. 9 -- there is definitely to that comparison at first blush, but the warmer notes (chocolate, caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, and sandalwood) make the dry down very different. Longevity isn't great, but it is a really unique scent. If you value Moltz creative scent experiments, sometimes at the expense of easy wearability, I definetly recommend Rockaway Beach.

I've wanted to try this for years and finally found a bottle. I've smelled lots of niche marine scents and this is right up there with other heavy hitters like Acqua Di Sale, Atlante, Erolfa and others. Thing is, this doesn't smell like anything I've tried before. The opening is very very salty with minerals just like you're smelling ocean spray. The suntan lotion is there but it's way in the background similar to how it would be when you get out of the water after swimming or surfing. The privet and laurels really help paint that picture of the Atlantic coast. The skin musk is also tastefully done and very realistic. There's really nothing nasty in this one unless you think seawater in general is unpleasant and if that's the case, you should stay away from true marine scents. Wearable artwork that conjurers the Atlantic in a fantastic and realistic way.💙 --------------------------------------------- My favorite true marine fragrance. Projection could be better but otherwise it's photorealistic, which makes it perfect for me. I'm going to pick up another bottle before it's gone again. Scent 10/10 Performance 7/10 Update: DS DURGA is selling this again.

It's salty and slightly marine. The marine tone is kind of like literal ocean or ļake water. Briney in the opening but never unpleasant. Very fresh marine spray mist. Port and lakeside vibes. This is a raw freshness that I can imagine myself being near a body of fresh water and/or even salt water. One of the most photorealistic fragrances without being biased out of nostalgia. This is Southpointe Park, Miami boardwalk with the giant granite rocks on the coast. It's River Street in Savannah GA. Its the mist against the rails standing on a ferry. The dry down focuses more on the mineral aspects and still fresh. It reminds me of being near a waterfall or a lake town near the beach.

Kramer: "You know the way you smell when you first come home from the beach? Well, I want to make a cologne that captures the essence of that smell. Oh yeah." Calvin Klein exec: "That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard. You think people are going to pay $80 a bottle to smell like dead fish and seaweed? That's why people take showers when they come home from the beach. It's an objectionable, offensive odor." David and Kavi must've watched this Seinfeld episode because this fragrance is exactly that: a photorealistic fragrance of a midwinter polar bear plunge in a grimy east coast urban beach. This is just a good of fragrance for the winter as it is the summer. It's spectacular.

This is very unique. Concrete jungle meets salt meets marine air. Not the clean and luxurious marine air you think of with Soleil Blanc or even the waft of sunscreen with beach vibes by MM ... no... this is dirty and grungy. Concrete. Dirty salt. Wet sand. City side marine wafts. It's amazing and instantly transported me to an urban beach near the hustle and bustle of city life. I don't know whether many people will like this, it's pretty dirty and raw, but it's unique, photorealistic and storytelling like no other beach scent. when I read the makers description I gasped - he wanted to capture the beach in New York Queens and that city meets beach vibe from his childhood.

this is possibly my all-time favorite fragrance. I use it desperately sparingly considering it’s so expensive and difficult to come by, but it is the best oceanic/marine fragrance ive ever smelled bar none. it's truly an atlantic scent – photorealistic, gritty, slightly cold long island beach at low tide. seaweed, salt, fresh-fish-market funk, cheap sunscreen on sweaty skin, and a fresh cool ocean breeze. instantly transports me to my childhood summers on the south shore. on my skin it smells like i just got out of the ocean and went to dinner on the pier without showering. really really lovely

If you want hyper realistic beach with no fu*ks given, then this is it. If you want that, you'll recognize this as the most realistic out there. I've tried so many marine fragrances over the years looking for this exact vibe. Sarah Baker came close, but DS Durga is even closer. Salt and brine, with prevet. I really don't get any suntan lotion, just rough seas on a an overcast day.. ×××××××××××××××××××××× Scent 99/100 Performance 60/100 ××××××××××××××××××××××

Just released in Australia and I had to try it. It’s very beachey and salt airy and almost margarita-ish. I can smell like a guava accord that I remember from Bond No 9 Coney Island which I also loved as an alternate summer go to. Can’t really pick up the suntan oil note but impressive nevertheless.Perfect for spring weather

Surprised with low ratings, it’s a very nice aquatic scent which is not overly salty, quite fresh and unisex, not too masculine. I’d say it’s a safe blind buy if you love aquatics, the only thing to consider is a swimming pool accord which can be irritating to some, but I personally find it nice.

I absolutely love this fragrance. It immediately transports me to the beach: salty air, aquatic, fresh. My only gripe is that I wish it lasted longer.

Available in Australia now from Mecca might be worth checking out

And first, a love letter to the Rockaways: Rockaway Beach is the people’s beach. Is there anything more magical than a beach in a big city? Is there anything more charming than troops of New Yorkers headed to the beach on a Saturday morning in July, the subway filled people in swim suits covered by tank tops, armed with umbrellas and towels and coolers full of cold cuts. Everybody’s like, I am here to relax. I have a book, I have sunscreen, I have beer I’m going to hide from the beach patrol. You get off the train or the ferry and you see Manhattan just in the distance, the skyscrapers like a floating mirage, and then you turn around and see the beach. It’s just a short, sweaty hot walk through city beach streets with no shade with your fellow pilgrims. Heat radiates off the cement. Without sunglasses, the sidewalk is almost blindingly as it reflects the sun. I’d stop at the Walgreens and grab a Diet Coke and Gatorade, if they have any left, which they often do not. It’s packed when you finally get to the beach, the shore a rainbow mess of thousands of people, it’s basically impossible to find someone you didn’t arrive with. At first all you can hear is the sound of the waves, but soon other noises break through: someone with a speaker blasting reggaeton, the nutcracker salesmen giving their best pitches, kids screaming with delight over buried treasure, seagulls loosing their minds over the bounty below, shrill whistles from lifeguards trying to keep people out of the riptides. Once you set up your spot—keeping an eye out for any cigarette butts in the sand—the sweat starts pouring off of you almost immediately. The sand burns your feet. I last only as long as it takes for my sunscreen to dry to head into the water. It’s full of people too. The kids scare the crap out of me because most of them can’t really swim, but we’re all in the water anyway, bouncing in the waves, splashing around, diving under the water and sputtering in the salt, moms rescuing their toddlers, teenagers using the water as an excuse to put their hands all over each other, throwing each other around. And then back to my towel, where somehow no one has gone through my bag or stolen my phone, and I lie dripping and cool as the sun dries the salt to my skin. This perfume captures the Rockaways perfectly. It’s a deep marine, briney and a little astringent. It has a grime to it too, but after an hour or so, I detect something lightly (barely) floral as well lurking in it. It’s the smell of sunscreen melted into your salty skin. It doesn’t project hugely, which makes it wearable, and it’s much longer lasting than the other DS & Durga perfumes I’ve tried. It’s not an every day wear for me, but certainly it’s beautiful ode to a wonderful place.

Picked this up at a steep discount from FBM. Blind buy (don't do that). Really sharp opening, wet salty concrete. Ozone. Something super green (hedge). Saw someone that said printer ink and I totally see that. But I don't get the burning rubber smell or plastic as much? I also can't smell the coconut/suntan lotion. It feels so androgynous, neither masculine, nor feminine, but a secret third thing. It's definitely the smell of a place, an experience vs a pleasant perfume. I like it more as it dries down. Feels much more wearable but unique, the sharpness of everything calms down and becomes a more agreeable green scent. I layered it with Brooklyn Ellis Vanilla Salt to make it sweeter and more comfortable, and I feel like it would play nice with a lot of other stuff. I live in NYC and I 100% smell Rockaway Beach.

The problem I have with all Durga perfumes is that they don't have a lot of staying power. Rockaway is the same.. It starts off as an artistic sea scent, lots of salty marine notes, almost too much..it rides the fence, crossing into unwearable but I must say, I WOULD wear this anyway, it's so different than many water/beach scents out there. As it dries down, it becomes better and better. At the 45 min mark, it suddenly becomes pineapple on me...very very..then it softens back to a pleasant, ocean scent which stays true. The only thing is, it, like all Durga scents, becomes a intimate scent way too quickly for the price. I will say, I am still tempted to pop for it, as it smells so great on the dry down. This is truly unisex in character. Freshly ambiguous..

Not a wearable scent to me, but incredible nonetheless. Truly smells like saltwater and sand and sweat and sunscreen. I am always impressed by DS & Durga and this is no exception. It’s a snapshot of the moment you’re tanning on your stomach and are starting to get too hot so you’re gearing up to take another plunge, or the smell of your car on the way home from the beach. Even if you aren’t interested in wearing this scent combo I’d sample it just to experience how well they captured this smell.

I never liked aquatic perfumes, but this is a really nice one. It is super photorealistic; the moment I sprayed it I was transported into the seaside. It's like I was swimming then I sat on a rock with my feet still in the water, looking around and smelling the salty air, etc. This is not a perfume, this is therapy! I have tried both Atlante and Sydney Rock Pool and I did not likeboth, but Rockway Beach is fantastic, and again, this is coming from someone who dislikes aquatic scents.

Right now I hate this shit. It’s sitting on my shelf collecting dust. That being said I have pretty good idea that some “picker” 100 years from now will find it buried in my sarcophagus and and sell it for millions to a museum for historical value. I’ll probably (certainly) wear it next summer.

Smells like sea air and sand. Life on the coast. Honestly DS & Durga are great at serving niche, photorealistic fragrances (not always entry level) and that’s what this is. ♥️

Salt tinged sea spray, rocks, and humidity trapped in concrete. It's the Atlantic lingering on your skin and hair. Refreshing and airy, but holds onto a bit of the brine.