Spectral Doorway

surprised by the low reviews (did any of y'all even try this yet?). i just got my bottle and am wearing it and trying to put it into words. but hate? no no no no no. this is cute, whimsical, totally unisex and wearable, it's got a little bit of the rubbery dna that's kinda in all ds durga fragrances (fwiw, i am not an ambassador or am paid by them, i'm just another lowly sucker for their marketing). it's powdery in a way last year's 'salem gothic' is powdery, but dryer, it's like a bottle of good perfume you uncovered in your grandma's medicine cabinet during an estate sale: faded and less potent over the years, but something new comes out. i'm really getting the 'decayed paper' note mixed with an unusual and curious sweetness. yeah. this is grandma-who-died-in-the-1970's favorite bottle of perfume recovered in 2024, diluted and dirtied up by the passage of time. eta: yeah, this leans feminine, but dead bride's wedding gown feminine. i'm getting hints of 'black magenta' in the drydown but for the older crowd, the muuuuch older crowd. this ghost partied back in her day.

Spectral Doorway is mesmerizing! It’s beautifully effervescent, with a light, citrusy sparkle that has a playful, Pez candy like dusting, delicate yet memorable. It’s hard to put into words, but there’s an airy vibrancy that feels both nostalgic and modern.

Reminiscent of Deep Dark Vanilla but softer and without the vanilla. Usually I dislike powdery notes but this felt powdery in a way I didn't mind. Once it starts to fade it you're left with a pleasant papery and ghostly smell 👻

Just received my bottle today and upon first spray I’m a little disappointed. I’ll try it again later but it’s coming off a bit masculine leaning and the artemisia is really coming off strong and weird to me. Very mint-like. I don’t get incense or old books. Just dusty, powdery, minty and slightly fresh. Like some type of airy musky citrus in the background. This does not give the vibe that I was hoping for. I absolutely love Salem Gothic and this has zero similarities to that. I’ve not smelled Handbook so I can’t compare to that one.

If you’ve smelled guaiacol, you’ve smelled this :( I literally cant smell anything else in here. I swear if DSD is just selling diluted guaiacol for THIS price... 😤😤😤

There's something about this I absolutely hate. Heady and strong in the same way black licorice is. The chalk really comes through in the dry down, but the old paper note isn't quite what I desired. There is a woodsiness to it, but it ultimately smells like a library that's been underwater for a few years. Truly strange. Not for me.

@GayFrag I have both but haven't worn Spectral Doorway yet. So far I've just tested it on paper. (I have a backlog of perfumes I haven't worn yet XD ). When I do wear it, I'll test it side-by-side with Handbook For The Recently Deceased. After testing on paper it smells very close to Handbook, but a bit lighter and with a little more going on. I'll edit this once I've worn it and compared the two simultaneously. Update: I wore Spectral Doorway for a full day, and the following day I sprayed Spectral on one wrist and Handbook for the Recently Deceased on the other. Spectral Doorway is definitely much more wearable. Handbook is very harsh, especially in the opening. It has a similar vibe to Doorway, but without the sweet notes. It is much colder, stronger and rougher. Spectral is rather light compared to Handbook, which is almost overpowering after two sprays to the wrist. In the drydown, Handbook takes on an almost burning rubber sort of scent which is rather unpleasant. It was still overpowering after a couple of hours and I had to scrub some of it off my wrist. Spectral, on the other hand, (pun intended) remained light and sweet. It was hard to smell it over Handbook, even after scrubbing the latter. It seems to me that DS & Durga reformulated Handbook, but toned it way down and added sweet notes, more artemisia and a bit of musk that made it smell much better. I'm glad I have both, but Handbook is something that will only come out once a year or so, just to remind myself of the smell. Spectral is something I would wear more often. tl;dr Both share a similar base, but Spectral Doorway is light and sweet while Handbook for the Recently Deceased is very strong, cold and harsh, and without any sweet notes.

I live in New York, so I got to visit the village and try it for a day after visiting one of their stores. Not my thing. Like many of DS&G's scents, it's pretty strictly linear and one-note. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing; I think this works wonderfully for a scent like Bowmakers, which gives you an unwavering mahogany and rosin, and never falters. No, the issue here is that the scent simply isn't all that appealing, especially for the price tag they're asking you to shell out. For $250 (no samples available for their "studio juices," btw; you *have* to either smell it at one of their stores, or buy it sight unseen), you're getting a Pez candy smothered in incense. It's got that treacly sweet, chalky quality that just does not work on me, and the incense is fairly generic. To my nose it radiates, not an ancient, undead aura, but an innocent, almost childlike essence. If what I described sounds interesting to you, give it a whirl if you can get your hands on it. Just know that, unless you live in NYC, your access is strictly limited to your ability to find a sample, or your willingness to spend big.

I missed Handbook when it was released a couple of years ago, so I emptied my pocket book for this one. Definitely an atmospheric little number - rubbery, powdery, slightly sweet. It reminds me of a lighter El Cosmico with a Pez Candy note which is probably how I’m interpreting the chalk.

Notes and the theme of this release are incredibly similar to Handbook For The Recently Deceased by DS&Durga. I’m convinced this could be a rerelease of sorts. If someone has both I’d love to know the difference! :)

I'm selling my bottle, still new in box! Sprayed once. $200 shipped/tracked within the US. ($50 off retail.)

A strange and vaporously sweet wormwood necco wafer.