St. Vetyver

Where to start with this one? I love vetiver and recently went through over 30 samples to find new unique scents for both the office where I work and everything else. With Essential Parfum's Mon Vetiver winning the office, I knew I needed something high in quality but versatile if it was to prevent Mon Vetiver from just being my all day every dayer. Enter St. Vetyver. Unique? Yep? Vetiver heavy? Absolutely. Ability to be used for the beach parties, date nights, house chores, or family get togethers? No question- it has a shape shifting, one-size-fits all profile that is all ages and all occassions. At 35, this scent has completely reshaped my idea of vetiver and for that aspect alone it was worth the hefty price tag. It portals you one island over from St.Kitts, but without any risk of the label of "tourist" being applied. It doesn't really make sense until you try it. This is a natural summer scent, carribean isle or elsewhere. It isn't like most fresh summer scents though- the spice and sweet notes tend to show up a lot more in the cold while the fresh notes become muted. Being a major factor for me, the vetiver is the star from start to finish and clearly high quality. The tropical description and notes of this scent caught my eye for sure. Be warned though, most of them are just for copy and locus purposes- what I get in order of appearance is a burst of oranges/aldehydes, bergamot, green, rounded vetiver ( i e hat straw, reeds, etc), some textural olfactory magic being done to give it beach atmospherics ( wet and dry sand? Salty air?), and finally a silky smooth rum accord that is light on the sweetness. It is fresh but warm, green but sweet, balmy but light- for me it is completely unique but not weird in the slightest. Longevity is decent, think 7-10 hrs with moderate to low projection.This is likely going to become my signature, as I cannot stop using since I got it. Another bottle is on its way, and I have yet to get through even a third of the current one. No gray markets either- I want the actual company to get my money for this gem. The cumulative effect this scent creates is a sense of being free of stress due to having earned that right. It's speaks slowly after a long sip of Grand Mariner "I'll do what I want, when I want to" but in a casual "Don't hate me, hate the game" sort of way. It reminds me in many ways of Terre D Hermes but without any of the cedar and a heavier emphasis on the dry, caramelized undertones its reisin accords carry. Both are orange and vetiver scents at heart, but the Durga seems a little less serious. In terms of the build, the opening for me is my least favorite part- there is so much going on that it is hard to make sense of it all. The sour orange note is HUGE. Once the vetiver shows up, sweetend a bit by the rum, it's game on though. It is fresh and clean, but still a little dirty. It's not a cologne, it's your skin as you live your life. It feels "lived in", and it just may make you appear more travelled than you actually are. It conveys beach dunes with waves of dune grass and all the romances, parties, tranquility, and good times that setting provides for those lucky enough. SV feels nostalgic for the purpose of rejuvenation, not merely to just remember. There is no age range for this, but it skews younger than other rum or vetiver scents I know. I haven't been asked yet "what are you wearing?" and I can't say I'd care if I ever wasn't. What I will say is I absolutely will tell those people "nope, this one's for me only". I really hope this stays in production, as this provides something rare, unique, and unforgettable. Although I haven't cared for many other offerings by DS and Durga, I will have to resample a few due to just how good this one is. Maybe I missed something. Don't miss out on this one. 5 stars.

I adore this fragrance and look forward to putting it on in the mornings. For me, it is has the real ‘classic with a weird twist’ vibe that you get with so many DS&D scents. Whereas sometimes I feel they could have benefited from leaving one note behind in some of their compositions, with St Vetyver it all just sings. It opens with a tremendously fizzy, in-your-face bitter orange note that I just can’t get enough of. It then settles gradually into a comforting amber, woody mixture that manages to be a little spicy and a little sweet but not too much of either. The balance is really excellent. The base is really where I start to pick up the rhum note, but it is more leathery than boozy, and harmonises with the earthiness of the vetiver, so nobody will be thinking you’ve been hitting the sauce at work. Although the aesthetic/marketing vision is of a vacation island theme, I actually think this pairs well with a suit and tie at the office as much as a holiday: it’s a strong scent but doesn’t have an over-powering sillage, and so fine for work or play. It is very versatile, capable of being serious or fun. For me, it’s a fundamentally summer scent (and best in hot climes), but that could be because that’s the season when I got my bottle. Longevity is good for me, and I can still smell the base notes on my skin after a full 8 hours. I’ll be buying another bottle when my current one runs out. EDIT: the recent DS&D price increases have been over the top and I think that $210 for 50ml is stretching how much I am willing to pay for this one. I wouldn’t touch their other fragrances at this price point.

This one stumped me initially. Part of me loved it, part of me was weirded out by it. It took a week of periodic testing for me to wrap my head around it. This is NOT, your typical vetiver scent. In fact, it's more the idea of vetiver initially because of the rum and breadiness, but I do get some earthy, salty, and rooty vetiver hits. The straw is a very interesting concept to me, and it comes through accurately. The seagrass and reed is also super interesting, and lends a grassy, balmy quality. The rhum agricole mixed with these elements given me a feeling of being in a humid tropical location, with beaches and marshlands.The clove is not overdone, and the breadnut gives a gourmand element, without feeling like I'm wearing a pastry. The sum of the parts give the feeling of a warm humid southern night in historical Charleston, white linen shirt, enjoying fine food and craft drinks, The locals weave baskets and hats from straw with expert skill. There's beach and marshlands just off in the distance from historical, and beautiful gothic revival homes. Vacation in a bottle and one of the best from DS & Durga, who is a house I admire for taking chances (Mississippi Medicine, Rockaway Beach) and the artwork of David Seth Moltz. I'm getting a bottle this weekend for balmy summer evenings 🌴 Scent 9/10 Performance 5.5/10 P.S. It's better on skin, than a test strip. I tried it a year ago on tester, and dismissed it.

This scent is AMAZING!! It's definitely not your typical vetiver scent, but this is a PICTURESQUE Caribbean pirate/vacation scent. It smells like this boozy, aromatic, woody, and sandy cocktail. This smells like the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Jack is stranded upon an abandoned island where he stashed a large amount of rum to drink. I can see this being worn by anyone at any time, but this might be a little too boozy for daily work wear. This is an amazing scent that allows me to unlock my inner pirate and cast the nights away. It does have a very "sandy" quality that I really can only attribute to the reed or hat straw. My only gripe with this scent is that it doesn't last very long on my skin chemistry, but I know it can last 8+ hours because one of my friends sprayed it upon herself and it lasted FOREVER, and it lasts forever on clothes. Overall, it's a boozy, woody, and aromatic scent that I cannot wait to wear during these upcoming summer nights. Hopefully this will help me castaway somewhere :)

Brings to mind an old bay rhum that you could never find online, only in a tourist shop on some faraway island. That AWESOME hat straw - Days at the beach when you'd leave your hat on top of your face to block the sun and as it heats up, you actually do smell these notes, it's divine. These hats are the standard in hot weather places. The rhum comes in perfectly to bring out all the glory of "VETYVER" - No perfumer has done vetiver this good, which is astounding considering its popularity. This is how vetiver should be honored, in a sunny, tropical vignette. The scent only gets sweeter and perhaps a little earthy and green, leading to a wonderful memory of cracking open breadfruit, an absolutely legendary fruit that has made it on ships around the world for centuries.