D.S. & Durga
D.S. & Durga
139 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Aldehydes crackle across the opening like electricity through damp air, immediately cutting the frankincense into something sharp and almost industrial. Red cedar arrives as a dry, splintered wood note, creating an immediate sense of austerity that signals this will not be a comfortable wear.
The cascarilla and cypress root emerge with a peppery, resinous warmth, whilst the incense material deepens into something smoky and slightly acrid. A faint, dusty sweetness from the prickly pear arrives like an echo, never quite assertive enough to soften the woody core.
Birch tar becomes the dominant force—dark, tarry, faintly medicinal—settling into skin with a static, earthy quality. The fragrance becomes increasingly minimal and intimate, fading not with grace but with a slow, deliberate fade into powder and distant woodsmoke.
Mississippi Medicine is a fragrance that refuses charm in favour of character. David Seth Moltz has constructed something deliberately austere—a burnt-out cabin smell that clings to those who've spent time in woodsmoke and neglect. The frankincense arrives first, but it's no temple incense; those aldehydes strip it of sweetness, rendering it almost medicinal, as though the resin has been steeped in something clinical and strange. The red cedar and cascarilla create a scratchy, almost peppery texture that sits uncomfortably against the skin, never settling into comfort.
This is where the fragrance's real personality emerges: it smells like birch tar and cypress root have been left to cure in a wooden shed, slowly absorbing the charred remains of a long-extinguished fire. The Spanish prickly pear note—an unusual choice—provides a faint, dusty sweetness that feels almost accidental, as though something organic has begun to decompose within the wood itself. There's an earthy, slightly botanical quality that prevents this from becoming purely smoky, but only barely.
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3.9/5 (400)