DS & Durga
DS & Durga
8.2k votes
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A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The fig arrives immediately with an almost aggressive greenness, like snapping a branch and getting that acrid latex on your fingers. Bergamot sparks briefly against the milky-bitter fig flesh, whilst something vegetal and alive pulses underneath—this is plant matter, not fruit salad.
As the initial sharpness retreats, coconut milk emerges as the dominant accord, creating an unusual lactonic softness that feels contemporary rather than tropical. The iris reveals itself slowly, adding an earthy, slightly powdery texture that somehow makes the fig feel more three-dimensional, whilst a whisper of tonka begins sweetening the edges without tipping into dessert.
Cedar and sandalwood provide a quiet, slightly creamy wooden frame that's more suggestion than statement. The fig's green aspects have mostly faded, leaving behind a skin-like warmth with ghostly traces of that initial milkiness—intimate, soft, and ultimately quite comforting in its understated persistence.
Debaser splits open a fat, ripe fig at its stem and smears the white latex straight across your wrist. This is fig in its most verdant, milky reality—not the jammy fruit confections that dominate mainstream perfumery, but the actual tree: sun-warmed leaves, split fruit weeping that characteristic bitter sap, and the creamy flesh within. David Seth Moltz has rendered something both bracingly green and unsettlingly lactonic, the coconut milk threading through like a vegan substitute for an animalic musk, giving the composition an oddly modern, clean sensuality.
The bergamot provides citric brightness without dominating, whilst iris lends a subtle rootiness that grounds the fig's exuberance. This isn't iris as powdery lipstick; it's the earthy, almost carrot-like facet that whispers beneath the surface. The base materials—tonka, cedar, sandalwood—never overwhelm but instead provide a soft-focus woody halo that prevents the composition from veering too sharply into either cologne territory or gourmand excess.
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4.2/5 (45.0k)