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  Not only is this one of my favorite vendors to partner with Wantful, it is also the first I shot for the company last July. David is a mad scientist of sorts, and the scents he concocts are fantastic. Check out http://dsanddurga.com/ and make sure to read the full narrative on the scently duo below. 

  wantful:

  Brand Profile: D.S. & Durga

  No source of inspiration is off limits for David Seth and Kavita Moltz, the multi-faceted fragrance duo behind D.S. & Durga. Native American plant rituals, P.G. Wodehouse, the mandirs of India…almost anything can be a starting point for their rich and complex scents. 

  My Indian Childhood is inspired by “memories of India through the eyes of a young expat,” with notes of patchouli, tobacco and tropical flowers, while Poppy Rouge evokes Mississippi John Hurt’s “Richland Woman Blues,” in which “a loose married woman prepares for a night on the town in her rosy red garters, bright poppy rouge and turkey red bloomer[s].”

  D.S. & Durga began experimenting with oils, resins and tinctures in 2007 while making aftershaves for friends, and moved on to perfumes and colognes shortly thereafter. Their process usually begins with an idea, followed by “really nerding out” on research. 

  Experimentation plays a huge part as well. Their fragrances can contain up to eighty different elements, a process David likens to sculpting. Once you have a foundation, “you are shaving off a little here and there, then adding here and there to round out and blend.” 

  To this day, they craft, bottle, box and label everything themselves, a rare feat in the fine fragrance world. While their work practice harkens back to a pre-industrial era, their fragrances are nonetheless “appropriate for modern ladies and gentlemen of discerning taste.” 

  Available now on Wantful.

  1 May 2012