Treat Yo’Self to… Good Smells

Even with my bourgeois olfactory senses, I can tell that the fragrances from Arquiste are something special. With the best perfumers, a scent is never just a scent. Its best-selling fragrance, Boutonniere No.7, recalls a specific day at the Opera in 1899, a blend combining gardenia boutonnieres, mixed with bergamot and lavender.

If Arquiste tells stories through scents, then D.S & Durga shows songs through scents. David Seth Moltz, a musician, and Kavi Durga, an architect, blend their mutual backgrounds to take an apothecary approach to fragrance. Their “Poppy Rouge,” were inspired by lyrics from a Mississippi John Hurt Song, “Richland Woman Blues” about a woman getting ready for a night on the town with her lover. To conjure the idea of “ruby red lipstick, bright poppy rouge, turkey red bloomer,” they created a scent blend of orange flower, jonquil, and parma violet.