I might have gone a bit ham with the number of images of the bottle placed on or in front of various plants and trees and foliage and bark and benches. It’s my first time photographing, thinking of and writing about a fragrance, in Australia. And it isn’t just the location, it’s also that I’m writing about a fragrance after QUITE a while. The #NosedByNaina series has been on hiatus for years now. Not for the lack of fragrances, obviously, more because I hadn’t been feeling quite myself, which meant that I wasn’t really enjoying fragrances the way I used to.
I’d been meaning to re-stock my favourite from Diptyque, Eau Des Sense, which I’ve never written about and wandered purposefully into Mecca at Rundle Mall. It’s the only place in Adelaide that showed that it had it in stock. Right opposite the Diptyque shelf, however, was DS&Durga, and I thought to myself, “I’ve always wanted one, let’s spray and nose these eight bottles and who knows, I might find a new favourite!” I don’t have many favourites – it’s difficult to come by something that smells great, lasts long and feels fresh even after having used it for months.
And, most of my fragrance collection is back in India. So, I was feeling greedy and lonely and I could buy a fragrance for myself couldn’t I? To keep me company on the trains, while I worked OH SO HARD.
Debaser was literally the first DS&DURGA fragrance I’ve nosed. I knew I was fucked, immediately. I went through the others on the shelf, to make sure I wasn’t dreaming just how good Debaser was. I even went through the shelves of two other fragrance brands. And I got help trying to find a sunscreen that wouldn’t make my face feel and look like an oil slick. I could not get the green forest ice cream fragrance out of my head.
I hadn’t even looked at the ingredients and notes on the box, until I got to photographing it, about an hour after I’d purchased it.
What. A. Fragrance.
I still think of fig and pear and coconut ice cream in a forest. Thick green forest. Steamy skin with droplets of condensation dripping from the trees above. Think warm, not hot. Wet but not humid. GREEN. Just, So GREEN. Mouth-watering. Slightly sweet. I spray it directly on my skin, my clothes rub on it and it stays on my clothes longer than it stays on my skin. Absolutely DELICIOUS.
My girlfriend and I were hanging out at the beach, about a week after I’d acquired this bottle, and I was telling her about it. I told her it’s called “Debaser”, and she immediately dug out the Pixies song, which I had no idea about. I had not researched the fragrance online and had no idea that the name of the fragrance was actually inspired by the Pixies song and that the fragrance’s product page on the brand’s website also lists a whole playlist to go along with it!
See more of my favourite fragrances on this blog under the #NosedByNaina category
