Experience Perfume as Armchair Travel, with D.S. & Durga’s David Seth Moltz

Scent World

David says that when he started out, he knew nothing about perfume, business, or the perfume business. From his Bushwick apartment, he began making fragrances for friends, and at one point, joined forces with his wife, Kavi Moltz, to bring D.S. & Durga to life. They brought together their backgrounds in music and architecture to create scents as immersive experiences, or what they refer to as “armchair travel.”

In this episode, David sits down with Brittney Jackson Moseley, who runs integrated marketing at Scentbird. He talks about what it took to break into the industry, how he became a self-taught perfumer, and his exploration with fragrance ingredients, including the most expensive ingredient in the world.

Highlights:

• D.S. & the Hindu Goddess that inspired the name

• The conversation that started D.S. & Durga

• Remembering a smell… and then re-creating it

• The worst thing David has ever smelled

• Perfume and music as “invisible art forms”

• The smell of Rockaway Beach

• Perfume as armchair travel

• How many perfumers are there in the world?

• A look into how David creates scents

• The most expensive fragrance ingredient in the world

• Scent Spotlight: I Don’t Know What, Debaser, Pistachio

• A simple fragrance formula and an overview of fragrance structure

• The fragrance that’s 40% oil

• A very toxic ingredient and the most common ingredient

• Can you smell a rainbow?

• David’s signature scent with hints of Great Western cowboy music

• Finding the beauty in concrete

• Advice for starting a perfume brand

Featured Fragrances:
I Don’t Know What by D.S. & Durga

Debaser by D.S. & Durga

Pistachio by D.S. & Durga

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