Category: News

DSH PERFUMES for The PLP Project

The PLP Project, conceived and imagined by “GoodSmella’, Carlos J. Powell to commemorate the third anniversary of his beloved fragrance group, Peace Love and Perfume.  The PLP Project is an invitational compilation of unique fragrances created by artisan and indie perfumers based on this simple brief:  “Peace: a meditative incense fragrance;  Love: a sexy animalic fragrance; and Perfume: a traditional cologne with a twist on the concept.”

“I have to say that I love working with open-ended concepts,” says Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.  “It allows an artist to conjure the meaning behind the ideas and to form unique fragrance designs based on their own interpretation of the brief.”

DSH Peace is my meditative incense design that bridges East and West, incorporating notions of what “incense” means from a Japanese, Arabic, and a Monastic / Western perspective.  Peace also allowed me to use some rather unusual materials in the construction such as Bakul attar, Choya Ral, and Laotian Oud.  Of course, at the heart there is the traditional Frankincense and Myrrh resin accord layered with rich Rose de Mai and Orris.  For the top note I looked eastward to the aromatic Champaca Leaf.  The result is like something familiar, warm, and comforting mixed with a sense of wonder at what you are actually smelling.

For DSH Love I let my imagination go to a time and place when animalic perfumes reigned supreme: the early to mid-20th Century.  Of course, I included all four of the traditional animal notes: musk, civet, ambergris, and castoreum with added elements of botanical “animalics”, ambrette co2 and labdanum with a large dose of a rather new material, hyracium tincture (aka African Stone).  The heart is filled with indolic juhi jasmine, orange flower absolute, and gardenia balanced by a slightly sharp and spicy white pepper and aldehyde top note.  The result is a lush, provocative, and thoroughly sexy perfume.

Lastly, DSH Perfume is a rather unorthodox pairing of grapefruit, rhubarb, and cognac accented by a luscious tropical fruit accord with green notes of basil and pittosporum to create the “fresh cologne” aspect .  A vibrant jasmine heart dries down to a surprisingly creamy ambrette, guaiacwood, and vetiver finish.  This is definitely a modern twist on the ‘eau de cologne’ design concept.

We’re releasing 50 Limited Edition Extrait flacons (5 ml Antique presentations) of Peace and Love (retail price: $105); Perfume will also be released as a Limited Edition of 50, 10 ml spray flacons in Cologne Absolue strength (retail price: $48).

This is really exciting and we hope that you will love these new designs along with many of our upcoming Holiday releases!  Stay tuned…  oxo

ps: DSH Perfumes is on Instragram!  See these and lots of other behind the scenes images, too!  Follow us : dsh_artscent

We’ve been working on some really fun designs at the studio this summer and it’s time to launch them.

Introducing the Cannabis Culture collection.  Inspired by the landmark 2014 decision to legalize cannabis in Colorado, this four fragrance collection speaks to and of the cannabis (sub)culture that has been developing and thriving since the Jazz Age.  What was once a secret society is now open to the public.

Rocky Mountain High is a woody conifer fragrance with a ‘green smoke’ and an animalic skunk note in the drydown.

I Love You, Mary Jane is a flirtatious and fruity cannabis with all of it’s sticky-sweetness showing bright and beautiful.

Agrestic is a lovely fougere that conjures a sweeping hayfield countryside and the rural locales where many a plant is grown.

The Green House takes you right to the greenest seedlings and the hot house flowers growing side by side.  Humidity and the scent of dirt are wafting in the scented air.

Enjoy!

 

This is exciting news indeed!  The much followed and awaited Scent of Hope is finally out and available on our site and at our shop, The Essense Studio in Boulder! 🙂

If you have longed to smell the fabled Iris Gris de Fath, you can rest easy as the Scent of Hope is a very true rendering (with modern materials) of this Vintage classic.  If you love Iris perfumes and you love Vintage, this is a must try.  And if you didn’t know, DSH will be donating 30% of the sales to Sense of Security, a Denver-based breast cancer organization that helps those undergoing treatment with their medical and living expenses.  It’s a great pleasure to give back to the community and to treat our fragrance community with a chance to smell (and smell of) a legend.  Enjoy!

There are always new designs that I am working on.  I never seem to feel completely satisfied and ready to put my materials down for any extended length of time.  I realize that I have way, way more designs available on my website than any reasonable person should have from a business standpoint but it seems that the artist gets her way just about all of the time where that is concerned.  I just can’t help myself. { So be it }.

So, here’s a sneak peak at some upcoming Spring delights.  These lovely flowers are among the first sensations of Springtime, once the snows have truly gone for another year.  They are the harbingers.  And I feel they are some of the most beloved of the Spring florals.

Peony is as classic a Spring scent as there is.  I have been creating and selling a relatively simple, straight forward peony perfume for my clients in Japan for the past 5 years or so.  It’s a very important flower to both the Japanese and Chinese as a symbol of health and prosperity and this “simplicity” is really quite approachable.  Plus,  I love fresh peonies when they blossom in my garden.  Their elegant presence speaks of utter beauty and femininity.

So, for this new Peony design I wanted to do more than just create the flower.  I wanted to give the wearer a sense of experience.  Peony starts at dawn with the dew still on the bud that hasn’t yet opened.  The deep green leaves of the plant and a bit of grass are present.  Then the peony opens and releases it’s delicate yet definite aroma and we experience the fullness of a fresh blossom.  As the perfume dries down it is dusk, and the peony has turned a bit more rose-like as the sun sets and a shadow covers the blossom as night falls.

White Lilac .   This *IS* one of the quintessential Spring aromas although not everyone has experienced white lilacs as opposed to the traditional light purple of even dark purple lilacs.  White lilacs tend to take on a more ethereal, dewy quality and even exhibit a subtle, sweet fruitiness in the first wafts.

A few years ago I started growing roses and lilacs specifically for research into the live plant scents as well as for their glorious aesthetics.  I have to admit that the white lilacs and the Persians are two of my most anticipated blooms.  I can never get enough of them and get just a little sad when they start to recede (even though that means Summer’s right around the corner here in Boulder).   To make a perfume based on these delicate flowers makes me really happy…I could get lost in this luscious but light, sweet lilac haze for sure.

Oranges.  Yes, it’s oranges.  Kind of the odd man out in terms of ‘getting into Spring flowers’ but there it is.  And these are fresh AND spiced.  No, it’s not a pomander (which is so Autumnal and looking toward the Holidays).  This is a new kind of Fire Opal.  It’s ORANGE; a bit fiery still but fresh, juicy and most of all lively.  Not that the older version wasn’t lovely and yes, lively, but I have wanted Fire Opal to be something more.  I guess I want to watch it blossom again.

The reworked Fire Opal is a fresher take; spiced and still tea – laced but with a whiff of warm earth and a noticeable green edge that the first version of Fire Opal didn’t have.  Strangely, it’s the whiff of warm earth that makes it all the more Spring to me. And the fresh juicy-ness mixed with green leaves.  It makes me feel elated and ready for adventure the same way that Springtime does.

** PS: We’re celebrating Spring with a SPRING SALE at the site .  Use coupon code bloom14 for 15% off through April 8.

image credit: I found the spring bike image here; peony image found here; white lilac image here; oranges image here

Ok, we’re SUPER excited for next weeks underground artisan / indie perfume event in LA : FRAGments! Although DSH won’t get to be there in person this time, we’re sending our newly launched Iridum as well as a new, first to be sniffed in the US perfume, Matsu! 🙂 If you’re going to be in LA on Saturday, June 22, you gotta go!
https://www.facebook.com/fragmentsperfumeevents?fref=ts

It’s not a strict rule, but organizer and founder of FRAGments mentioned that there’s a Summer Soltice theme, so here’s the line up of perfumes we’ve curated to show:

* Pretty & Pink  ( a wonderful fruity floral rose with a fabulous Bulgarian rose and violet heart with a kind of ’80’s retro musk in the drydown) – girly

* Tubereuse  (Our classic soliflore par excellence and one of the most popular perfumes we create.  It’s heady and sexy and a very true tropical Tuberose) – womanly

* Mata Hari  (One of our most sought after and most luxurious designs… that’s also 100% botanical.  A vintage style fruity floral chypre that is nothing if not luscious) – femme fatale

* Iridum  (a new launch based on an ancient Egyptian design concept of Iris / Orris.  It’s another true luxe perfume with some surprising twists in the orris to woody to incense dynamic)  – unisex and great for men

* Matsu (this a BRAND new perfume that will be launched on the site directly after the first smelling at FRAGments.  This is a leafy green woody scent with a dominant bergamot note.  We haven’t produced anything like this for collection and it is sure to be a hit) – unisex

Discovery kits will be available at the event.