D.S. & DURGA Shops in Austin

D.S. & Durga make perfume and cologne in small batches using premium-sourced raw materials. All scents are created exclusively in-house. Some of their inspiration comes from outdated herbal wisdom, native ritual medicine, lore and legends, historical movements and Americana. The scents are the stories of prospectors, gentry, trailblazers, frontier women, drawing rooms, workbenches, cowboys – fragments of half remembered legends, movements, events, and foreign lands.

D.S. & Durga’s production hearkens back to the pre-industrial cottage industries of North America. The processes are time consuming and low in yield. Both factors place quality of product far above quantity.

HYLNDS is a line that seeks to recall the myth infused lands of Northern Europe. Tracking legends from antiquity, the Iron and Viking Age, HYLNDS scents are made with an in depth research into historical documents, aromatic analysis of real places, and the artistic creation of the Celtic, Norse, Manx, and Anglo peoples.

D.S. creates the formulas. He grew up immersed in the idyllic scents of a quaint New England town – ocean and forest. Since winning his first bottle of cologne at an island summer camp raffle, he has developed a lifelong fascination with fragrance. He moved to NYC in 2002 with an old band.

Durga creates the designs. She was born in the shadows of New York, but traveled the world throughout her childhood. She studied architecture in Los Angeles and design in Holland. She then returned to New York to design buildings – and met D.S. outside of one.

Together they soon began tincturing flowers, herbs, and spices to make aftershaves for friends. When they realized that none of their friends shaved (this was 2007, mind you), they started blending oils, resins, and plant extracts. The results were small batch perfumes and colognes, and friends loved them. Durga had an idea: she could distill her designs into the architecture of fragrances (and the packages they live in) and D.S. could write songs in scent.