D.S. & Durga’s ‘Clue’-Inspired Layering Set Turns Perfumery Into A Murder Mystery

Who stole the heart notes of the scent “I Don’t Know What”? It could be anyone…of any combination… but you’ll have to layer your own solution together with D.S. & Durga’s new Murder Mystery Layering Set . Was it the fruity Madam Currant? Or perhaps the royal Prince Amber? Or was it the deviously spicy Pat Von Chouli?

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Plenty of fragrance brands like Olfactory and Scent Lab are now allowing for a Choose Your Own Adventure- style of allowing you to mix and match your preferred notes into the signature scent of your dreams. But none have done it as playfully spooky as D.S. & Durga’s Clue -inspired kit ($275), giving you a lineup of six different mini perfume bottles (the “suspects”) you can combine into your own “Murder Mystery Formula”.

WHODUNNIT?

I Don't Know What Murder Mystery Layering Set

The base of the kit is “ I Don’t Know What “, the brand’s popular scent with “no heart” — basically a fragrance enhancer with no strong middle notes. This gives it a kind of ‘transparent’ aroma that you can use to highlight and enhance the notes of other, stronger-nosed perfumes and colognes.

“I have wanted to make a layering set that actually works for years. I am passionate about having clients involved in their own creation process,” writes brand co-founder David Seth Moltz on the site. “While solving the mystery of who stole the heart of I Don’t Know What …one can honestly make their own perfume and endlessly play with these 6 fumes I believe fragrance can live on the level of literature. This set is a world one can enter and build via the nose.”

The backstory to the kit is titled “The Case of the Stolen Heart Notes”, accompanied by an animated tale on D.S. & Durga that puts co-founders David and Kavi Ahuja Moltz in the center of the mystery. After being knocked out in his workshop one night, “the formula of [David’s] newest, most prized creation had a violent tear ripped out from the page. The heart section was stolen. Without its heart, the fragrance was dead—murdered! Who would do such a thing? The desk was littered with flecks of rare incense and flower dust. Had those been materials he was working with? Or had the culprit left behind evidence?”

I Don't Know What Mystery Layering Set

Each of the five characters in the story correspond to a different layering scent in the set : shady waiter Pat Von Chouli (spicy-earthy patchouli), horticulturalist Professor Rose (dewy fresh rose with a sandalwood base), high-society Prince Amber aka Francis Incenz (fine incense and amber), socialite Madam Currant (dark fruits and moss), and antiquarian Dr. Newman Hay (new mown hay and meadows). The box comes with a pamphlet giving more backstory on each character (and their potential motives), along with space for you to write down the formula your own personal spray combinations.

While you’re looking for the scent combinations that make the perfect final fragrance, the bigger question might be — just who exactly stole the heart? Well, you’ll just have to line up the suspects and decide for yourself by grabbing the Murder Mystery Layering Set, available now on DSandDurga.com . The full sized bottles of each individual fragrance are often the same price as this entire box set, so it’s actually a pretty good steal .

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D.S. & Durga Spectral Doorway

Ever thought of what a ghost might smell like? Well, D.S. & Durga are paying homage to the ghost with the most with another seasonal release, the Beetlejuice-themed fragrance “Spectral Doorway” ($250). It’s described as a “strange and unusual aura of ether, ghostly old pages, magic chalk, and supernatural fumes dosed with funerary incense.”