At the start of this month, we were graced with the presence of another of D.S. & Durga’s illustrious fragrance stories

St Vetyver is described by the brand as ‘soft island grass, sunbaked citrus where the tradewinds blow. Panama hats, cane plants, and aged rhum over the finest Caribbean vetiver.’

If you say you’re not instantly transported to standing on an island in the warm fragranced breeze holding your hat, we won’t believe you. Because that’s the beauty of D.S. & Durga; they take you there with each aromatic tier

If you take a whiff of St Vetyver, you’ll detect bright top notes of sour orange, pink pepper and sea grass. At the heart of the fragrance is cane, clove leaf and toquilla straw on a base of vetiver, breadnut and rhum agricole. Huh? Toquilla straw and breadnut, we hear you ask? Well…

The Toquilla hat, or Panama hat, is woven with a palm-like plant harvested from Ecuadorian fields and dried in the sun. The weaving itself is a unique skill handed down from generation to generation, and expertly carried out by ordinary folk in South American towns and villages. Grown in a tropical climate around the equator, Paja Toquilla thrives and has quite a distinctive scent

Moving onto the breadnut, or perhaps known more traditionally as the Maya nut; it’s actually a fruit relative to the fig and native to Papua New Guinea. It has a sweet aroma when opened and a similar taste, which lends itself to the base of St Vetyver very well when combined with the other notes

Let’s not forget to mention the rhum agricole. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a posh way of saying Caribbean rum, but you’d be wrong. It’s actually the French term for rum made from sugarcane juice, as opposed to regular rum which is typically made from molasses. French-speaking areas generally use this term to distinguish their style of rhum, from rum made in other locales

And there you have St Vetyver in a (bread)nut shell. Claimed by the brand to be a robust cologne which pays homage to the famous Caribbean colognes of sailors and lovers of the sea, it’s armchair travel at its very best. Don’t forget to check out the playlist of chilled out Caribe tunes on Spotify, to really immerse yourself in this fragrance. Coming soon to e-scents.co.uk and Liberty London

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