Debaser D.S. & Durga 2015 Eau de Parfum

As with many things, because I am a spiteful, hateful hater when it comes to the things that everyone else loves and are super jazzed about, I was all set to be unimpressed with Debaser from DS & Durga. a figgy scent apparently based on the opening song from the Pixies 1989’s album, Doolittle.

Shame on me.

Because I actually really love creation, and although I live to be right in all things, in terms of perfume I do actually love to be wrong. At first, I was kinda leery because the initial sniff was of unripe peaches, rudely knocked off the tree by the ornery flaps of sassy corvids, to lay wetly in a mound of dewy grass clippings. It was fruity but far too green to be sweet, or even edible. The coconut note is green too, a coconut before its reached full maturity, at the stage you might harvest it for the water sloshing inside rather than the flesh. It’s clean and mineralic as opposed to sweet and creamy. And maybe what I mistook for peach is actually the fig, the cool, shady leaf and the bitter sap, but thankfully not the jammy, honeyed fruit. It dries down to moody, rooty, earthy iris, and soft woody musks. Do I get the punky energy of a Pixies song inspired by surreal cinema out of this scent? I don’t know that I do, but I don’t know that I don’t.

It’s a subtle fragrance with some unexpected flourishes and off-kilter appeal and if being wrong means that I smell like an oddly understated but characteristically weird A24 film, then I am very ok with it.

For god knows what reason, I was pronouncing this wrong as "deh-buh-seer" until recently. Maybe I was trying something fancy, who knows.

I sampled this a year ago before finally purchasing. It was near fall, and I remember thinking it was remarkably green and vegetable-like. It's like a snapped stem or breaking the peel of a vegetable, that sharp quality immediately wafting to your nose. Someone below mentioned is as vaguely acetone-like, and I can see where they're coming from. It's a bit prickly, but some plants do smell like that and I think that's why it smells so "natural" to me. In any case, I told myself to revisit it come next summer.

Now in the middle of summer yet again, I popped into a small boutique in LA that sold fancy snacks and wines. Oddly enough, they stocked a few of DS & Durga fragrances. I went through them, and it was clear that Debaser was a solid winner. There's a reason it's as popular as it is, I guess! But it was finally time to make it mine

Having spent more time with it, there's something very nectar-like and fruit-forward about the fig which I think comes from the coconut milk. It's quite yummy and it feels much more like a "viscous" fig than Philosykos, which is airier and breezier. Despite being fruitier though, I also think it's the more "masculine" take on fig than Philosykos with the blonde woods and "stemmy" greens.

This is a really gorgeous earthy, juicy green fig with many parts of the whole tree; the leaves, the unripe fruit, the sap. A little hint of green clean soapiness to it. It opens a with a little green bitterness to the sweetness, sour and tart crushed fig leaves scattered amongst a bowl of fleshy green figs, some halved, some crushed, the sap oozing out. It’s honestly so photorealistic. It immediately transported me to sitting under a fig tree in the sun on the island of Kos, I had pulled an unripe green fig of the tree and pressed my nails into the fruit to pull it apart and get a good whiff at it (I like smelling everything I can! lol).

As it settles, a beautiful milky fig sap is there adding a lovely green creaminess to the green fig that is held together with a wet fresh green moss and bright wood in the base. I don’t get the coconut, pear or iris on an individual level, just an understanding that various notes have been blended beautifully to create this figgy adventure. This lasted 12+ on my skin.

Fun fact: David Seth Moltz (he’s the D.S. part of DS&Durga) and the nose behind the perfume, named it ‘Debaser’ because the figgy aroma he created reminded him of his year of summer camp, hanging out under the fig trees, when he was first introduced to the band The Pixies and listened to their song ‘Debaser’ on repeat.

I really enjoyed sampling this -
On day one of sampling I totally delighted in experiencing the opening of this juicy green fig scent but immediately thought ‘I respect you, but you’re not for me’. My initial thoughts were that it t leant a bit masculine for me. I had just finished a 3 day samplathon of Gris Charnel which was a total ‘love at first whiff’ and struggled to put the decant away in order to continue on my fig exploration. Although Debaser is sweeter and juicier than the BDK fig, for me, I like unisex and masculine leaning perfumes in autumn and winter but prefer sweet feminine florals for the summer. So Gris Charnel is a perfect mood match for autumn with its spicy, creamy woodiness, but Debaser feels more like a summer fruity fragrance that leans clean, green and masculine, not sweet and florally enough for me to wear in the heat. But I looked forward to my day of wear none the less. Debaser is a cheeky perfume, it’s different. It’s not obnoxiously loud but it’s unique enough to catch people’s attention. And indeed it did. I was at a workshop with strangers which involved up close, hands on training and through out the day I got several compliments and enquiries about what I was wearing and as the day progressed I felt myself enjoying it more and feeling that I had jumped to a hasty and incorrect conclusion that morning.

So the next day, I wore it again. This time I found myself really drawn to it, I kept bringing my nose to my skin and breathing it in deeply, enjoying the various shades of fig it emitted. It again lasted all day. That evening I had a dance class and as my body warmed up and the perfume radiated of my skin, Debaser took hold of my heart and wouldn’t let it go. And I suddenly understood how this scent works well in warm and humid environments.

Review updated to add - after several wears of Debaser my nose started to pick up and focus on possibly the cetalox used in the base? This, unfortunately, began to cause a bit of nausea when wearing the perfume. So a beautiful scent profile, but alas, not a perfume for me.

I love fig scents, but I already have or have tried a number that are fruity-sweet. This one is wonderful in that it is fresh, complex, green/herbaceous, grassy/leafy, woody and a touch earthy without having the sweetness to which a lot of other fig scents default.

This perfume definitely feels like the experience of a fig tree when the figs are green. The fig is present, but not the star of the show. The scent is fresh but also has heavy green notes that are intoxicating and that make me keep wanting to smell myself when I wear this fragrance.

The green/leafy notes mellowed after 2-3 hours on my skin, but the scent has a long-lasting and persistent freshness (5-6+ hours) which is unusually high performance for this type of scent on my skin.

I find this fragrance wonderful, and would recommend it to anyone who likes green/leafy scents and/or fig.

This one seriously grew on me. At first, I found the sharp green notes of the opening too much. Philosykos is one of my favorite fragrances and is a lot smoother. This one felt aggressive.

Upon second (and third and fourth, etc.) try, I began to appreciate Debaser for its own merits. This isn't Philosykos - this is Philosykos' edgy cousin. It takes all of the elements of Philosykos- the greenness, the fig and coconut, the wood - and kicks them all up a notch.

This scent is NOT linear. It opens with sharp green notes, kicking you awake. As it settles in for an hour or so, the green notes fade and the creamy, coconutty fig takes hold. These notes are the true heart of the fragrance, and continue to linger on as the base notes of light woods and moss begin to shine.

Unlike Philosykos, this is not an everyday scent for me. It's for when I want my everyday scent to be intensified and a bit more rebellious. Debaser has absolutely earned a place in my rotation! However, definitely try before you buy - this scent will not be for everyone.