Bowmakers (Eau de Parfum) by D.S. & Durga

Bottle Design:
Kavi Moltz

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Bowmakers D.S. & Durga 2012 Eau de Parfum

7.9 / 10 374 Ratings

A popular perfume by D.S. & Durga for women and men, released in 2012. The scent is woody-resinous. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Woody

Resinous

Spicy

Smoky

Green

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Violin varnish

Mahogany

Air accord

Heart Notes

Colophony

Cypress

Maple wood

Base Notes

Tree resin Cedar

Cedar

Moss

Perfumer

David Seth Moltz

Ratings

Scent

7.9374 Ratings

Longevity

7.8292 Ratings

Sillage

7.0292 Ratings

Bottle

7.7241 Ratings

Value for money

6.4106 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet · last update on 12/15/2025.

Source-backed & verified

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Bowmakers Perfume Oil

Violon Basse 16

Monocle Scent One: Hinoki

Bohemian Woods

Falling Trees

Icon Perfume

Reviews

28 in-depth fragrance descriptions

10/13/2025

9.5Scent 9Longevity 8Sillage

Jujulalu
24 Reviews

Jujulalu

Helpful Review 4

It made me cry

Hi frag'addicts, i'm writing this review because this is the first time a perfume makes me cry. Yes, it moved me to tears. I spent twenty years with a violin in my hands, and let me tell you, first time i smelled this fragrance, all those memories came rushing back.

The violin varnish is similar to therebenthine wich is very special, only wood workers and painters know what i'm talking about.

It's a woody unisex that only the violonists will apreciate, and those in love with hardly woody fragrances

04/27/2015

5Scent

PBullFriend
311 Reviews

PBullFriend

Helpful Review 4

a very tiny violin

I used to play the violin when I was a child, so I certainly recognize the smell of a violin's varnish, along with the smell of the chalky rosin one applies to its bow. But my two wearings of Bowmakers didn't give me any recognizable amount of these scents.

This one is mostly about pine resin, which is nice. It's not, though, something for which I would pay $145 for a 50 ml bottle. Again, D.S. & Durga writes gorgeous ad copy: "Amongst the transcendental woods of the 1800s, craftsmen from the Massachusetts Bay Colony built violins & bows in the tiny towns of the Pioneer Valley. The shops were riddled with old growth mahogany, burled maple shavings, amber pine rosin, aged walnut & their unique secret varnishes." Again, I wish they would spend more time on creating a memorable scent.

Lest anyone think that only department store fragrances use nonsensical notes, by the way, DS&D brings you the "outdoors accord." Really? I have lived in and visited more than a few places, and I notice that the "outdoors" can smell significantly different according to which place I am in. Seriously - to which "outdoors" are they referring?

09/06/2022

Mlleghoul
465 Reviews

Mlleghoul

Helpful Review 3

A YouTuber filming a capsule wardrobe video

DS & Durga’s Bowmakers is lovely and weird and I want to bathe in it. Bowmakers is all cool, peculiar woods, maybe cypress and cedar, a fleeting leatheriness, and what feels to me like the synthetic woody cozy ambery muskiness of ISO E super. This is how I imagine the scent of a Scandinavian minimalist YouTube lifestyle vlogger’s cozy 400 square foot apartment in wintertime. Specifically chosen sandalwood candles in amber apothecary jars, a very aesthetically pleasing and strategically placed tube sweet almond and musk hand cream, hundred-year-old but well-cared aromatic hard-wood floors. A tiny capsule wardrobe displayed prominently on a coat rack, where a thrifted leather jacket in excellent condition hangs for guests to admire, the fragrance of which mingles with a chilled early morning breeze gusting from the open windows while they’re airing out their bedroom as part of their 5 AM morning routine that they are currently filming for their subscribers.

04/30/2025

8.5Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

Smirky
483 Reviews

Smirky

4

Great woody resinous scent

Bowmakers surprised me as a very wearable and pleasant fragrance. Opening was only slightly harsh with a somewhat biting varnish scent. It didn't last long - maybe about 5 or 10 minutes - and then the woody accord appeared which mixed well with the resin-y accord. I've never smelled "violin varnish" but have used regular varnish for woodworking. The violin varnish was much milder than the typical varnish smell I know. Also, had to look it up, but another name for the "colophony" note is "rosin" used on bows. Scent is quite masculine and a very good and unique take on woody-resinous.

While I liked the scent very much, I was somewhat disappointed with the performance. Having recently tried Amber Kiso, which has very good performance, I was expecting a lot. The longevity for Bowmakers barely made it to 6 hours for me with the projection being quite mild.

06/13/2025

8.5Scent 7Longevity 8Sillage

Avantcrap
34 Reviews

Avantcrap

3

are luthiers and perfumers all that different?

While I hesitate calling myself a violinist, I grew up playing the instrument for over a decade, so I suppose I was at one point. After moving on from my first two private teachers, my third (and final) was a luthier who trained at some unknown Russian conservatory. Lessons were in the back room of his workshop, with an upright always-slightly-out-of-tune piano, a random mess of various bows, rosins, sheet music, and (funny enough) half-smoked cigarettes.

He was a brash man and quite unforgiving as a teacher, but I will never forget him standing in the corner of the room, smoking, shaking his head and making me repeat the same passage from Bach's Partita #2 - V. Chaconne over and over and over and over.

Bowmakers opens with a distinct varnish and wood mixture that nearly perfectly replicates the smell in his workshop (minus the cigarettes). While I don't find it necessarily very wearable, this nostalgic scent is one I will always keep a small decant of to briefly revisit a time when crying over Bach was the most of my worries.

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