He’s a rock musician and she’s an architect but the two have been creating some intriguing perfumes together. DS and Durga is the name of the perfume that David Moltz and Kavita Ahuja first began concocting as a hobby and which has evolved into a successful business. The couple started out making perfumes and essences for their friends, sourcing oils from all over the world, especially India.
The perfumes remain a labor of love, handcrafted in their apartment, right from the essence to the bottles, recalling many fragrances from different parts of their lives, and with essences culled from many different parts of the world. The two search out tuberose, sandalwood, khus, kewra, marigold and jasmine during their visits to India, and are like alchemists in the living room, conjuring up new scents in their makeshift home lab.
Says Moltz, who plays in a rock band: “Making a perfume is very much like making a song – they are very close, the way you arrange a song and keep tightening it up and making it better. It’s a complex process and has a lot to do with memory.”
Ahuja, who worked in a large architectural firm till she immersed herself full-time in this business, is involved with the design and layout of the bottles. “I think we put out something very special,” she says. “It’s a time consuming product and we put a lot of ourselves into it. It’s hand-crafted and it’s a high quality product and every part of it is made by us.” While they have sold to many small boutiques on both coasts, they recently signed a contract with the big chain store Anthropology, to create fragrances for 80 stores across the US. The sweet smell of success!
