Looking towards autumn with a cosy and warming amber fragrance.

Listed notes

Cedar, incense, sawara cypress, asahi zuru maple, patchouli, iris, hinoki, leather, treemoss.

Top notes

One doesn’t come to DS and Durga for shy and retiring scents and Amber Kiso is no exception to that rule. Clouds of sweet leathery smoke are the first impression of the fragrance. Imagine wearing a new leather jacket whilst sat by an aromatically smoky fire, deep in the woods but rather than the fire grating, rasping at your throat, the main impression is of the silkiness of the leather, the smoothness of the grain, the way that your fingers flow over its surface. That eclipses the harshness of any sort of smoke, pushes it into the background a little more. It’s most definitely there still, but it doesn’t stifle or choke you.

Next, a fleeting but intensely animalic blast wanders into the picture. Just out of the circle of firelight in which you sit, ensconced deep within your jacket, some wild creature has wandered. It doesn’t get close enough for you to see it, or for it’s warm aroma to imprint itself on you, but you definitely notice that tangy, wild scent that it has before it wanders off into the night.

If Amber Kiso were a genre of writing then it would definitely be some sort of cautionary fairy tale about someone who doesn’t heed the villagers’ warnings, getting into all sorts of trouble deep in the woods late one night. Who knows if they will return with the goblin’s head, or as the goblin’s latest prize?

Heart notes

At its heart, Amber Kiso is, a bold, shiny amber fragrance, and once the initial maneuverings are out of the way this becomes more and more apparent. The leatheriness subsides but never quits, and the warm and stickiness of maple and patchouli come to join it front and centre. Patchouli takes up a lot of space in this scent. It is warm, golden, embracing, and full of boldness. Amber Kiso is a warm and sweet scent but it’s got loads of guts and so isn’t one for the faint of heart.

The incense in the fragrance is nicely handled, and just when you think that the scent is settling into its patchouli hum phase, wafts of clean white smoke wander across the face of the scent and referencing the potency with which they were noticeable at the start. These smoky tendrils serve to add a strange sort of energy and lift to the composition, as well as bringing another dimension of interest and stopping the patchouli and supporting players becoming too sweetly one dimensional. A lovely resonant hum settles into the piece. Again it becomes that warm jacket on a brisk autumn day of a scent. Yes, it is a leather jacket, but now it is lined with fleece.

Base notes

Once the patchouli relaxes in the base of the fragrance, we go back to that smooth, pliable leatheriness that we noticed in the heart. The way the scent seems to make a cyclical journey is interesting, satisfying, and it gives the scent an uncluttered feel. If you are going to do something then do it fully and well seems to be the overall message that Amber Kiso wants to impart. And the “something” in this context is a warm, shiny amber scent that will beat many others into submission in terms of brightness, spirit, not to mention longevity or sillage.

The other stuff

The perfumer for Amber Kiso is David Seth Moltz.

The longevity of Amber Kiso is really good. This is a scent which will last you all day and forever on clothes (or at least until they are washed). To my nose this is an autumn and winter fragrance because it competes beautifully with the cold – it has the guts and strength to do that well. In summer it might become too much, too powerful for some people.

The sillage of the scent is quite strong and potent. I wouldn’t entirely describe this as a work safe fragrance, unless you are going to go VERY light on the trigger, but it will work well for winter parties and nights out, even in the day time in the cooler months. The scent goes to further than handshake distance quite easily, even further still with multiple sprays. Go steady with it, especially for the first couple of hours when it can be quite spicy in the way in which it leaps from the skin.

The brand

DS and Durga are one of those brands which is almost painfully cool. They exude the epitome of New York chic and are intimidatingly resolute in the way in which the fragrances are packaged and presented. Clean minimalist lines and bottles are the name of the game here. No jewellery or adornments to clutter up the packaging, but who needs that stuff anyway?

Some of the refrains DS and Durga play are surprisingly friendly and welcoming, whereas others verge into the downright challenging end of the spectrum – they’re definitely a brand you should aim to sample before buying as many of their scents are a touch surprising. A lot of their fragrances are the are just a bit different, and the perspective that they offer is worth investigating just to see if there are any you will fall totally head over heels for.

We’ve previously reviewed Bistro Waters by the brand.

Buy it

Amber Kiso is available from the DS and Durga web boutique where it is priced at $210 for 50ml of EdP. You can also purchase Amber Kiso from Liberty’s of London for £155 for the 50ml bottle.

Header image by Alexa from Pixabay.

We were gifted a sample of this fragrance by a friend who is not associated with the brand.