D.S. & Durga — Steamed Rainbow
Essence
Steamed Rainbow is D.S. & Durga’s most concept-forward release of the early 2020s: a fragrance built on using one ingredient per rainbow color, then blurring the whole thing through a humid “vapor” or “mist” accord. Perfumer David Seth Moltz cites Terry Riley’s 1969 minimalist landmark A Rainbow in Curved Air as the explicit reference. The result is one of the house’s most polarizing creations - read by some as a beautiful watery-citrus-grass abstraction and by others as an unrecognizable mess.
Scent Profile
The opening is the part everyone argues about. Red mandarin, orange, and yellow elemi resin make a piney, slightly bitter, vapor-tinged citrus rather than a juicy designer fresh. First impressions scatter wildly: “concrete after rain,” “peeling an orange by a sprinkler on a fresh-cut lawn,” “a childhood water park trip,” “freshly laundered clothes,” and, from one detractor, “an unrecognizable mess.” The common thread is a humid, vaporous, hard-to-place quality - the steam accord is both the central conceit and the central polarizer. The heart brings green cedar, indigo grass, and blue almond flower. On most skins the grass and cedar lead - a cool, slightly wet green-stem character - while the almond blossom adds a soft, faintly floral edge rather than a marzipan sweetness. The identity here is deliberately restless; the notes never quite resolve into a single clear image. The drydown is where descriptions converge even when opinions don’t. Violet and vetiver carry the base, lightly sweetened, into a soft, slightly powdery, clean-musky finish - one critic’s shorthand was a sweetened, ultra-mellow, edgeless vetiver. The base outlasts the provocative opening by a wide margin.
Performance
Performance is the most-criticized aspect. Wearers commonly report 1.5 to 4 hours of skin presence, with the distinctive steam opening burning off within minutes to under an hour - and many wish that accord lasted longer, since it is the best part. This is an intimate, close-to-skin fragrance with a short opening and a quieter, longer drydown, not a projection-and-bloom scent. It warms up and becomes more perceptible with skin heat, and in cold air it can fade within an hour. Apply generously and treat it as a personal pleasure rather than a statement.
Wearing Context
Best as warm-weather, casual, daytime wear. Wearers tie it specifically to spring or late spring and to rainy, humid days - the imagery keeps returning to water and wet greenery. It is not an evening or formal-occasion scent and is not designed to project; people enjoy it as a private, near-skin experience. Coded firmly unisex, the green-floral-aquatic profile leans neither masculine nor feminine.
Comparisons & DNA
A few references frame it well. Byredo Mojave Ghost shares its transparent, abstract, hard-to-pin construction, though Steamed Rainbow is more aquatic-green and less ambrette-musky. Diptyque Philosykos overlaps in green, fresh, slightly wet character, but is fig-driven where this has no fig. Within the house, Debaser is the obvious sibling - the brand’s iconic green fig, with Steamed Rainbow reading as a more abstract relative - and I Don’t Know What is its companion in deliberate strangeness. For the sweetened drydown, Le Labo Vetiver 46 with added sweetness is the closest partial match. The vapor accord itself has no clear analog in the wider market.
Reception
Steamed Rainbow is unusually well-documented because it drew a rare two-part editorial treatment. Critic Eddie Bulliqi called the opening provocative and challenging, “so close to the abject, dangerous, and threatening in olfaction that its horror-like impact must have been intentional,” before it resolves into an innocuous sweet woody base; his verdict was negative but framed the scent as a conversation-starter. A counter-review by Patric Rhys found subtle grace in it and praised Moltz for making something nothing else smells like. Wearer opinion mirrors that split: “the most unique fragrance I’ve ever tried” against “an auto wreck.” Praise centers on the originality of the vapor accord and the green-citrus impressionism; criticism on short longevity, a sometimes synthetic-reading opening, and a lack of coherent identity. The near-universal advice, even from fans, is to sample first.
Versions & Reformulation
A single composition with no known reformulations.
Acquisition Notes
The standard size is 50 ml EDP, priced around $165 to $195 at D.S. & Durga direct and authorized retailers, with European pricing near 165 euro. It is sold through the house’s own e-commerce and retail and through niche stockists and select department stores, with decants widely available. Counterfeiting is undocumented and likely low at this scale. D.S. & Durga was acquired by Manzanita Capital in January 2024, with no reformulation reported as a result.
Notable Facts & Lore
- The concept uses one ingredient per rainbow color, blurred by a central vapor or mist accord.
- Moltz says he worked on the idea “for years” before the 2023 launch.
- The explicit inspiration is Terry Riley’s 1969 minimalist album A Rainbow in Curved Air.
- Kavi Moltz designed the bottle, as with other D.S. & Durga releases.
- It became a critical Rorschach test in 2023, drawing two opposed published reviews, the second framed as a dissent.