# D.S. & Durga — The Carlyle

> The Carlyle is a 2023 collaboration between D.S. & Durga and Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel, composed by David Seth Moltz to translate the hotel's longtime honeysuckle-scented soap into a wearable fragranc

## Essence
The Carlyle is a 2023 collaboration between D.S. & Durga and Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel, composed by David Seth Moltz to translate the hotel's longtime honeysuckle-scented soap into a wearable fragrance. It sits in the "hotel lobby" genre Moltz helped invent with Debaser - a polished, citrus-led floral over quiet woods, more cocktail-hour Bemelmans than tropical bouquet. Bright, modern, gender-neutral, and deliberately understated rather than head-turning.
## Scent Profile
The opening is the loudest moment: zesty, sharp lime with bergamot and a green twiggy lift from neroli. Wearers call it "super limey - more zesty lime rather than sweet, juicy lime," even a "jalapeno/lime cocktail vibe." There is no juicy citrus sweetness here; it reads as a gin-and-tonic garnish rather than the cocktail itself.
As that subsides, linden blossom and honeysuckle become the load-bearing accord - soft, slightly powdery white florals with the green-honeyed murmur honeysuckle gives without turning syrupy. The rose is faint and structural; many wearers don't register it at all. This midsection is where the "Carlyle lobby" character lives: refined, mannered, vaguely old-money without smelling old-fashioned.
The drydown settles into sandalwood, oakmoss, and hay. The sandalwood is creamy and quiet rather than buttery niche-sandalwood, the moss adds a dry green-grey undertone, and the hay lends a sun-warmed pastoral edge that keeps it from feeling purely like a cologne. The whole thing is linear-leaning - the citrus and the floral-woody middle merge rather than transform, and the drydown is more reduction than reveal. The signature pairing is lime and honeysuckle over soft sandalwood.
## Performance
Performance is moderate. Longevity reads modest-to-decent and projection below-average, consistent with the broader D.S. & Durga reputation. One wearer found it "performs best in warmer weather. Almost immediately a skin scent below 60 degrees," and the recurring note is that longevity and projection often disappoint on skin. Treat it as an intimate, close-to-skin EDP that rewards generous application and warm weather rather than a powerhouse.
## Wearing Context
Best in spring and warm-weather months - the lime opening goes flat in cold and the floral-hay heart needs ambient warmth to bloom. It leans daytime over evening, business-casual over formal, brunch and gallery openings over nightlife, and is almost overdetermined for nice-hotel energy. The lime tilts it slightly more masculine-leaning than the florals suggest, and wearers note it works well on a man. Its social read is "polished, considered, not trying" - closer to a uniform than a peacock fragrance.
## Comparisons & DNA
The clearest in-house reference is D.S. & Durga Debaser, Moltz's original hotel-lobby fig-and-fresh fragrance and the spiritual predecessor here; both share a composed, slightly cool citrus-floral architecture, but The Carlyle leans more honeysuckle and linden and less green-fig. Wearers also reach for Kilian Roses on Ice as another rose-citrus cocktail concept, and place it in the same quiet neighborhood as the lighter end of Le Labo. No designer clone exists - the closest cheap analog is a high-quality honeysuckle-citrus body splash, which is exactly the comparison its detractors make.
## Reception
Coverage is wearer-driven rather than critic-heavy, though Rachel Syme covered the launch for The New Yorker in March 2023. Reception is positive but soft: praise for the elegance, the lime-cocktail opening, and how literally it captures the hotel's interior ("This genuinely captures the lobby of The Carlyle Hotel. Its polish, history and serenity"), and it has become a repeat favorite among house loyalists. The criticism is predictable - detractors find it reads like upscale honeysuckle hand soap or hotel amenities, which it essentially descends from. People who love that genre love it; others find it expensive for what it delivers. As a blind buy it is strong if you already like Debaser or refined citrus-floral hotel-lobby scents, weaker if you want projection or transformation.
## Versions & Reformulation
A single composition with no known reformulations. It is sold only as a 50 ml EDP and as part of the Carlyle Hotel's broader scent program, which includes shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and the original honeysuckle soap the perfume is based on.
## Acquisition Notes
Listed at $190 for 50 ml at launch through both D.S. & Durga and the Carlyle Hotel's online shop, where it is sold alongside the matching bath amenities. Decants and samples are widely available through standard niche services. Counterfeiting is low for a small-audience niche release, and no specific batch-code guidance is documented.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- The fragrance grew out of the Carlyle Hotel's signature honeysuckle bar soap, a quiet fixture for decades.
- D.S. & Durga extended that scent into a full perfume and amenity line.
- Moltz has said the Carlyle was already a favorite New York spot for him and Kavi, making it more fan project than commission.
- Rachel Syme's New Yorker piece, "The Carlyle Goes Smell-o-Rama" (March 2023), is the most substantive press coverage.
- The 2024 Manzanita Capital acquisition of D.S. & Durga postdates the launch and is unrelated to this fragrance.