Mississippi Medicine
D.S. & Durga (2011)

If you are a fan of the D.S & Durga style, then this may be for you.

On my skin, my wife asked if I was wearing Raid...

So a neutral for me, even though I disagreed with her assessment.

The opening is a little brighter than the drydown, but for the most part, this is a very cool, mossy, woody scent from start to finish.

The opening smell is like walking into the fresh-cut lumber section in a hardware store. Later it becomes more like old, weathered wood that you would find in old, abandoned but preserved log cabins. You can still smell a little smoke left from the many burning logs through the years.

For me, this is quite unique and of good quality, but it is a scent better experienced than worn.

Decent projection during the first couple hours. Lasts about 6-7 hours.

Unlike others, I don't get a lot of pine or coniferous wood from this. I do get the frankincense and birch tar....both being front and center. This is one I wear for myself rather than for others. It's an oddball, kind of a Gucci Rush meets Bulgari Black. Interesting, and I quite like it. But....I couldn't say "this is a casual scent, this is a date night scent......etc.". This is an oddball scent that, if you like it you might love it. I do. But most of your friends, or prospective dates, will not.

Top notes are a fresh breeze. Red cedar and white spruce are center stage. Violet isn't stomped on by the wood - I can detect it well. The top notes here are just plain Good!

The middle is just as good. Great, in fact. Pine, cypress breeze. Earthy, cool. I'm at a loss for words for this one. This is the "pine-y" scent I have been searching for. It's outdoorsy. One of the better masculine scents I've sampled in awhile.

The base isn't mean, angry, or nasty. The birch tar, incense, and cade are polite. A good core base. M.M. works on me, works, for my psyche. Comforting.

Women do not have to smell like flowers or food. Commes des Garcons Zagorsk and 4711 were my gateway drugs for this important principle. I moved on to MM because Zagorsk, which I love, has no staying power.MM is strong, fresh, and bitter, with a ton of birch tar on top that doesn't dry down for a long time. You'll smell like a burnt-out campfire for a while. Then it glides into the base of frankincense and some other woody, patchouli-like things that last forever and cling to my clothes, which I like. Like a lot of new flavors, new music, and new thoughts, it's off-putting at first, but give it a second chance. I'm glad I did.

This is a long-shut cupboard in the wood supplies store – stocked full of preparations to treat your planks, and smoky, tarry polishing products. Although there's frankincense at the centre of this fragrance, it's presented in a dark, earthed manner, bolstered by an array of woody and resinous tones. It could have been a dense mess, but instead it breathes and invites you into its frontiers gloom. The pine and bark notes give vigour to the more burnt out elements. The smokiness has the dusty quality of dry leaves burning. The kind of fragrance that seems to be calling out for a sunny winter's day or when the ‘I want to go live in a log cabin' mood strikes you (I'll admit to being visited by it from time to time, usually when I have been desk-bound too long).
Nonetheless, this seems more of a perfume for a few hours than for an entire day, as it doesn't evolve much except for the frankincense and resins getting more of the upper hand in the later stages with the smoke and woody notes receding somewhat. I found this a bit tiring; but the more single-minded may beg to disagree.