Burning Barbershop

A fictional scent story best told by perfumer David Moltz himself…

“A fire broke out in the Curling Bros. barbershop in Westlake, N.Y. in 1891. All the shaving tonics with their spearmint, lime, vanilla and lavender burned. A charred bottle was found half-full. It smelled like this.

The other original mainstay of DSD along with Cowboy Grass. A truly old fashioned dandified visit to ye old barbershop through classic aromatic association—lavender, pine, mint, roses, vanilla‚with a unique modern twist: devastating smoke.

Burning Barbershop is a fougère — a classic genre of usually men’s fragrances that use hay and vanillic notes with herbal lavender and the bitter green base of oakmoss. It is instantly recognizable on grandpas everywhere.

I imagine the bottle was full, cooking in the extreme heat of the blaze until the glass was black and cracked. After the embers had cooled, it was dug out underneath the rubble. Inside, stuck to the glass was the cooked resin of all that was fresh and inviting from the cologne.

So you have the brightness of limes, cleanliness of lavender, joy of roses, zing of mint, and the sweetness of vanilla all cooked down into a rectified solid mass.” – David Seth Moltz, DS & Durga Perfumer

Perfumer
David Seth Moltz

Notes
spearmint, lime, hemlock spruce, lavender, absolute, Turkish rose, burnt oil, vanilla, hay