WOOD Sample Set
Four 1.5 ML samples, including Bowmakers, Freetrapper, Radio Bombay, and Mississippi Medicine

D.S. & DURGA was founded by an architect and a musician. As pioneers in DIY Brooklyn, we started from scratch and did it our way (more Sid than Sinatra). We began by turning things we loved into scented stories of cowboys, open terrain, Russian novel characters, and folk songs. A perfume is a world you can return to

D.S. & Durga

Wood Sample Set

Size

Perfume

Silently watch the card for 7 hours and you may spy liberation.

The revered fig tree of Siddhartha and Lord KṚṢṆA. Silently watch the card for 7 hours and you may spy liberation. Comes packaged in a scratch-and-sniff envelope.

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Holy Ficus Auto Fragrance

Welcome Rama into your home.

Welcome Rama into your home with North Indian forest tree flowers, tuberose, gardenia, and bastard teak.

Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

Desi family festival
Liner Notes

Diwali is a major holiday in India and South Asia. The air all over is ripe with festivity. Families come together to clean, pray, and light candles welcoming Lord Rama and Sita back from exile in the forest, among other religious happenings for Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs. I love the sheer abundance of aromatics you encounter in India from food, flowers, and perfume – seemingly everywhere. Diwali candles called diyas, are usually oil or wax based in clay lamps.  Our candle recalls tree flowers and tropical woods from the forest where Rama and Sita were exiled, emboldened with a heart of opulent white flowers – tuberose and gardenia. Hopefully it can be part of the festivitiy, act as lovely reminder of joy throughout the whole year, or just let people catch a whiff of the festivity on the Subcontinent.

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Rama Won't You Please Come Home

Home Fragrance

Unimaginably narcotic.

Palatial doses of the finest floral absolutes– tuberose, orris butter, orange blossom, sambac jasmine, chrysanthemum, and ylang. Unimaginably narcotic.

Playlist | Liner Notes | Ingredients

Spotify Playlist

Kavi's premium jams
Liner Notes

Kavi and I both love the flower tuberose. It was the scent of Kavi’s early visits to Delhi. Her uncle would place fresh tuberose flowers next to her bed every day. The tuberose flower is creamy white, green, and narcotic. While most people would love the smell of the flower, many do not like tuberose perfumes. Often when it is recreated as a perfume, it comes out sugary, soapy, or cloying. Tuberose absolute is prohibitively expensive, thus many “tuberose” perfumes have little or none of the absolute in them. Knock-offs often smell cheap. In order to make most of the great flowers sing, the perfumer must employ the “off-notes” present in the real thing. Tuberose with out mushroom-earth will not smell real. Nature does a tremendous job of balancing the off notes with the good notes and that’s why we love flowers (and more importantly pollinating insects and animals do!). For years, I tried to make a great tuberose scent. Some were ok, but they usually smelled like tuberose perfume, not the flower. I tried many things, until I broke down a sample I had over the course of a few days. I started to smell its melon, mushroom, rot, and the slickness of the petals’ grassy green freshness and its haunting tea note. Durga uses the most amount of tuberose absolute I have ever seen used in a perfume. The supporting cast only adds to its richness. This scent is the pinnacle of what we do. It is a scent excited about the materials we as perfumers live and search for. I can see why Jean Patou named the fragrance Joy. Sometimes it is just that simple. Durga puts together some of our favorite materials in the world: rich flower absolutes. Besides the tuberose, there is: Orris butter with a high irone content. Along with Oud, Orris Butter (a concrete made from the root iris pallida flowers), is probably the most prized raw material in the world. It takes 3 years to extract from the root, and the yield is low. Orris butter is smells purple grey, with a buttery note that enriches and rounds the heart of a fragrance. Its lasting powdery effect is halfway towards the dryness of the fabled ambergris. Like many great materials, it provides a natural contrast dry vs butter, woody vs floral. Orange Flower Absolute. The richest expression of the bitter orange tree –which also gives us bitter orange (called bigrade) oil from the expressed fruit, neroli from the distillation of its flowers, and petitgrain from the leaves and twigs, among a few other specialties. Orange Flower Absolute is solvent extracted from the flowers. It is a thick brown floral-vegetal mass, muddy but also crisp. It ‘s on the way to jasmine absolute. Some grades go from smoke, leather, all the way towards an almost onion like pungent floral heart. In dilution it sings of hills around the cote d’azur, Morocco, etc. Chrysanthemum concrete. This is a rarely used material. It is a strange scent. Slightly off-putting by itself. It is chalky, and has a thick dried apple note, with hints of sulphur. It adds a realness to the tuberose – giving a green fruit and chalky earth that helps extend the fullness of tuberose. Jasmine Sambac. Too much could be said about this oil – one of the most important items in the perfumers palette. Along with rose otto and jasmine grandiflorum, jasmine sambac has the mystical ability to meld together disparate contrasts into a “perfume.” It is effusively narcotic, with a a honey sweet syrup of green fruit and indole (mothballs). It is a perfume in itself. The flower represents so many cultures – India, Bhutan, Indonesia, the Philippines. It goes by many fantastic names – Motia, mogra, Matsurika, etc. It is written about in songs and poetry. It rests in the abode of lovers laying in the moonlight, yadda yadda yadda. Ylang Ylang. One of the greatest modifiers, ylang ylang is white, wet, and calming as opposed to the raw animal sex of jasmine. I like ylang ylang, which like lavender induces a state of calm— on my pillow before sleep. Ylang is a classical floral modifier especially with jasmine. It can quietly sit in the back and add touches of cooling wet spice to the heart of floral fragrances.
Ingredients

Alcohol denat., parfum (fragrance), aqua (water), limonene, butylphenyl methylpropional , hydroxycitronellal, hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde, alpha-isomethyl ionone, amyl cinnamal, anise alcohol, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl cinnamate, benzyl salicylate, cinnamal. Cinnamyl, alcohol, citral, citronellol, coumarin, eugenol, farnesol, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, isoeugenol, linalool

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Durga

Brooklyn flowering in the early aughts.

Brooklyn flowering in the early aughts where wild packs of dogs roamed free among savage weeds and anything seemed possible.

Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

Early aughts Brooklyn magic
Liner Notes

I moved to Brooklyn in 2002 when I was 22. Almost everyone I knew was doing something interesting. Once I left a poker game at 3 am in Bushwick. As I stepped onto the street. I was shocked to encounter a wild pack of dogs–the alpha leader, the Lil’ scruff, the dame, etc. New York was wild; it seemed like anything was possible. You could study the weeds that grew out of the cracks in Brooklyn, and even start a perfume company out of nowhere.

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Wild Brooklyn Lavender

Ethereal Material.

Made by Wary Meyers for D.S. & DURGA using the ethereal material Iso E Super and ja-ja-juicy Italian bergamot. 100% pure vegetable base.  No parabens, no phthalates, no sodium laurel sulfate, no animal testing, no detergents, no alcohol.

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Iso E Soaper

Hair & Body

Spritzers aboard the famous Salt Spray Rose.

WITH aloe, vitamin C, vitamin E, glycerin, rosemary leaf extract, argan oil, and hyaluronic acid. WITHOUT animal products, animal testing, parabens, sulfates, silicones, and phthalates.

Ingredients

Ingredients

Water, sodium lauroyl methyl isethionate, cocamidopropyl betaine, peg-18 glyceryl oleate/cocoate, glycerin, acrylates/palmeth-25 acrylate copolymer, fragrance (linalool, limonene, cinnamyl alcohol, citral), sodium hyaluronate, panthenol, sodium pca, decyl glucoside, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract, argania spinosa kernel oil, tocopheryl acetate, ascorbic acid, sodium chloride, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, citric acid

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Rose Atlantic Body Lotion

Body Lotion & Oil

FLOWER Sample Set
Four 1.5 ML samples, including Rose Atlantic, White Peacock Lily, Durga, and Crystal Pistil

Flower Sample Set

FRESH Sample Set
Four 1.5 ML samples, including Debaser, Coriander, Italian Citrus, and Rose Atlantic

Fresh Sample Set

SMOKE Sample Set
Four 1.5 ML samples, including Mississippi Medicine, Burning Barbershop, El Cosmico, and Cowboy Grass

Smoke Sample Set

Take it anywhere.

To make it smell like you have a fireplace in your car. Comes packaged in a scratch-and-sniff envelope.

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Portable Fireplace Auto Fragrance

Rain water in eucalyptus groves off Highway 1.

Rain water in eucalyptus groves off Highway 1. Young green shoots, long spears, russet underbrush. A moisturizing formula made with vitamin C, vitamin E, glycerin, green tea leaf, and hyaluronic acid. Vegan and cruelty free.
Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

California Dreamin’
Liner Notes

For breathtaking American vistas, I think Big Sur hovers somewhere at the top of the list. The river running down through the mountains hits the fog covered sea. Sunsets over the pacific are next level. You can feel the magnetic pull of Asia on the other side of the vast water. As you drive down highway 1 - top down, motorway music, the windswhipping - your car bends around each corner discovering a new jaw dropping bridge, private beach, or sonorous mountain. Poets and mystics populate the magic place. And the flora of the California coast is extremely varied. By Big Sur, you have a wonderful micro climate from the heat and the fog. Redwoods and other conifers hide groves off the side of the road.  Eucalyptus abounds. But it doesn’t yet smell medicinal like when you encounter the oil in a sauna. It is still thick with green shoots saturated with their perfumed freshness. The long spears of the Eucalyptus dart out from the branch, eventually falling to the floor creating a dry russet underbrush. When it rains, the earth is soaked and the scent of the eucalyptus combines with the fog to make an almost natural medicine lodge. Through the cracks in the trees you can see the sweeping waves.

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Big Sur After Rain Hand Soap

Hand Soap

SET: Rain water in eucalyptus groves off Highway 1.

Rain water in eucalyptus groves off Highway 1. Young green shoots, long spears, russet underbrush. Our Big Sur After Rain Hand Soap & Sanitizer bundled with a refillable 10ml travel size sanitizer.

Playlist | Liner Notes | Ingredients

Spotify Playlist

California Dreamin’
Liner Notes

For breathtaking American vistas, I think Big Sur hovers somewhere at the top of the list. The river running down through the mountains hits the fog covered sea. Sunsets over the pacific are next level. You can feel the magnetic pull of Asia on the other side of the vast water. As you drive down highway 1 - top down, motorway music, the winds whipping - your car bends around each corner discovering a new jaw dropping bridge, private beach, or sonorous mountain. Poets and mystics populate the magic place. And the flora of the California coast is extremely varied. By Big Sur, you have a wonderful micro climate from the heat and the fog. Redwoods and other conifers hide groves off the side of the road. Eucalyptus abounds. But it doesn’t yet smell medicinal like when you encounter the oil in a sauna. It is still thick with green shoots saturated with their perfumed freshness. The long spears of the Eucalyptus dart out from the branch, eventually falling to the floor creating a dry russet underbrush. When it rains, the earth is soaked and the scent of the eucalyptus combines with the fog to make an almost natural medicine lodge. Through the cracks in the trees you can see the sweeping waves.

Sanitizer Ingredients

Active ingredients: ETHYL ALCOHOL 80% V/V Inactive ingredients: purified water, isopropyl myristate, glycerine, fragrance, acrylates copolymer (carbomer), silver (7440-22-4)

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Big Sur After Rain Hand Set

A pure vision of India.

A pure vision of India—Kashmiri saffron, frangipani, gardenia, yellow lotus attar, and damask rose with fine Sri Lankan sandalwood and vetiver.

Playlist | Liner Notes | Ingredients

Spotify Playlist

David’s favorite moments in music
Liner Notes

A visit to a traditional perfume shop in India is a step back in time. Ornate cut crystal bottles hold jeweled colored liquids, attars, ambers, choyas, and ruhs. You are invited to sit while a salesperson brings them out one after the other, swiping oils onto your skin right from the glass stopper. More often than not, they are crammed into busy markets of crowded cities. The contrast is a reminder that beauty is all around us and can be found anywhere. Traditional Indian perfume making should be considered a whole genre. Unique methods of extraction and indigenous plants are its hallmarks. Flowers, ambers, sandalwood, Himalayan herbs, southern spices - the diversity of plant life in India is staggering. To name a few of the most fragrant – tuberose, saffron, frangipani, kewda, ylang, gardenia, rose, cardamom, deodar, khus, mogra, motia. The oils can come from small farms that have been growing, gathering, and distilling plants for a long time. Cottage industries for jasmine and other oils have spawned entire villages. Attars are of particular interest to me. An attar is made by co-distilling one or more plants with sandalwood in giant alembics. It is like making a blended perfume during extraction – rather than mixing separate oils together after they are extracted. Something alchemical happens when all the plants – gathered from hills and jungles – are all set to cook together. Attars smell like perfumes from a different age. Formulations are passed down for generations and many are unique to certain regions. For “D.S.” I wanted to create the impression of an attar by cooking together accords of yellow lotus, gardenia (which I made from a plant I own), rose, jasmine, saffron, and vetiver all grounded in pure real deal Holyfield Sandalwood oil from Sri Lanka (one of the finest in the world as Mysore has been overharvested). D.S. has the choicest materials and can only be produced in small batches.
Ingredients

Alcohol denat., parfum (fragrance), aqua (water), benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl cinnamate, benzyl salicylate, cinnamyl alcohol, citral, citronellol, coumarin, eugenol, farnesol, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, isoeugenol, limonene, linalool

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D.s.

HEAVYWEIGHT Sample Set
Four 1.5 ML samples, including Notorious Oud, Amber Kiso, D.S., and Amber Teutonic. Sample sets are not returnable.

Heavyweight Sample Set

Electric crackle, downpour, panic grass, sizzling asphalt steam.

Electric crackle, downpour, panic grass, sizzling asphalt steam. Respite on muggy summer days. Comes packaged in a scratch-and-sniff envelope.

Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

Hot city jams
Liner Notes

The scent after it rains is a favorite aromatic genre of mine – and many people as it turns out. Perfumers have a few tools to use in the category of ozone – or things that smell like water and air. Geosmin is the scent molecule released from bacteria in dirt after it rains. What’s lovely, is that the Geosmin blends with different aromatics in different environments. Whereas in the forest it smells dank yet fresh, in the city you get the scent of hot asphalt and concrete quickly cooled by rain. It is as if the whole city is boiling, overlapping in scent, and when rain and thunder come, all is released into the air in an instant. It smells fresh, unique and only of summer in the city. Concrete After Lightning is simple – you have the air, rain, steam, and some of the weeds that grow in the cracks of New York City.

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Concrete After Lightning Auto Fragrance

In clothes that look like rugs, singing “we must never break the chain.”

On saffron tanned leather seats, in clothes that look like rugs, singing “we must never break the chain”. Lacquered chestnut paneling with puffs of burning fuel. Comes packaged in a scratch-and-sniff envelope.
Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

1985 Radio mix
Liner Notes

In the 80s my parents drove Toyotas and Hondas. They were cool. But around the corner an English woman drove the neighborhood kids to school in a 1985 300TD Benz. If it was cold, it would not start. I remember jamming into the back with 6 kids (no belts) and sitting on the springy saffron tan seat just freezing; the sweet smoke of diesel coming through the warming engine (and our color changing ski gloves). Driving around was big in my family. We would pile in wearing our Vision Street Wear (my parents in oddly shaped orange, white, yellow, and brown shag-rug looking cloths) with our hair looking like the E.T. cast, and drive around the seaside towns of New England with the radio blaring Fleetwood Mac, Duran Duran, and Bob Marley Legend. Life seemed careless and endless – as childhood often does. Most adults of that era found the 80s vapid and in poor taste, but man, how magic it seems to the children of the 80s.  When Kavi and I bought our first car in NYC we almost went safe with some terrible modern monstrosity. But then we answered an ad on craigslist and found a pristine ’85 300 turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz for cheap. The scent was the same as I remembered. It seemed fancy to own what was once an actual luxury.  It is a car of timeless elegance. It’s boxy look brings to mind all 80s movies, the Alps, and awkward fancy life that wasn’t attainable to anyone I knew in the 80s. This candle is an homage to that legend and smells of the air inside – so warm and dangerous.

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'85 Diesel Auto Fragrance

Handmade lacquered candle snuffer lid.

Handmade ceramic lacquered candle snuffer for putting out flames in a genteel manner—also keeps your candle surface immaculate when not in use. Candle not included.
SHOP CANDLES

Candle Lid/snuffer

Candles

A sample set with our greatest juices.
UK pirate radio accent: From the top of the charts comes D.S. & DURGA’s next set of trailblazing originals! Mega!
Includes 6 x 1.5ml vials:
CRYSTAL PISTIL orange blossom aether
JAZMÍN YUCATAN mexican jungle jazmín
CORIANDER green fields above Odessa
BURNING BARBERSHOP shaving tonic, smoked
ITALIAN CITRUS coastal cologne
AMBER KISO japanese forest, ambery leather

Playlist

Spotify Playlist

Top tracks from each perfume's playlist. Meta.

More Smash Hits! Vol. 2 Discovery Set

Gift Ideas

Car. Closet. Bus. Submarine.
Our complete set of six DSD AUTO FRAGRANCES can transport your car (or closet) to distant realms—real and imaginary. ‘85 DIESEL saffron leather
BIG SUR AFTER RAIN eucalyptus fog
CONCRETE AFTER LIGHTNING city rain
HOLY FICUS incense fig
PORTABLE FIREPLACE smoky woods
WILD BROOKLYN LAVENDER sizzling sidewalk

Auto Fragrance Set

Sniff your way to India.
Sniff your way to India - holy forests, sacred trees, old markets, spice trails, and the finest flowers.

HOLY FICUS candle

fig incense

RAMA WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME candle

forest flowers
RADIO BOMBAY 50 ml EDP

sandalwood raga

India Armchair Travel Set

Wild Brooklyn Lavender Auto Fragrance

The night queen’s suspended bulbs.

The night queen’s suspended bulbs in the hour of darkness, caked with spicy Ethiopian myrrh, cacao, currant, and dank Madagascar vanilla.

Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

Getting down, after hours, sexy time. Murdahruuuuruah!
Liner Notes

This is an intimate candle for tuberose lovers (like Kavi & I). It’s great for bedrooms, night rituals, or bathtime. A fantasy extracted from shadowy tuberose blooming at night. Deep red African myrrh to spice up a wonderfully realistic flower. It took many attempts to harmonize over 60 ingredients! Cacao, vanilla, ambers, currant, orris root concrete; all lead to a layered bouquet of white tuberose bulbs dangling in the dark of night.

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Tuberose Myrrhder

A fragrance enhancer with transparent radiance.

Crown Affair’s hair oil infused with D.S. & DURGA’s fragrance “I Don’t Know What” produces smooth, hydrated, je ne sais quois scented hair. *LIMITED EDITION*

Playlist | Liner Notes | Ingredients

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

C'est dope.
Liner Notes

I Don’t Know What is a wonderful tool for anyone who wants to play around with perfume. Of course it can be worn as a modern wonderfully transparent aroma, but it can also be layered over anything. Often when I leave the house, I will wear a touch of sandalwood, rose, jasmine, patchouli, oud, etc. These oils are lovely but can be muddy and they don’t last more than a few hours. IDKW sprayed over them makes the oil into a PERFUME. It does this because it is made with no notes! It is a secret combination of materials that perfumers use to highlight and enhance notes in a perfume. A Bergamot accord announces freshness, Vetiver Acetate a thin amber, Firsantol a lingering sandalwood, Iso E Super a radiance, and so on. It is like a building with only structure – no interior. You can fill in the interior with an oil, a scent you like, even an old scent that has lost its way. IDKW is built to layer and enhance everything else it touches.
Ingredients

Dimethicone, isodecyl neopentanoate, camellia japonica (tsubaki) seed oil, limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil, fragrance

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I Don't Know What Hair Oil

H IKO MEN— Some found a cave

H IKO MEN— Some found a cave. Pseudo-ethnographic musical studies by D.S. & Durga's perfumer & his life-long cohort D.A. Mintzer.

Hiko Men Record

Visit the aromatic apple.
Lavender weeds in concrete, asphalt electricity, and Brooklyn melting pot oud.

WILD BROOKLYN LAVENDER candle

lavender suede

CONCRETE AFTER LIGHTNING candle

sizzling sidewalk
NOTORIOUS OUD 50 ml EDP

melting pot oud

Nyc Armchair Travel Set

Armchair coastal vibes.
Armchair coastal vibes - West Coast fog, North Sea islands and East Coast ocean spray.

TOMB OF THE EAGLES candle

north sea air

BIG SUR AFTER RAIN candle

fog coast
ROSE ATLANTIC 50 ml EDP

salt spray rose

Coasts Armchair Travel Set

Give them a journey through (digital) space and time.
Give them a journey through space and time.
D.S. & DURGA gift cards are delivered by email and contain instructions to redeem them at checkout. Our gift cards have no additional processing fees.

Digital Gift Card

Title

Our city of skyscrapers, subways, cyclists and skateboards.

Our city of skyscrapers, subways, cyclists and skateboards. Pothole avenues where cantankerous cab drivers honk through mysterious fumes. Where noise blares from night to morning coffee runs. Where only the toughest trees survive and thrive. Resilient as ever.
A limited edition candle made by New Yorkers Ruba Abu-Nimah, Phillip Lim, and D.S. & DURGA to bring you an aromatic vision of the resilient city that we love. 25% of net proceeds will go to the Ali Forney Center.
Playlist | Liner Notes

Spotify Playlist

New York cityscapes surviving through the years.
Liner Notes

New York City; the city of sirens, potholes, bikes and skateboards. The city of cantankerous cab drivers and gas fumes. The city of noise that keeps you awake at night and morning coffee runs. Noisy subways, clout chasing tourists on Canal Street and Hypebeasts in Soho. New York City is the city of two rivers and majestic bridges, of runners in Central Park and children scrambling through playgrounds. New York City is the city where only the toughest trees survive and thrive. It is often said that New York City is the best city in the world and if you want to live here you really have to believe that. - Ruba Abu-Nimah

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New York Tougher Than Ever

Timeless hangs, cacti, the life.

Timeless hangs, orange blossom special, rock tank swimming, cacti, the life. *LIMITED EDITION*

Playlist | Liner Notes | Ingredients

Spotify Playlist

Chasing the eternal hang, lazing about, West Texas style.

Liner Notes

The lovely folks at El Cosmico have a way to describe the timeless coming together of nomadic friends in the high plains desert of West Texas – “Sweet Do Nothing.” It’s a feeling that can be coaxed, but not forced. Things slow down, landscapes loom large, the far is near. This scent captures that hang – the tuning in among orange blossom, flowering cacti, Texas cedars, fig, and creosote.
Ingredients

alcohol denat., parfum (fragrance), aqua (water), benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl cinnamate, benzyl salicylate, cinnamyl alcohol, citral, citronellol, eugenol, farnesol, geraniol, isoeugenol, limonene, linalool

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