Everyone Should Own This Fragrance

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links. Here’s how we test products and why you should trust us.Florence Sullivan3 min readWelcome to the Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.I’m never definitive with colognes. I can’t abide signature fragrances, as in only owning and wearing one. That’s too close to a tech-guy’s over-optimized, “I only wear this shirt and these pants so I have more time to focus on making a robot that replaces human jobs and also probably kills people.” I can’t abide smell-good-on-anybody fragrances because we all have different chemistries, different personalities. And I can’t abide year-round fragrances because warm and rich grosses me out in the summer, salty and zesty makes me feel cold in winter. There are different scents for different times.Except this one—D.S. & Durga’s first fragrance, its most popular fragrance, its best fragrance: Cowboy Grass. This one breaks all my rules, bends all my opinions. I wear it year-round and recommend it to anyone who might spare a second to listen. If you’d like, I’ll do that now. If not, go ahead and buy it; I promise it’ll smell good on you.Shop $225, dsanddurga.comFlorence SullivanI’ll Wear It Year-Round, But It Shines In Transitional SeasonsThe thing that first attracted me to the fragrance is its ability to wear year-round. I don’t subscribe to the signature scent idea, but that means that I sometimes arrive at the same destination as those people: I want something I’ll want to grab off the shelf in January, April, July, and November. Cowboy Grass does that. During a balmy summer, those grassy notes really come to the forefront. In winter, the ambergris and vetiver at the heart really come out.But I think it’s special, really at its peak, when the days are at their most variable. That’s when you get the full range of the fragrance. On an October day, like when I’m writing this, or an early spring morning, those florals and herbs really hold throughout the life of the fragrance. Like the fields it’s pulling the idea of “cowboy grass” from, it’s most vibrant when things are blooming or starting to die off. It gives it a nice seasonality, something I don’t find as much in my “hit you over the head with this note,” fragrances.Shop $225, dsanddurga.comFlorence SullivanIt’s a Rare Scent That Works for AnyoneBut the most incredible thing to me is the fragrance’s ability to handle different wearers. Pick someone off the street, say they’re looking for a signature scent—this is actually how most people view the process of buying colognes and fragrances—and I would recommend them to get Cowboy Grass. I never advise that, because of body chemistry, vibe, and all that. But this perfume just does it so well. It has a distinctiveness, a singularity. But it’s not so gimmicky that I roll my eyes when I catch someone wearing it in the wild.I think Cowboy Grass toes that line because of its versatility. It is, true to the name, an especially grassy scent. At the start, there’s a floral rose; at the end, it settles into a warm vetiver and ambergris. But there’s that grassy note throughout, and it’s a grass that projects quite well. It’s not masculine smoke and leather cowboy, nor is it a femme floral and musk cowgirl. It is truly genderless, a typically overused term in perfume. But I find it captivating on men and women, kind of being able to bend to whatever they’re wearing it with and how they’re presenting.Since I’m in Brooklyn, where the brand started, I smell it pretty frequently. Every time I do, on the street or in a bar, I can never guess exactly who this person will be. Could be a 25-year-old club kid. Could be a man with a nice jacket and a family. That’s powerful.Shop $225, dsanddurga.comPhotographs by Florence Sullivan