The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Suckle Honey City is a limited Studio Juice release from David Seth Moltz, 100 hand-made bottles from the Brooklyn Navy Yards studio. Part of the ongoing 'flower city' series, this one takes its name and inspiration from the honeysuckle vines that grow wild around Bed-Stuy, climbing chain-link fences and blooming for just two weeks every summer. Moltz spent years studying those fences, watching those brief blooms, waiting for the right year to capture what he found there.
Honeysuckle is notoriously difficult to replicate, it blooms ephemerally, and most aromatic versions miss its essential character. Moltz describes figuring out 'important shades of honeysuckle's intoxicating aroma' through years of field observation: not just the sweetness, but the fatty, coconut-like dimension that makes the real thing so specific. This composition builds that complexity through geranium's herbal lift and lemongrass's green cut, translating a two-week Brooklyn window into something that lasts all year.
The evolution
The opening hits with lime zest and lemongrass, bright, green, immediately summery. No ambiguity here. Within minutes, honeysuckle takes over. Not the polite honeysuckle of polite fragrances, the real thing, with its sticky nectar and creeping vine energy. Geranium rounds it into something warmer, almost coconutty. Then the drydown: woody vine and milk, settling close to the skin, sweet and green and a little feral. Still present after 6-8 hours on most skin types.
Cultural impact
Suckle Honey City occupies unusual territory, a green floral that reads as both delicate and slightly wild. The honeysuckle-coconut-geranium triad has no obvious competitor in the niche market. It's the kind of fragrance that sparks conversation precisely because it's hard to categorize. Spring and summer wear, primarily. Day or evening. For someone who notices flowers on their walk home.
The House
DS&DurgaD.S. & Durga is a Brooklyn-based fragrance house founded in 2007 by husband-and-wife team David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja Moltz. David Seth Moltz, a self-taught perfumer and former indie musician, composes all the house scents while Kavi handles visual design. The brand creates immersive fragrances inspired by specific feelings, places, and cultural moments, ranging from the American West (J. Crew Homesteader's Cologne, 2013) to historical periods (Beverly Hills 1985, 2010) and abstract emotional states (You Kill Me With Silence, 2018). D.S. & Durga is notably a perfumer-owned house, giving the founder creative control across the entire brand. Their catalog spans chypres, colognes, and aromatic compositions, with later releases including Royal Purpure and King Majesty Bergamot Chypre (2024). The brand operates from Brooklyn, New York, and has developed a following among fragrance enthusiasts drawn to its narrative-driven approach.
The Creator
David Seth MoltzSelf-taught and deliberately unconstrained by classical training, Moltz favors an unconventional palette that includes unconventional materials alongside traditional ones. His fragrances tend toward the narrative and atmospheric, often featuring sharp contrasts: sweet against…
