The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Halley: The Shooting Star landed in 2023 as part of The Dua Brand's Inspired Expression collection. Mahsam Raza composed it as a unisex piece, threading passionfruit and blackcurrant through a rose heart that sits closer to a stargazer's garden than a formal bouquet. The opening is generous from the first spray, announcing its fruity floral character without hesitation. Passionfruit brings a tart, almost tangy brightness, while blackcurrant adds a deeper, more resinous sweetness that grounds the brighter top notes. The rose at the center reads less like a traditional bouquet rose and more like a living stem, green and slightly dewy, threaded through with hints of the surrounding fruit.
What makes Halley interesting isn't the fruit itself, it's the layering. The rose and green notes pull the composition back toward something grown-up once the fruit settles in. Cinnamon adds just enough friction to keep the sweetness from collapsing into syrup, while the amber and woody base anchor all that brightness to skin. It's a deliberate tension: enough sparkle to feel celebratory, enough warmth to feel grounded.
The evolution
The opening arrives fast and loud. Passionfruit and blackcurrant hit first, sharp and juicy, with lemon slicing through the top and peach rounding out the edges. Within the first ten minutes, the fruit begins to settle. Rose and green notes push forward, taking over the space the fruit occupied, while raspberry adds a jam-like sweetness underneath. Cinnamon arrives quietly at this stage, warming the floral rather than spiking it. By the second hour, the base takes over. Vanilla and musk soften everything that came before. Amber and woody notes close the composition, leaving a warm, slightly powdery trail that lingers close to skin for the remaining hours. The fruit doesn't vanish entirely, it just moves deeper, persisting as a quiet undertone beneath the warmer base. What survives longest is the vanilla-amber warmth, a soft glow that carries through a full workday and into the evening.
Cultural impact
Halley: The Shooting Star sits within The Dua Brand's Inspired Expression collection. The scent makes space for bold fruity-floral statements built around passionfruit, blackcurrant, peach, raspberry, and a rose heart, finished with cinnamon, amber, vanilla, musk, and woody notes. The composition wears with a generous opening that gradually settles into a warmer base over the hours. It suits warm-weather outings where a bright fruit opening feels appropriate, as well as evenings when the amber and vanilla drydown can carry the composition forward.
