The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Mahsam Raza composed Once Upon A Summer in 2025, and the inspiration is right there in the name. Not summer as a vague concept, but the sensory overload of the season itself, that stretch of warmth before anything gets complicated. Honeysuckle dripping from a fence, magnolia petals thick on a porch step, peach juice running down your wrist. The fragrance was built to bottle that specific moment, the hours when the day stretches long and the air tastes like flowers and fruit and you're not thinking about anything heavier than what's for dinner. It's a confection with a pulse, part of The Dua Brand's Inspired Expression collection, which translates beloved scent profiles into more wearable formats.
What makes this composition interesting is how it handles its sweetness. Peach blossom and honeysuckle are already candy-adjacent florals, so adding ripe peach to the heart could tip the whole thing into syrup. Instead, Raza threads the sweetness through a structural contrast: whipped cream and marshmallow bring texture, not just sugar, creating a gourmand accord that reads as soft and fluffy rather than dense. The base anchors everything with sandalwood and white musk, which provide warmth without competing with the fruit. Vanilla rounds it out, but it sits low enough to deepen rather than dominate.
The evolution
The opening is all florals, bright and dewy. Honeysuckle arrives crisp and almost green, alive in a way that fills the room, while magnolia adds a creamy, lemony fullness underneath, cushioning everything that comes after. Peach blossom sweetens the edges without flattening them, lending the composition a soft, sunlit warmth from the very first spray. This top phase feels alive, airy, like the air itself has weight and texture. As the hours pass, the marshmallow accord begins to dissolve into the blend, and the flowers start to recede, not gone, but quieter, settling into the background. The whipped cream note thickens the space around them, turning the opening into something richer and warmer, almost edible. Peach grows more pronounced here, ripe and full, sitting inside the cream like a stone fruit dropped into vanilla pudding, sweet and slightly fuzzy.
Cultural impact
Once Upon A Summer draws from Gritti's Dor De Vara, a limited-edition release that earned attention in fragrance circles for its particular blend of sweetness and warmth. That kind of release, bottled in small numbers and priced accordingly, creates a natural curiosity among perfume enthusiasts who want to experience something rare without the obstacle course of hunting it down. This fragrance offers an alternative path to that same flavor profile, bringing the creamy peach, the floral softness, and the sandalwood base to a wider audience.
