The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Mahsam Raza built Peppermint With A Twist! in 2025 as part of The Dua Brand's Dua Designer Line, a collection that takes scents familiar from body-care and bath contexts and presents them in a wearable format. The fragrance draws on the profile associated with Twisted Peppermint by Bath & Body Works, a similar release known for pairing mint with sweetness. Built as a short, focused composition, the fragrance combines peppermint, a snow accord, sugar, and a balsamic note into something that reads as a treat rather than a traditional cologne. The interplay between the cooling top and the warmer base is what defines the experience from the first spray.
What makes this composition interesting is the restraint. Peppermint is a loud note by nature, green and almost mentholated, and here it sits at the center without being smothered by sweetness or sharpness. The addition of a snow accord gives the mint a colder, more atmospheric context, while sugar rounds the edges without tipping into full gourmand territory. The balsamic note underneath is what holds the whole thing together, adding a faint resinous warmth that keeps the mint from floating away.
The evolution
On skin, the opening arrives with a clean peppermint blast, sharp and green with a candied edge already threading through it. The mint dominates early, bright and unmistakable, but it doesn't read as toothpaste thanks to the sugar smoothing the way. As the hours pass, the snow accord softens the edges, turning the bright green into something cooler and more diffused, like cold air after a fresh snowfall. The balsamic note then makes its presence known, lending a quiet resinous depth that grounds the sugar and anchors the composition. In the later hours, what remains is a soft mint-sugar trace that sits close to the skin, intimate and warm rather than projecting. The peppermint holds its shape well, retaining that recognizable clarity through the drydown while the sweeter and warmer elements settle into a comfortable finish.
Cultural impact
As a Dua Designer Line release, Peppermint With A Twist! sits at the intersection of seasonal bath product and proper fragrance. It takes a gourmand-mint profile that many people already know and recognize from personal-care contexts and offers it in a format designed for wearing beyond the shower. The scent reads familiar yet considered, sweet yet grounded, cooling yet warm. For anyone who has ever finished a bottle of peppermint lotion and wished that scent could last through the day, this kind of release answers that wish directly.
