The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Mahsam Raza composed Way Of Water for The Dua Brand in 2023, part of the Dua Designer Line. This one draws its mood from the ocean, but not the postcard version. No foamy breakers, no coconut sunscreen. Think stiller water: a sheltered cove, salt drying on fabric, the particular calm of being somewhere the wind can't reach you. Raza built it around a marine core and anchored it with olibanum, then threaded in something unexpected: licorice, sand, vanilla. The result reads aquatic first, then shifts into something warmer and stranger, a composition that feels like two places at once, the water and somewhere just past it. The opening hits with that cold salt-mineral clarity olibanum brings when it's allowed to dominate, a sharp intake of something briny and resinous all at once.
What separates Way Of Water from the usual aquatic template is the tension between the marine accords and the sweetness underneath. This one refuses both easy paths. The licorice sits at the heart pulling the salt and the vanilla toward each other so they stop fighting. Sand and white musk do the structural work, giving the drydown a grounded, almost sun-warm texture. It's a composition that knows what it's doing with restraint.
The evolution
The opening is the ocean talking. Marine accord, sea salt, the bright mineral bite of olibanum landing cold and clean. It feels sprayed, almost sharp, like stepping off a boat into morning air. Then the licorice surfaces, and the whole thing recalibrates. The salt doesn't disappear; it warms. The vanilla arrives not as sweetness but as softness, a skin-like creaminess that melts into the marine so you can't tell where one stops and the other starts. The composition loses its lift and settles into something closer to a sunlit shore than open water. The drydown runs warm and musky, the white musk threading through whatever's left of the resin. It sits close to skin and leaves a trace of salt and vanilla on the fabric. The transition from opening to heart happens gradually, the marine accord slowly releasing its grip as the licorice and vanilla move forward.
Cultural impact
Way Of Water sits in a corner of fragrance where many compositions have gone before. What it does differently is refuse to stay aquatic. The licorice and vanilla pull it somewhere warmer and stranger, and that tension is what keeps it from feeling like another familiar entry. The marine accord through the opening reads bright and clean, but it never settles into the predictable trajectory most aquatics follow. Instead, the composition shifts register partway through, moving from salt and mineral into something softer and more ambiguous.
