Blue Lotus, Six Ouds: My Take on DSH Perfumes Peacock Blue 2025

If you’ve ever thought lotus was too polite for oud, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is here to ruin that assumption in the most elegant way. Peacock Blue opens with that lunar coolness I adore in blue lotus, a breath of dewy petal and river-stone calm. Then the ouds start arriving, not as a stampede but as a procession, each with its own accent. One leans smoky and tea-like, another balsamic and honeyed, a third with that minty-camphor gleam that feels almost medicinal but never harsh. It’s a kaleidoscope, not a pileup.

On my wrist, the first 10 minutes are all iridescence, like a silk scarf in motion. By the half hour mark, the juice deepens from teal to midnight blue. The lotus keeps the airiness intact while the oud chorus hums underneath, adding grain, resin, and a supple leather whisper. There is a distinct skin-salt effect that pulls the fragrance into the body, intimate but confident. No barnyard theatrics, no lacquered fruit overload. Just a poised tension between water and wood.

The texture is the seduction. Peacock Blue is not syrupy, and thank heavens it doesn’t chase that sticky-amber trend. Projection is a steady halo, close to moderate, and longevity lands around the workday mark for me. On scarf, the lotus shimmers longer. On warm skin, the ouds rise and fall like tides.

This is also the rare lotus fragrance that refuses to play ingénue. It is contemplative without going monk, sensual without shouting. If you love the precision of artisan perfumery, you’ll hear Hurwitz’s hand in the layering, the restraint, the painterly transitions. If oud has ever scared you, this might be your truce. If oud is your love language, you’ll clock the quality and the way six distinct profiles are woven into a single line.

There’s a Majestic Oud tie-in floating around the launch, which makes sense. The word majestic fits the mood here, though the perfume never tips into pomp. DSH Perfumes has delivered a blue floral with backbone, a study in quiet power. I wore it on a cold morning and felt like I had a secret under my coat. That’s the kind of intimacy I want from a 2025 release, and Peacock Blue delivers.