DA RAKE was built on one non-negotiable: the Indian consumer deserves Extrait de Parfum, the highest concentration tier in global perfumery, formulated with French-imported perfume oils, at a price that reflects direct-to-consumer economics and nothing else. Every fragrance in the collection is an original composition at 25% perfume oil concentration. None of it existed before DARAKE went looking for it.
We started DA RAKE in 2025 in Delhi, but the idea behind it had been building for longer than that. Both of us had spent years buying perfumes in the Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 range from Indian brands, and we kept encountering the same experience on repeat. The bottle would look sharp, the first spray would smell promising, and by early afternoon the fragrance would be gone. Not faded. Gone. We would find ourselves reapplying a product that should not have needed reapplication, and wondering where the money had actually gone.
When we started looking into why this kept happening, the answers were uncomfortable. Most Indian D2C fragrance brands in that price bracket formulate at 12 to 15% perfume oil concentration, which technically places them in the Eau de Toilette category, the second-lowest tier in global perfumery. The alcohol base is industrial-grade ethanol, which is cheap but carries residual odours and evaporates faster than it should, pulling the fragrance with it. International safety certifications are rare. The product looks and feels premium on the outside and underperforms on the inside.
We did not set out to disrupt an industry. We set out to answer a simple question for ourselves: what would it actually cost to build a fragrance that performs the way a Rs. 10,000 international luxury perfume performs, and sell it at a price that makes sense for a direct-to-consumer brand in India? That question is what became DA RAKE.
Our first instinct was to source everything domestically. India has one of the oldest fragrance traditions in the world, and we wanted to honour that.
We went to Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, the city that has been called the perfume capital of India for over a thousand years. Kannauj has been producing attar and botanical perfume oils since the era of Emperor Harsha in the seventh century, and its distilleries still operate using methods that have been passed down through generations. We spent time with producers there, tested samples, studied how the oils behaved at different concentration levels. We then travelled to Assam, which is known across the industry for its agar wood and oud-grade materials, and sourced from suppliers in several other production centres across the country.
What we found was a heritage of extraordinary depth and a community of artisans whose knowledge of natural fragrance is genuinely world-class. But the specific quality tier we were building toward, oils that could hold their complexity at 25% Extrait de Parfum concentration and deliver a full note arc over 10 to 12 hours, was not consistently available in the domestic supply chain at that time. The gap was not in skill or tradition. It was in the grade of raw material required for the concentration level we had committed to.
We could have adjusted downward. We could have formulated at 15% like everyone else and used what was available. We chose not to, because the entire reason we started this brand was that 15% was not good enough.
Through a connection in the fragrance industry, we reached a perfumer based in Grasse, the town on the French Riviera that has been the centre of global perfumery since the sixteenth century. Grasse is where the world's largest luxury houses, the names behind the most iconic fragrances ever made, source their raw materials and develop their compositions. It is home to over seventy perfume-related companies, and its particular microclimate produces jasmine, rose, tuberose, and orange blossom with a quality that no other region in the world has been able to replicate.
The perfumer we connected with had spent decades formulating for major international luxury brands. We went to France, sat across from someone who understood fragrance at a molecular level, and explained what we were trying to build: four original compositions, each designed from scratch, each formulated to perform at Extrait de Parfum concentration, and each intended for a consumer who had never had access to this grade of product at a price under Rs. 2,000.
What followed was an intensive development process. We invested approximately €2,000 per fragrance in sampling alone, receiving multiple formulation iterations for each composition, wearing them, timing the longevity, evaluating how the notes transitioned from opening through heart to base, adjusting ratios, and going back to the perfumer with feedback until the final versions were exactly where we wanted them. We studied fragrance architecture alongside the perfumer during this process, learning to understand how a note behaves at 15% concentration versus 25%, and why the difference between those numbers is not just arithmetic but structural, affecting how the scent moves, breathes, and lasts on the skin.
The four compositions that emerged, Ascot Oud, Adrenaline Bleu, Mirage Velvet, and Classio Vibes, are original DA RAKE formulations. We did not ask for dupes. We did not provide reference bottles and say "make it smell like this." We started from a blank page every time. These fragrances exist because we built them. They belong to us, and when you wear them, they belong to you.
People ask us what DA RAKE means. The honest answer is that the name holds a private meaning for the two of us, and we have chosen to keep that within the founding team. What we will share is that the name was never borrowed, licensed, or inspired by another brand. It is ours entirely, the way every fragrance in our collection is an original composition.
LUXEZ speaks to the French-grade luxury of what goes into every bottle we produce. Not luxury as a label. Luxury as a material fact, verifiable in the concentration, the sourcing, and the hours the fragrance stays with you.
Every DA RAKE fragrance is classified as Extrait de Parfum, the highest concentration tier available in commercial perfumery worldwide. Our formulations contain 25% French-imported perfume oil, sourced from established fragrance houses in Grasse. In the global hierarchy of fragrance grades, Extrait de Parfum sits above Eau de Parfum, above Eau de Toilette, and above Eau de Cologne. It is the concentration that luxury houses reserve for their most premium expressions, the ones that typically retail at three to five times the price of their standard offerings.
The reason this concentration matters to you as the wearer is that it directly governs how the fragrance performs on your skin. At 25%, every layer of the note pyramid, the opening, the heart, and the base, has the density to express itself fully over time. The fragrance does not peak in the first hour and disappear by the third. It develops, evolves, and remains present for 10 to 12 hours because the concentration gives each note the structural weight to persist.
The alcohol base in every DA RAKE bottle is D-NAT SDB40 pharmaceutical-grade denatured alcohol. This is the same standard used in premium cosmetic and medical applications, manufactured to be impurity-free, completely odourless, and chemically neutral. It does not alter the fragrance oils it carries, does not leave a harsh chemical residue on the skin, and evaporates cleanly to allow the perfume to develop faithfully. Industrial-grade ethanol, which is the standard at our price point in the Indian market, does not meet any of these specifications. We chose to use pharmaceutical-grade because the difference shows up in every spray, even if it never shows up on the label.
Our formulations carry IFRA certification, the international standard for fragrance safety compliance, and GS1 certification for product authenticity and supply chain traceability. These certifications confirm that every bottle we sell has been validated against global benchmarks, from formulation safety through to provenance.
Ascot Oud
Our most commanding composition, built around natural oud, guaiac wood, and vanilla in the opening, moving into a heart of caramel and exotic fruits, and settling into a base of deep oud and almond that carries through the evening and into the following morning. We developed Ascot Oud as our hero fragrance for formal Indian occasions: weddings, festive celebrations, milestone evenings where the scent you wear should carry authority and warmth in equal proportion, and stay with everyone who encounters it long after you have left the room.
Adrenaline Bleu
A clean, aquatic composition that opens with the sharp freshness of bergamot and pink pepper while seaweed adds a cool, coastal undertone from the first spray. The heart is structured around sage and amber musk, giving the fragrance a dry, grounded warmth beneath the freshness. Cedar, aquatic accords, and calone in the base keep the entire composition persistent and restrained, maintaining clarity from morning through a full working day or outdoor event. We built Adrenaline Bleu for movement, for India's climate, for days that start early and demand a fragrance that keeps pace.
Classio Vibes
The most versatile composition in our collection, opening with neroli, bergamot, and lemongrass for an immediate impression of clean, sunlit freshness that reads as approachable from the first moment. Geranium, melon, and tuberose in the heart add just enough floral character to keep the scent interesting without ever becoming heavy or attention-seeking. Juniper, freesia, and tonka bean in the base round everything into a soft, warm finish that carries through the day. Classio Vibes is our most gender-fluid fragrance and the one our repeat buyers tell us they reach for every morning without thinking about it.
Mirage Velvet
Our most intimate composition, centred on Grasse rose and orris butter in the opening, which gives the first impression a sense of soft, refined warmth. Golden champaca and violet leaf in the heart build a floral depth that feels earthy and grounded rather than sweet. Gardenia and raspberry in the base resolve into a powdery, close finish that stays near the skin rather than projecting outward. We designed Mirage Velvet for evenings that matter: for proximity, for the kind of occasions where the fragrance you wear becomes part of how the moment is remembered.
A 100ml bottle of DA RAKE Extrait de Parfum is Rs. 1,499. The Discovery Set, which includes all four fragrances in trial format at full Extrait concentration, is Rs. 499. The All In One Gift Set, with four 15ml bottles, is Rs. 999.
We are able to offer Extrait de Parfum with French-imported oils at these prices because DA RAKE is a direct-to-consumer brand. We sell through our own website at darakeluxez.com, through Amazon India, and through Flipkart. We do not pay for retail shelf space in department stores. We do not fund celebrity endorsement campaigns. We do not pass the product through layers of distributor margins before it reaches the person who will actually wear it.
The overhead savings of a D2C model go directly into formulation quality. That is the trade we made when we started this brand. We would rather invest in what goes inside the bottle, the concentration, the oil quality, the alcohol grade, and let the product justify the price through performance rather than through marketing spend.
We did not build DA RAKE to be the cheapest fragrance option available to the Indian consumer. We built it to be the most honest value in the Indian luxury fragrance category: a product where what you pay for is the liquid inside the bottle, not the infrastructure around it.
We are Prashast Shah and Rahul Arora. We founded DA RAKE in Delhi in 2025 with four Extrait de Parfum fragrances, a Discovery Set, and a belief that the Indian fragrance consumer has been underserved by an industry that spends more on packaging and endorsements than on what actually goes into the bottle.
Every formulation in our collection was developed from scratch in Grasse by a perfumer with decades of experience working with the world's leading luxury houses. Every bottle is assembled in India. Every ingredient is traceable, certified, and verifiable. We are a young brand, less than two years old, but the product we sell is not young in quality. It was built to outperform fragrances that cost five to ten times our price, and we are confident enough in that claim to let the product prove it.
If you have not experienced DA RAKE yet, the Discovery Set is where we ask you to start. Four original fragrances, each at full 25% Extrait de Parfum concentration, each made with French-imported perfume oils, delivered to your door for Rs. 499. Wear them. Time them. Compare them against anything else you own.
That is the only test that matters to us.
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
CMO - Chief Marketing Officer
