A portrait in two chapters
David Germando
Founder · Scent Creative Director · Brand Development Lead · Daevu Fragrance Bar · Pilgrim Parfumeur
Every formula is a question rather than an answer.
The question before the formula
Before Daevu became a room, an album, and a touring experiment, there was a person trying to understand why scent could say what language could not.
A portrait has a soundtrack.
David shared the music that sits beside his formulas, garden mornings, and long hours of experimentation. Play it while reading the first chapter.
Open the full playlistWhat can scent say before language arrives?
David begins with a question. A formula is not a declaration. It is a way to stay with uncertainty long enough for an emotional shape to appear.
Fragrance as a way of understanding people
Fragrance became my way of understanding people, including myself. Every formula is a question rather than an answer. The more I learn, the more I realize scent is not about smelling good. It is about creating an emotional experience that stays with someone long after the fragrance is gone.
The afternoon after rain
The smell of wet soil after rain always brings me back to quiet afternoons in Bandung. It reminds me that the most unforgettable scents are rarely found inside bottles. They already exist in places, moments, and memories.
Perfumery, for me, is simply an attempt to preserve those fleeting experiences.
Compose the question
A place becomes a scent when memory leads, material gives it weight, and risk keeps it from becoming merely familiar. Move the three signals and watch the question lose its stable shape.
Seven fragrances, one month
For the past month, I have been wearing a different fragrance from the Daevu Psychedelic Scent Album every day: Mary Jane, Magic Mushroom, Tipsy Gypsy, Tequila Sunrise, Rose Martini, Manhattan, and Nigori Sake.
Outside of that, I am constantly wearing my own ongoing experiments. Some are unfinished. Some fail completely. They remind me that creativity should never become comfortable.
Presence before urgency
My mornings begin with a cup of coffee or warm tea, accompanied by the gentle scent of burning incense or palo santo. I spend a few quiet moments in the small garden at home, simply enjoying the fresh morning air before heading to Daevu Fragrance Bar.
It is a ritual that slows everything down, clears my mind, and reminds me to begin each day with presence rather than urgency.
Taste without permission
Good taste is not about following trends or owning something exclusive. It is about authenticity, having the confidence to choose what genuinely resonates with you, even if no one else understands it.
“There is no masterpiece without experimentation.”
Failure as research
That is why I consider myself experimental. Experimental perfumery is more than a way of making fragrance. It is a way of thinking.
It means approaching every idea with curiosity instead of certainty, seeing failure as research rather than defeat, and believing that every experiment, successful or not, moves you closer to creating something meaningful.
For me, experimentation is not a technique. It is an attitude toward creativity and life itself.
The room he built
Not simply a perfume brand, but an experimental space where fragrance becomes art, conversation, performance, and personal story.
David did not build Daevu to give finished answers. He built a place where scent could remain open, social, and alive.
Psychedelic Scent Album
Seven fragrances arranged like tracks. The album does not sit quietly on a shelf. It invites music, visual intervention, performance, and a crowd into the act of smelling.
Three countries, one expanding experiment
The tour treats perfume as a performing art. Talks, DJs, artists, installations, and fragrance share the same floor. Daevu does not merely present a collection. It stages the conditions for people to experience it together.
The booth became part of the work
Daevu received the Best Booth Award at Fragrance of Asia. The recognition makes sense. The booth was not treated as furniture around perfume. It became a material expression of the same experimental thinking: assembled, theatrical, imperfect, and unmistakably alive.
Pilgrim
A new brand is approaching. If Daevu is the experimental room, Pilgrim suggests the journey after it: quieter, inward, and still unresolved.