Ceremonial Rice

A Vietnamese wedding day lingers here — lotus and tea leaves gathered around the glow of burning agarwood.

Crafted to honor a friend's marriage, it unfolds like a tea ceremony before the family altar. Cool lotus and steamed jasmine rice drift in translucent layers, earthy and nutty, softened by delicate sweetness. Rice wine, betel, and sticky rice gather close, along with Bánh Xu Xê, the tapioca and mung bean cake shared between husband and wife. Tuberose and orchid rise like blooms set out for the celebration, while Vietnamese oud and warm woods deepen into candlelit heat. Silken musk smooths the spiced bitterness of betel into something tender.

Like the royal blues, reds, and elemental stripes of the Nhật Bình dress that inspired it, the story moves between water-clear calm and radiant warmth — comforting, glowing, and auspicious, a keepsake of one luminous day.

d.grayi is an artisan fragrance house from the United States, created by perfumer James “Miju” Nguyen and offered through LV1 Studio.

Drawing on Vietnamese and Korean roots, the brand crafts narrative-driven perfumes that blend traditional materials—like jasmine rice, pandan, pho spices, and Vietnamese oud—with contemporary perfume techniques to form vivid “olfactive stories.”

Nguyen’s journey into perfumery began after a vivid dream of a complex, never-before-smelled scent, which he set out to recreate, shaping a collection that now spans dozens of experimental fragrances.