A small-town girl from Dover Plains, NY, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz attended art school at Boston University to become a painter. Soon after completing her studies, her career path took a serendipitous turn when she and a colleague purchased the perfume shop Essense, located on Boston's infamous Newbury Street. By now Hurwitz, who had no past experience in perfumery, was creating scents according to each customer's desire.

A truly prolific artist, DSH (as she is known by her loyal cult following), has successfully launched several collections under PARFUMS des BEAUX ARTS, LLC, the Perfume House in which all of her ready-to-wear fragrance collections reside. With a library of more than 10,000 fragrance files created during her career, spanning almost two decades as a perfumer and certified aromatherapist, Hurwitz moved to Boulder, CO in 1995 and opened her design studio, ESSENSE STUDIO.