Ma Bete

It is about time I finished my reviews on this great range of fragrances from Eris Parfums. Ma bête or "My Beast" fulfills it's namesake thoroughly and embodies what it conceptually sets out to accomplish. I am proud to see an animalic, indolic chypre of this intensity and daring caliber received favorably, if anything, by those who have taken the time to review it on Fragrantica. It then challenges me to wonder why Ambilux by Marlou is so despised when it is almost the same orgasmic chypre spectacle. Ma Bête is an absolute juggernaut from the brand. Yet another deconstructed chypre that is, in all accounts, on the polar opposite of the spectrum from Green spell. Where Green Spell is a chypre composed of mainly top and mid notes that are fresh, ripe, nouveau and green, Ma Bête is in response a chypre composed of mainly base and mid notes that are dirty, burnt, spent, antique and animalic. With aldehydes as the only agreeable top note, the rest of Ma Bête's composition are rich and retro florals, sparkly, smokey, spices and resins, and earth tones with big, bold animalic mixtures lining the base allowing the fragrance to get straight to the point much quicker than your average chypre. Ma Bête starts sparkly, extroverted and heady reminiscent of golden showers. If you have kids or took care of children who may have wet the bed or themselves at some point beware this part may smell quite gauche to you. This retro pissiness remains in the background becoming an alluring, sweaty, and pheromonal/musky nature reminiscent of such things as, Revlon Intimate, La Nuit by Paco Rabbane, Rochas Femme, or Estee Lauder Youth Dew, generating a slightly furry sensibility in the mid when a natural sweetness is enhanced by the flowers. Sun-baked neroli and jasmine that tease an almost burnt incense quality are somehow smoothly introduced and slow down the pace of this excited beast allowing for a warm nutmeg to blossom providing more zappy textures that tingle and arouse. The profile of the indolic flowers alongside the spicy, animalic base in Ma Bête is gamey, savory, fatty and spent almost reminiscent of what they would smell like if extracted via enfleurage technique. Ultimately the blending here is quite stunning, clever, maybe even game-changing when we take into account that this "Big-City" chypre was made recently, IFRA regulations abound. I must admit Ma Bête even for me was slightly scary in the beginning, even though I'm partial to animalics. I do not appreciate when animalics are done in perfumes as a gimmick, as an ill advised notion that "dirty always means sexy" or for contest or shock value. I do not have patience for those. And yes, I know Antoine has done the most infamous one, "baffff!!". But even I am at fault because I do love the house of Zoologist and its duckling Hyrax, meant to highlight the ingredient of hyraceum quite literally. I have tolerance for only so many dirty fragrances and usually its my personal opinion that a vibe just feels off or pretentious about a fragrance. Ultimately, enjoy what you want. I'm just picky and scrutinize from animalics, the one's that to me seem like they were created smartly, not merely for shock value, but to be worn and enjoyed. With a slightly cheesy but cute name aside, Ma Bête is to me a successfully sincere hommage to the classics. Strangely, I enjoy that the name Ma Bête doesn't take itself too seriously leading one to doubt it, but once unleashed this thing is bonkers good and quite fitting of its name... Mostly unisex. A gorgeous, extroverted, complex and big personality chypre. Vintage in spirit. Innovated for the modern world. 🕯💐🐅 10/10

This fragrance caught me by surprise. It is very different from anything else in the Eris three-set collection that two local boutiques carry together (along with the book about fragrances, I assume also by Eris, displayed next to them that everybody raves about and I want to read). I smelled it at random, along with several other fragrances, while waiting for some samples I had spent hours picking out to be prepared for me, I had to stop and do a double- and triple-take. It was overtly sensual to me, almost obscene, without being coy or come-hither or sexy in a blatant vulgar or prurient way. I wore it that night (I sample fragrances by putting them on after an evening shower, smelling them throughout the evening as I go about cooking, etc, then wearing them to bed and seeing what I think of them in the morning, if I can still smell them, and if they subconsciously shifted in my mind during sleep somehow. I was surprised to LOVE it, because it was nothing like the smokey, woody, spicy, oud perfumes that I had gone to the Tigerlily boutique to sample. It was, and is, the odd ball out in my sample collection (on a middle-class income in the exorbitant bay area, and having only gotten into niche and boutique fragrances in a serious way earlier this year, I cannot afford to build a huge fragrance collection quickly, although I'm working through some four dozen samples I've bought, figuring out which to acquire and whether I will wear them. By next morning, the lingering smell made me wanat to BARF. I couldn't tell if it was that scent alone or something in the air in my apartment, but unconsciously all through my morning shower I kept thinking of a male urinal. It was skanky. But that weekend I went to a different boutique, where I again saw it displayed, liked it to buy a sample of again, and this time LOVED on first scent and overnight. This is very intense and polarizing to me. I could imagine somebody getting close to me and deciding they either loved me or could no longer associate with me at all on the basis of this fragrance alone. Which is not to say it is cloying. It is very, very, sexual without being 'sexy'. I like this polarity, this difficulty. I like that it arouses such strong emotion in me. I like even that I hated it for a few hours and later couldn't understand why. It didn't bore me, and it is unforgettable. I kept wanting to smell it, kept--and keep--wanting to figure out what the hell I really feel about it. Enough so, in fact, that it is now the second most desirable fragrance in my budding collection, and I plan on buying it at the next discount bazaar held at Tigerlily perfumery (dec 18, 2016--san francisco, btw). It keeps changing its essential nature on me, but never have I smelled something so purely animalic that nevertheless doesn't smell of sweat. It is not leathery, either. But animalic for sure--in a private way that makes me wonder if others can smell waht I am smelling, too. It feels impolite to smell it--or to smell of it--in public, like reading a porno magazine at a newsstand. That is exactly why I do plan to wear it in public; and why it might become an evening standby (if only I attended more evening events). I would definitely not wear this to work for fear of my boss asking me to tone down my fragrance-wearing in general and thus depriving me of one of the great pleasures of every morning.

What a gorgeous, sophisticated scent. I would call it an Aromatic Spicy/Woody Chypre. (I can't see it as an Oriental, and it reminds me in no way of BAL À VERSAILLES). It actually reminds me of an early-70's mousse-de-saxe masculine, like ARAMIS, or even Hermès ÉQUIPAGE . Reminds me much of an early-70's Louis Féraud masculine I owned aeons ago. I actually am NOT getting the funky animalics everyone mentions (but that's only because I tend to go directly for your truly hardcore animalic numbers like AMBILUX, KIEHL'S and MKK); if animalics are here, they are subordinated to the pungent patchouly/woody/spicy accords. Never sweet, this scent is definitely alluding to Midcentury French perfumery. The medicinal/aromatic nagarmotha head, laced with neroli, descends into a provocative, sexy, ultra-glam confluence of growling dark floralcy and muted, mysterious spices, with its retro patchouly/oakmoss tang throughout. Surprised that oakmoss is not listed as a note above, because it is undeniably present here. I am wondering what the sweet fruit note is at the heart of MA BÊTE... it seems stone-fruit-like, but odd... I think it might be davana, which has a curious "poisoned peach" smell to it. Can't believe MA BÊTE is designated feminine, as it seems like a suave vintage Euro-masculine to me. Like a Piguet BANDIT or EL AZURÉE, a woman would wear this only if she dared to project a real androgynous, take-no-prisoners swaggering Euro-sophistication. MA BÊTE is powerful, wickedly sexy, and brimming with wit, attitude and panache throughout. You fellas have to sample this. I'm smitten. [Update--->] Okay, 5 hours later in far drydown... Now I'm getting the animal notes... a urinaceous, sheep's piss note, haha. They were cleverly hidden by the powerful upper notes. Reminds me of the urinaceous qualities of AMBILUX or KOUROS. [Update II--->] I'm amazed that this perfume has gotten so little love and attention. Luca Turin basically just dismissed it with a snort. Yet I think it's one of the most beautiful, intelligent and genuinely unique numbers I've sniffed in the Millennium. Maybe its animalic qualities, not inconsiderable, scare off the fruitchouli-and-bubblegum crowd...? If MA BÊTE had been released in the 1940's, it would've been hailed as the Second Coming.

I really like Ma Bête. I was sure it was love. Upon first application, I got equal parts fresh bright neroli, narcotic jasmine and aldehydes set against an animalic odor that creates such a fantastic blend. It’s supported by a slightly salty & earthy patchouli which is just at the right level. Strikes the perfect unisex leaning feminine appeal. I was certain it was an immediate buy. But...I washed the sweater I applied it on. I don’t put this sweater through the dryer, so maybe this is part of the issue. When I was hanging the sweater in my closet, I thought “where is that awful sour piss smell coming from?” and followed my nose to the sleeve of my sweater where I was appalled. A potent rank stale urine was left behind, and I had a very stark visual. The visual was this: an older woman once beautiful and graceful now has a naked face and scraggly gray hair, is in her darkened home being patronizingly beckoned to follow by a personal nurse. The stench of a potty chair hangs in the air, drowning out her excellent vintage perfume collection. She’s standing in the gleam of an unconvered white lightbulb glaring at me- a glare that says time is thief that eventually robs us all, no matter your taste or social status. Scary. So scary. Also stinky. The urine smell stayed through another wash, hindered but unbroken. I wore the sweater regardless, and could tell my boyfriend was politely ignoring odor wafting from my wrist as we did a crossword puzzle over lunch. Despite this, I still kind of want to make Ma Bête work. That pre-wash ecstasy! Maybe it’s like a bad relationship, where sometimes it’s so good that you try to ignore the obvious fact that it isn’t working in the bigger picture. Maybe just another sample on different clothing...

Sampled this before a night out with some close friends. I, an enjoyer of aldehydic florals with animalic and/or leathery base notes, loved it. It indeed evoked the vibe of a well-loved fur boa, worn to so many parties that it absorbed the scents permeating those rooms: the attendees' perfumes, of course, but also their sweat, their drinks, and perhaps the intermingled smoke of their cigarettes with the burning of the fireplace. This image was only strengthened by the speakeasy aesthetic of the bar in which we gathered. On the other hand, my friends were not fans, with one saying it smelled like piss. Granted, I brought my arm right up to their noses, and the animalic notes were much more potent up close than in the scent trail, but I'd surmise this is not a crowd pleaser, at least among modern sensibilities. Ma Bête projected within an arm's length for the first three or so hours, and its longevity was impressive: one spray on my forearm was still faintly detectable the next day, despite having showered before bed. The scent seemed to develop linearly, not undergoing any significant changes in character, so if you don't like it on initial spray, it probably won't grow on you either. In summary, I think Ma Bête does what it sets out to do very well, but the specificity of this aesthetic ideal makes the resulting scent a polarizing experience. It's not inexpensive either, so I definitely advise against blind buying.