Scorpio Rising

So I must be honest the day my sample of Scorpio Rising came and I tried it on I was not completely on board with what it was doing. It was only the second one I sampled after Mxxx. I would soon learn that Eris fragrances smell as complex as the notes promise. The top of Scorpio Rising started as a medley of strong spices. Crisp fruit-tinged pink-pepper and dusty black pepper boosted by one of my favorite spices, clove and it is chilling and slightly mentholic. As it remained in this phase (notice: phase) I remember wondering "Is this going to do anything else...?" I was worried because I know spices can overwhelm a composition and turn it sharp and chemically quite quickly. As I forgot about Scorpio Rising and began doing errands I suddenly receive these remarkable textures. Silky and suede-like facets start to linger quietly in the air. From here I honestly cannot properly pick out notes because it is so well-constructed. I just lose myself in it while not completely understanding it. Smooth and tantalizing, disarming. I smelled my patch of Scorpio Rising and sure enough it has completely transformed. It is like it has shifted spirits, going from spicy and aloof to hot and yearning. This leather is not innocent. It is smooth, shiny, latex-y and suggestive in it is warm, seductive, and naughty elements. On my skin Scorpio Rising is smokey, never outright "burnt rubber" more subtle and zen. Melted and woody like wax and incense. A monochromatic perfume, gray or black in color. The profile straddles the line between fashionable and bohemian effortlessly. Slight nuances of sexual tension almost with pheromonal qualities like dressed-up hormones. However it is not the smell of the deed just the smell of readiness if that makes sense. Even with its more intense artistic qualities in mind, Scorpio Rising is to me a very wearable leather-woody musk. I find it quite tasteful and easy to wear to boost my confidence. I also use it as a companion to work. I'm wearing it as I write this review lol. Signature worthy. Very unique, innovative and highly complex. Arousing, dominant but equally having a calm temperament in its leathery profile that doesn't overpower or become scary. It smells suave, quiet and unassuming. It smells very luxurious, sleek and futuristic like the idealized smell of a higher quality human pheromone. It doesn't diffuse from the skin in a scent cloud like most modern compositions instead it melds with the skin and lingers lazily. Unisex, masculine leaning but would be great on a woman and ideal for warm, temperate or cooler days. For the week of wearing it, Scorpio Rising was reminding me of something, then I finally nailed it. Scorpio Rising is very reminiscent of the base of Ambre Suprême by Les Indémodables. This is what I was smelling underneath the sweet aldehydes and clary sage and salty, buttery ambergris. That pink pepper and immortelle combo that links the two fragrances. Scorpio Rising, a profile of sweet pink pepper, mentholated clove and spicy, herbal immortelle on Latex-y and smokey incense, Madagascan cinnamon, and guaiac wood. Leather and cardamom tease a kind of inkiness with the incense. Exceptional. Modern. Almost Japanese in concept. I don't believe in horoscopes, but I know I'm a Scorpio. I was skeptical of this fragrance but it has really impressed me and brings a very calculated and artistic perspective of horoscope to scent. 🖤🪵🕯 10/10

I’m surprised that it took me this long to try Scorpio Rising, since I’ve tried and liked other Eris fragrances and this one is right up my alley. My only excuse is that the tester at my local boutique was empty for a few of my visits and I forgot to check back. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking seriously about getting a bottle of CDG 2 Man and I noticed that comments on Scorpio Rising say that it’s extremely similar, so I figured it was time to test drive it. And you know what? Those comments were right. This perfume is like the opposite of a dupe: rather than making a more affordable version of a known fragrance, it’s as if Antoine Lie and Barbara Hermann said, “CDG 2 Man is really nice, what if we made something almost exactly like it, but stronger, with nicer materials?” Lots of brands are doing extrait flankers of their popular scents now, and if CDG did that for 2 Man, it would be this, basically. But there are some differences! Scorpio Rising is a bit more linear: it feels to me like it isolates only the best notes from 2 Man, dispensing with the powdery aldehydic opening and going straight into spices, incense, and leather. It’s also a bit sweeter. Given the divergence in the actual notes list—2 Man has nutmeg, mint, caraway, and kumquat, and iris, whereas SR has cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, immortelle, and nagarmotha (they both have incense, leather, vetiver, and various woody notes)—you honestly might expect them to smell a bit more distinct, but the overall effect is *very* close. Ironically, given the name, I feel like SR is even more velvety and refined than 2 Man. I would expect a perfume referencing Kenneth Anger’s infamous homoerotic occult biker film to smell a bit more dangerous: leather and incense? Sure, but it should also smell like gasoline and flames, poison, sweat, and demons, goats and potions. In other words, it should smell like Parfum Prissana’s Haxan, which is a perfect scent for a Satanic badass. Of course, I am not a Satanic badass, I’m a guy with an art history degree who works in a library, and I actually really like Eris’ Scorpio Rising. The question is, is it worth twice as much as CDG 2 Man? One costs $267 CAD for 50ml and the other is $175 CAD for 100ml. I think the difference is hard to justify. Yes, SR is nicer, projects a bitter better, and lasts a bit longer, but considering that it’s an extrait vs. 2 Man being an EDT, the sillage and longevity aren’t that different. I’d love to have a bottle of Scorpio Rising, but I don’t think I’d buy it for myself. EDIT (Jan. 23, 2025): I was so wrong about this! After spending more time with both, I think I considerably overrated the similarity between these two fragrances. They *do* have a lot in common, but the top and middle notes of 2 Man are totally different, it's really the base profile that they share. And, I'm sorry to say, Scorpio Rising *is* a lot better. It's rich, luxurious, and potent in a way that 2 Man simply cannot compete with. Mea culpa!

Review based on ERIS Discovery Set won randomly via CaFleureBon giveaway, provided by the brand's founder Barbara Herman: I read an article on Fragrantica by Matvey Yudov in which he explicitly called on CdG's Wonderwood as a precursor to SR, and I must admit that this was my instant connection as well. Not unlike the common thread between Jacques Polge's Boise des Iles-inspired trio of Bois Noir, Egoïste, and No. 18, this profile is truly indicative of Antoine's aptitude for marrying spice and sandalwood, as well as incense and pepper in an astonishing, intellectual perfume. Whilst Wonderwood could be considered the Egoïste, Scorpio Rising is truly the equivalent of the fabled Bois Noir. Not that either smell like or resemble the Chanels, but rather share this concept of developing scent through multiple completed fragrances. The complexity is nothing short of brilliant, with a logical shift through to the dry-down that yet somehow confounds the wearer in the most wonderful way - combating back and forth between hot and cold, brash and mellow, damp pepper and dry smoke. The spices push to the max, falling just below the point-of-no-return, progressively softening through the sweetened facets of immortelle in tandem with the guaiac wood. As others have stated in their reviews, the airiness of the scent is something of a revelation in the midst of assumptions of impenetrability to prevail in an amber bed. This is a fragrance that is worn by the wearer, and not the other way around. Spice and pepper have never been handled so robustly, yet deftly in my opinion aside from Jean-Claude Ellena (Angeliques Sous le Plouie, Epice Marine) and the late Edmond Roudnitska (Eau d'Hermes). Similarly to those aforementioned, the quality of Scorpio Rising is truly immaculate. I feel compelled to express my appreciation for this articulation of jarring and serenity in a single vial. This is truly the magnum opus of the collection. To note: the quality of the ingredients from L'AFdM are quite apparent, and drive a true appreciation for their mission and painstaking efforts to procure the most pure and responsible products. This will most certainly be my first purchase from the brand, and next fragrance purchase. **UPDATE: Purchased via Luckyscent's Advent Calendar 10% + free shipping - couldn't pass up a good deal!** Note: In sharing my opinions to her in regards to the fragrance, Barbara advised that now through Dec. 31st, ERIS is selling SR in 10ML travel sprays - in addition to their standard 50ML bottles.

How many spices and aromatics can you shove into a perfume? Antoine Lie and Barbara Herman seemed determined to find out with Scorpio Rising. The opening is a melange, and you only need to look at the notes pyramid to reach that conclusion. Black pepper, white pepper, and rainbow pepper abound with cloves, but there are much more besides. Some sun scorched heat and dry honey notes from immortelle over there, something hay like and floral from a saffron material there, and some parched woody aromatics from cinnamon here. This is very much like a spice blend you purchase from a grocer, albeit a very, very high end mix from a very high end grocer. The blend of this mix is in near perfect harmony, where you are sure you can tell the spices apart but it's nonetheless a challenge. The highly synthetic remainder of the perfume - javanol is used to obscene proportions - somehow doesn't go down the route of being a wan and shrieking mess. Part of this is due to a very clean woody incense smoke that works to round and smooth things out. Javanol, iso e super, cashmeran, and vetiver work together to create another melange at the base, this time woody, aromatic, and a bit salty and swampy from the vetiver. The base and the final skin scent of the perfume is where things get touchy for people it seems. For some it's going to be overly synthetic and off-putting. For others, myself included, I find the base to be very synthetic, yes, but well put together and convincing. It has a quality to it that's similar to what I pointed out in Mx.; the two share a lot of structural similarities, but they also share this quality of big, broad, chunky paint strokes of materials that overlay and blend with each in ways like a watercolor painting. Sometimes the big, broad, chunky brush strokes blend in spots that seem a bit amateurish and imprecise, as compared to a finely detailed oil painting, but that also gives Scorpio Rising a personality that is unusual and compelling as well - and a personality more unusual and compelling that Mx., I would like to add. As its name implies, it is intense, gravitating and strong-willed. Yet another solid release from Eris.

My relationship with this perfume is teetering perilously close to addiction. When I’m not wearing it, I’m thinking about it. When I am wearing it, I’m huffing my wrist in public and not caring how it looks. (If you’re lucky enough to crave something that isn’t dangerous for you — and all you have to do to get your fix is bring your wrist up to your nose — why not go for it?) Scorpio Rising opens with a big round-kick of spices. The stars of the show are pink and black pepper — so spicy and tannic, you’re salivating and feeling parched in quick succession. Unsurprisingly, there’s also a sense of warmth, and a faint hint of sweetness from cardamom and clove. On my skin, the spices last much, much longer than I expected. Even when the heart notes come in, the spices don’t step aside. The closest analogy I can come up with is drinking a chai tea without any milk or sugar, and occasionally stirring it with a cedar branch. Spicy, woodsy, and mouth-puckeringly astringent. In terms of vibe: I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that I’m a Scorpio and love it. But it does feel in tune with stereotypical Scorpion energy. It’s intense but not loud. Complex but not chaotic. Sophisticated but not pretentious. Once you get to know it better, you realize it also has a dry, sometimes cheeky, sense of humor. If this were a guy (and I were still single), I’d want to marry him. Thankfully, it’s just a perfume, and I don’t have to pine. I can spray this on whenever I’m thinking about it, and see above: I think about it often.