Mx.  from Eris Parfums // Nose : Antoine Lie // Creative Director : Barbara Herman // Year : 2017 // Woody Animalic // Notes : Indian ginger, Madagascar black pepper, saffron, Ethiopian olibanum : Heart : Australian sandalwood, Virginian cedarwood : Base :  Haitian vetiver, Indonesian patchouli, Laotian benzoin, Russian birch tar, Venezuelan cacao, castoreum// 

The Low Down :  A milky, woody perfume lightly spiced with a sprinkle of cocoa and a right about now feel. 

Barbara Herman, the owner and creative director of Eris Parfums is a vintage perfumes expert and connoisseur. She is also a published author with Scent and Subversion, a lively historical and sociological perfumed romp through the decades with tales and smells fleshed out via some great advertising images. Plus it’s rather witty too. This is no easy feat by the way. Perfume books don’t always live up to their glossy cover and some don’t hold attention for the long haul. I like that Herman has included photos too as perfume texts can benefit from the aid of the visual and while we’re at it, maybe some scent strips thrown in for good measure.  Prior to writing Scent and Subversion, Herman blogged about vintage perfume on Yesterday’s Perfume, although she’s not active on the site these days now as she has her own collection of perfumes.

Anyway we are here today to talk about Herman’s new perfume Mx. Antoine Lie is the perfumer for Eris Parfums and his work with Etat Libre d’Orange and the infamous Secretions Magnifiques in particular was really innovative and changed the conversation in perfumery. Lie’s Puredistance trio – M, White and the recent Warszawa showcase his range and I’m a big fan of each of these perfumes so was rather intrigued to see what they would produce together with their combined talents.

The three initial Eris Parfums releases –  Night Flower, Ma Bête  and Belle de Jour (an Art & Olfaction finalist in the Independent category) have a touch of the vintage and are all very polished fragrances. If pushed to name a favourite though, it would be Night Flower, an otherworldly blend of tuberose and leathered brilliance.

Here’s what Herman says about Mx.

“Fragrance lovers know that a beautiful perfume has no gender, but the reality is that some notes are still assigned one. Mx. plays with this gender binary in perfume, blurring and mixing the boundaries between traditionally masculine and feminine perfume notes, to create a luscious woody animalic fragrance for all genders.” – Barbara Herman (Founder & Creative Director)

Mx. is a gender neutral term, instead of Mr, Mrs, Ms, Madame, Madamoiselle etc. and signals a contemporary theme for the perfume. Herman has a talent for naming her fragrances and this time round it’s pure gold and oh so relevant for right about now.  At times I kept seeing Minx while reading the name but this perfume isn’t vampy, however it is does draw you in from first sniff.

I’ll hurry things up here a little and say that Mx. has an olfactory theme that I enjoy in a perfume. Looking at the note list this is one that should be perfect for me, it’s signalling all the right things. I’m a sucker for a bit of ginger in a perfume and in  Mx. there’s a lovely warm take  with a peppery fizz. Woods dominate and the creamy sandalwood dances on top of the cedar and a rather nutty vetiver that bring more depth, playing  well against each other. In saying that, this perfume is very smooth, so they’re playing nicely together. There’s also a powdery cocoa wrapped around a fluffy dry down that cinches it for me. The animalic element is dialled down in Mx. compared to the more growly Ma Bête, so if you’re a little worried about the more beastly side than you will have no problem here. The dry down is delectably cosy as it fades, that while not identical to Lie’s White from Puredistance, shares a flourish that is reminiscent of that cloud like scent.

To sum up Mx. smells like milky woods, sprinkled with a touch of spice, a wash of cocoa and a general loved up, cosy feel that most definitely hits the spot. To be honest I had quite high expectations of this collection as Herman has such an intimate and well researched, knowledgeable base from which to build. I was not disappointed.

The contemporary, right about now feel of Mx. is a huge strength and the fact that it smells interesting and doesn’t borrow from the vintage toolkit makes it an excellent recommendation for friends who are looking for something modern with a bit of an edge. Get your nose on this people. If you like milky, woodsy perfumes that don’t err too much to the sweet  cookie side then hurry up and put this on your Xmas list.

We’ll have an interview with Barbara Herman on these pages soon, so make sure to come back and visit.

Have you tried any of the Eris line?

 

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Read more about Mx. on : Colognoisseur,  Eau MG, A Bottled Rose, Take One Thing Off // For where to purchase : Please check the  Eris Parfums website  for further details. RRP is $US150  // Notes : Images :  Megan In Sainte Maxime. // Disclaimer : Sample gratefully received from Eris Parfums.  Opinions my own.