I've always loved the idea of gourmands but I often find them too sweet, sickly and overbearing. I was close to writing off gourmands completely until I smelled this.

This was just a random blind by from a sample set with no expectations. On strip I just got some gentle animalic notes and not too much else and put it to the side. Decided to spray it on skin and give it a full go, and I'm delighted to discover how wonderful this is on skin.

The opening hits you briefly with a strong dose of warm nutmeg and spices, that admittedly I'd have loved to get more than a couple of seconds of as I keep wanting to reapply, and then after a few seconds the spices settle and you are finally met with a wall of strong clean waxy ambergris and cacao that comes together to smell like a high-end chocolaterie. There is no cheap sugary sweetness to it at all. Just a warm cacao with a vanilla blanket. Underneath all of this is an animalic base that never becomes stinky or dirty. The hyraceum just adds this warm hug to the overall experience creating a close and comforting feel, and giving it a wonderful character to the body of the fragrance. It has synthetic castoreum, but definitely in very low amounts and hard to detect. It's a very well balanced experience.

It's not a punchy fragrance by any means though. It settles down quickly into a skin scent so you'll definitely need a few sprays to get it to the point it will jump out at you as you wear it, as one spritz on the skin may leave you hungry for more.

If you like warmer scents but not too big on scents that creep into the gourmand territory I still think it's worth looking into as you may surprise yourself.

Eris Perfumes Mx is the slithering, unsettling echo of an intrusive thought, a fixation, a compulsion that thrums beneath your skin and stirs unease and intrigue in equal measure. Hypnotizing tendrils of saffron, a musky murmur of something primal, something unnerving. Velvety sandalwood, a plushness of warmth, of comfort, but something's not quite right. A shivery nip of ginger, a prick of pepper, sharp, sudden, jolting you awake, reminding you that you’re not yourself. The mirror wavers, reflects the eyes of a stranger you don't recognize, a smile playing on lips that aren't yours. Secretive, intimate, and sheer, this is the perfume of a whisper that clings to you, the memory of actions you can't explain, of choices you didn't make. Are they yours, these yearnings, or have you become a fascination, a vessel for the uninvited, a maddening allure let loose from the dark?

EDIT: After I'd written all of this based on a very strong recollection that it brought up for me, I realized I wrote all of this slithery gorgeous malevolence about a perfume that celebrates freeing oneself from gender binaries... and that if one didn't know me, this review could be taken as me as someone who is freaked out or grossed out about that. Or something equally as unfortunate that I would hate to have ascribed to me. Nooooooo! Please don't think that it's not that at all. I love the concept, the execution, and the inspiration for this perfume! This particular review was prompted by how the fragrance reminded me of what was happening in Lois Duncan's YA thriller Stranger With My Face, wherein a teenager realizes that her jealous twin sister has been astral projecting into her body at night and making her do terrible things!