Simply the most delicious masculine fragrance I've ever smelled. Magnificently smooth, sweet incense smoke laced with pungent but perfectly blended spices on a bed of leather and woody notes. It smells a lot like CDG 2 Man, but only the resinous amber drydown (the best part, imo), not the powdery-aldehydic opening notes.

Ironically, given the name, I feel like Scorpio Rising 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 if it were really supposed to smell like a Satanic badass, it should probably also smell like gasoline and flames, sex and sweat, drugs and demons.

Of course, I am not a Satanic badass, I’m a guy with an art history degree who works in a library, and I love Scorpio Rising exactly as it is. It is unfortunately very pricey, but it's worth it.

To me, this is a “breakfast” perfume. It’s supposed to evoke a Japanese temple but I find its woody incense notes come across like a really nice shaving cream—masculine but not aggressive. Combined with the hint of coffee, the vibe is that you’re a guy who has a beautiful apartment in Kyoto (maybe your high rise has a view of the temple), tastefully furnished in Danish teak modernist furniture. Your stereo system is hi-fi. You have a subscription to Monocle. You’re waking up on a sunny day in a great mood because your creative projects are coming together just as you planned. You’re excited to get to work.