Melt my Heart

A gourmand lover’s dream, but really so much more than just a delicious smell, Melt My Heart is an oil-based fragrance that captures the dizzying sensation of falling in love. And if you imagine that to feel like falling slowly backwards into a featherbed filled with fluffy orris butter and dark chocolate, well, then your vision lines right up with that of Strangelove NYC. Creamy, soft, and utterly addictive, this scent combines the mouthfeel of powdered white chocolate and lipstick with the velvety bitterness of 85% cocoa.

Real orris butter, costlier than most other perfumery materials and described by Chandler Burr as “liquid good taste”, has been used generously here to give the more edible elements spaciousness and lift, like a puff of silvery breath on the cold air. It is the “white” element that contrasts so effectively with the dulcet bitterness of the dark chocolate note. Real oud, ginger, and mandarin are just present enough to draw out various facets of the chocolate and the iris – a spicy, woodsy undertone perhaps - but don’t expect too dominant a presence. The sandalwood, in comparison, is a real MVP in this composition, its lush, buttered, coconutty sweetness playing off the dark chocolate and orris to create a delicious Mounds Bar accord that will make you want to nibble your arm. The perfumer, Christophe Laudamiel, says that Melt My Heart is “for falling in love.” Well, we can’t imagine anyone smelling this and not being helplessly in its thrall.