Silk, Lace & Chocolate

Finally, a chocolate I can wear! 4160 Tuedays' iteration doesn’t arrive with the brute-force sugarbomb heaviness that so many so-called gourmands do. No syrup-soaked synthetic cocoa butter, no cloying fog of thick candy-floss musk. Instead, it breathes. Airy ribbons of truffle-dark chocolate, somehow cool and soft at once, folded into the silk of a real, elegant Tahitian vanilla, slightly floral nuance. Ganache but whispered. You get the strawberry, yes, but not bubblegummed into submission like so many failed “fruity chocolates” of the 2010s. This is strawberry cream, not so much jammy as folded into white chocolate, with a creamy-smooth, delicately tart sweetness. More like skin than dessert, this is the flushed-cheeks kind of sweetness that glows pink, not neon red. But the real genius here would have to be that bergamot. Thar clean, ephemeral touch of brightness really just manages lifts the whole composition above the mud of cliché. It flickers gently through the richness, like a glint of silver on velvet. Prevents the descent into stickiness. A gourmand, yes, but silk-spun, fondue-laced air rather than food. Creamy without being creamy-sick. Deep, but not heavy. I’ve long had a tragic relationship with chocolate fragrances. Promises of velvet and heartbreaks of wax. Unventilated musk, oh dear. Not this. This is the first one that knows elegance with a sweet tooth. Like someone who knows when to stop stirring the ganache, who lets the perfume rest in softness, not excess. To lean close to someone and let them smell not dessert, but something quietly decadent? Sign me the fuck up. Chocolate, done right. Finally.

Good grief, this is good. I bought 100ml direct from 4160 Tuesdays in their New Year sale - my first scent from this house. It is currently £45 (50ml is selling for £60 - oh dear, it made more sense to buy the larger bottle...). It arrived today, beautifully packaged and with a small free sample of Captured by Candlelight; I think I am going to like that, too. On the literature which accompanied the fragrance, the listed notes are: chocolate, strawberry, bergamot and vanilla, the last of which has been omitted by Fragrantica. I am sure I can smell patchouli in here, although it's not listed. This is rich, warm, creamy, spicy, gourmand chocolate heaven. It is not sweet; the bergamot tempers any sweetness from strawberry and contributes to the fragrance's spiciness. Vanilla is imperceptible to me, but may be causing the creamy aspect I sense. I have other chocolate perfumes: Montale's Chocolate Greedy (which I love), but SLC is creamier and slightly less "dusty"; Al-Rehab Choco Musk (a solid "like" and sweeter and quieter); Thierry Mugler Angel Le Gout du Parfum, which I also love (but is unmistakably Angel, an inescapable heritage). 4160 Tuesdays Silk, Lace and Chocolate is now my favourite chocolate fragrance and should assuage my cravings for the edible stuff. Sillage is moderate - not sure yet about longevity, but I suspect it will be good.

I confess I sampled 4160 Tuesdays Silk, Lace & Chocolate a few times casually before realizing it was right for me. A gourmand lover, I can be both easily receptive to and picky toward gourmand fragrances, and admittedly this one seems to have a bit of a mixed reception. Still, Sarah McCartney excels at gourmands (or at least semi-gourmands), and it's no surprise to me that she does well with this. SLC involves a relatively simple blend of chocolate, strawberry, and bergamot. The first two are obvious and make up the bulk of what stands out, at least to me, a dessert duo that walks the line between refreshing and decadent. The bergamot, however, is perhaps the key ingredient, as it lifts up the blend from being a heavy gourmand to something more in the middle. Certainly apt for cold weather but not so dense for a little warm weather to be prohibitive, SLC is a well-blended gourmand. It's in the usual price range for 4160 Tuesdays fragrances, $135 for 100ml and $90 for 50ml at Perfumology and Luckyscent in the US. 8 out of 10

Lol@raw umber, here is what I think of this scent... I am generally not a lover of chocolate scents so I approached this sample with caution. Very pleasantly surprised here. On the first sniff I am immediately transported to a York chocolate factory where the master chocolatier is preparing fresh dark chocolate truffles with fresh strawberry cream fondant filling. Mmmmmmmm.....absolutely delicious...yum yum yum. Makes me want to eat those truffles and I don't even like dark chocolate or fruity fillings. Chocolate strawberry note lingers for a good while and eventually dries down to a yummy base very similar to the Sexiest Scent but sweeter. Longevity is very good too. This is one chocolate scent I would definitelly shell out for.

What a gorgeous perfume. For times when you want to feel cosy and a bit decadent! First off, this chocolate is not bitter or sweet, but beautifully creamy. The vanilla adds to the deliciousness but the touch of bergamot stops it from becoming sickly and too rich. The hint of strawberry brings to mind that lovely aroma of when you take the lid off a tin of chocolates...strawberry cremes, toffee fingers, creamy fudges. I can't stop inhaling it! This is the first FB I have bought from 4160 Tuesdays; This is one I plan to rebuy and get a big backup of because I don't want to be without this!