There is a moment just as the sun slips behind the horizon and colour bleeds into the sky when the ordinary gives way to the cinematic. The light softens, the pulse quickens, and suddenly, anything feels possible. It is precisely this threshold between day and night, control and abandon that Zadig&Voltaire captures with THIS IS HER! BURNING LOVE and THIS IS HIM! BURNING LOVE.
A continuation of the house’s rebellious fragrance legacy, this new duo is less about complement and more about collision. Two distinct yet magnetically intertwined compositions that turn the temperature up on the familiar THIS IS! universe. Where previous chapters flirted with edge and elegance, this one goes further it catches fire.
A Sensory Manifesto
Created by Master Perfumers Sidonie Lancesseur and Nathalie Lorson, BURNING LOVE is a study in contrast: citrus and warmth, delicacy and provocation, innocence and intensity. It is also, unmistakably, an olfactory love story one that unfolds in the heat of a summer night and lingers into the morning after.
THIS IS HER! BURNING LOVE
Perfumer: Sidonie Lancesseur
Fragrance family: Gourmand Floral
There is an immediate, almost dazzling brightness to the top note: Italian blood orange, sharp and sun-drenched, its character shaped by the volcanic soils of Mount Etna. This is followed by an unexpected and rather indulgent note of pistachio liqueur, which veers creamy, rich, and playfully intoxicating.
The heart unfolds into a dialogue between green tea and chestnut, the latter a signature of the original THIS IS HER!, reimagined here to be warmer and more radiant. The base is a deeply textural blend of sandalwood, cedarwood, and the slightly toasted character of wheat bran.
“It’s a fragrance that plays on extremes,” says Lancesseur. “Blood orange and green tea bring freshness, while pistachio and woods pull it into something magnetic. It’s an explosive encounter between carefreeness and intensity.”
THIS IS HIM! BURNING LOVE
Perfumer: Nathalie Lorson
Fragrance family: Woody Citrus Amber
If THIS IS HER! opens with the brightness of early evening, THIS IS HIM! is the descent into night. It begins with a rum accord heady, caramel-rich, deliberately intoxicating followed by a burst of orange and grapefruit, creating a sharp, almost disruptive contrast.
The heart settles into a vanilla infusion, creamy and enveloping, before the base introduces a more carnal dimension: amber wood and patchouli, layered with nuance and modernity. Lorson selected Prisma patchouli, a distilled form that reveals an unexpectedly raw and sensual profile.
“I was inspired by those nights where the air vibrates with music, where everything feels charged,” she says. “It had to be provocative. It had to turn heads.”
Both fragrances borrow subtly from the world of cocktails not for novelty, but for emotional resonance “Notes like pistachio liqueur or rum bring a festive dimension, a breath of extravagance,” says Lancesseur. “They’re addictive, but crafted with restraint.”
Lorson adds: “These are not literal notes. They’re interpretive. Rum, for instance, contains amber, woody and vanilla tones that harmonise with the broader composition. The result is more impressionistic than direct.”
Designed to Disrupt
The bottles echo the same philosophy of elegant subversion. The signature fractured silhouette of the THIS IS! collection returns, now coloured in the saturated hues of summer at its most incandescent. For her, a gradient of Zadig pink to fiery orange; for him, a deep, reflective blue. Both are crowned with metallic caps and boxed in packaging reminiscent of a sky ablaze at dusk. Like the fragrances themselves, the design is intentionally dual: raw and refined, rock and romance.
A Neurological Affair
Desire, of course, is not simply an aesthetic construct it is physiological. Both perfumers point to the evolving role of neuroscience in contemporary perfumery.
“The sense of smell is directly connected to the areas of the brain responsible for memory and emotion,” explains Lancesseur. “Certain materials can create instinctive responses. When a fragrance is well-structured, it can trigger something very close to obsession.”
At dsm-firmenich, Lorson references the house’s proprietary emotion program™, which uses biometric and neurological data including fMRI readings and heart rate variability to link raw materials with emotional outcomes. “We can now correlate notes with feelings,” she says. “It’s a powerful tool for storytelling through scent.”
Together, Apart
Though designed as standalone fragrances, HER and HIM are also intended to be worn in tandem a sensory echo between bodies, even when those bodies are not in the same room.
“They form an electrifying duet,” says Lancesseur. “It’s like dancing under a sky ablaze, feeling the moment swell.”
“They interact,” adds Lorson. “They bind, even invisibly. For a couple, they become a shared signature.”
THIS IS HER! BURNING LOVE Eau de Parfum | 30ml, 50ml, 100ml
THIS IS HIM! BURNING LOVE Eau de Toilette | 50ml, 100ml
Available online and in select stockists worldwide.
