I don’t see fragrance as something intellectual—all I hope for is that the perfumes I compose provoke emotions and give someone a deep feeling of satisfaction and uniqueness. Fragrances are a way of amplifying one’s sense of presence. That to me is the magic of perfume. It’s a way of communicating—choose your fragrance based on what you want to say.
— Perfumer Aurélien Guichard, quoted in Ways of Smelling with MATIERE PREMIERE at 032c.
According to Matiere Premiere, Guichard is the only perfumer in the world to cultivate his own ingredients, namely the Rose centifolia in its Radical Rose scent, and tuberose, the central raw material in its French Flower fragrance.
The brand has dedicated fields in the Grasse region, with the entire production exclusively for its use, and said that by prioritising sourcing from additional ethical producers for other ingredients, it can ensure an ultra-high olfactive quality and level of sustainability in its practices.
— Read more in Matiere Premiere’s ambitions to open 20 new stores following Kering Beauté investment at Cosmetics Design Europe, and see also Kering Beauté Takes Minority Stake In Niche Fragrance Brand Matière Première at BeautyMatter.
Matière Première, the French niche house of perfumer Aurélien Guichard, will launch Vanilla Powder, a new fragrance, in October…
And having been raised in the south of France where perfumery is one of the big industries, there’s a cultural know-how that the locals possess. It also doesn’t hurt to have the land, which the Guichard family does. “After 15 years of work, I said, ‘What if I go back to the basics? What if, on top of creating fragrances, what if I grow some ingredients?’” The farm-to-fragrance pipeline is unique for a perfumer, and Guichard is the only master perfumer to grow his own ingredients. Most fragrance brands work in tandem with other farmers and plantations for their resources, for good reason: it’s just not very economical to garden. “You don’t make any money when you grow flowers. It’s very time-consuming, so you really need to have a dedication for it.”
— Perfumer Aurélien Guichard, quoted in Meet Matiere Premiere, the French Farm-to-Fragrance Brand That’s Finally Arrived Stateside at Vogue via Yahoo.