Aurélien Guichard did something no other perfumer does. He bought farmland and started growing his own flowers.
Guichard comes from a family of perfumers in Grasse, the town in the south of France that has been the centre of the fragrance trade for centuries. His father, Jean Guichard, is a perfumer too. Aurélien spent years composing scents for other houses, from Valentino to Kenzo, before he launched his own in 2019. The first release was Parisian Musc.
The farm is the part that sets the house apart. In 2016 Guichard took over family land in Grasse and began cultivating Rose Centifolia, tuberose and lavandin. He harvested his first roses three years later. He is, as far as anyone can show, the only working perfumer who grows the key ingredients he then distils and blends. Most houses buy their naturals from suppliers. He walks out to the field.
That shapes the style. Matière Première builds each scent around one raw material and lets it speak. Parisian Musc is clean white musk. Radical Rose, from 2020, is exactly what the name says. Vanilla Powder is soft, warm vanilla with almost nothing in the way. The formulas run high on naturals, the brand states between 85% and 92%, which is unusually high for modern designer perfume.
Here is the bit the marketing glides past. Growing your own rose is a real and rare thing, but it is not what you smell first. What you smell is the accord, the blend built around that hero note, and a good synthetic musk or vanilla does most of the lifting in any scent at this price. High natural content also does not guarantee longer wear. It is a choice about texture and character, not a longevity trick. The scents are lovely and they are simple on purpose, and they sit well past £180 a bottle.
You can get the same one-ingredient idea for a fraction of that. Our Vanilla Dust (our take on Matière Première Vanilla Powder) and Falcon & Leather (our take on Falcon Leather) are UK-made sprays at 35% concentration. See the full Matière Première collection or read the best Vanilla Powder dupe in the UK.
