Matiere Premiere is a French perfume company that aims to be ethical. It’s the only major perfumer to grow its own raw materials – organic roses and tuberoses in the Grasse region. Other ingredients are sourced responsibly, such as fair trade certified vanilla from Madagascar.

I was quite surprised to see that actually not much has been written about ethical perfumes. A search brings up a Reddit thread that sheds very little light on the topic. Ethical Consumer, which usually requires a subscription to access ratings, has an open-access guide to ethical perfumes. Most of the perfumes currently in fashion (Jo Malone, Tom Ford, Gucci, etc.) receive very low ratings (20/100) and the recommended brands are very limited – one has closed down, one (Neal’s Yard) only produces one perfume (and it’s frankincense-based), leaving one small Scottish producer called Flaya.

I’ve actually spent most of my scientific career working on terpenes, which are the primary components of most perfumes (they have many other uses too). I love essential oils, which are essentially concentrates of terpenes and other volatile compounds, isolated from various plant sources, from anise to ylang ylang. And yet I’ve never bought perfume of any kind. I always found them to be a bit overwhelming. That all changed when I bought a Discovery Set of Matiere Premiere’s perfumes in Ireland last month.

For this post, I’m going to share the review of Matiere Premiere that I’ve posted online (Yelp, Google Maps, and TripAdvisor). Technically, it’s a review of the perfumery where I bought the Matiere Premiere discovery set – a little store called the Parfumarija, located in the center of Dublin. But the ethical evaluation portion of the review applies entirely to Matiere Premiere.

The reason I’m sharing my online review is not because I’m lazy – OK, not entirely because I’m lazy. I do actually have a lot on my plate and many posts planned.

One of my next posts will be on AI, and speaking of which, here’s a quote from Matiere Premiere founder, Aurélien Guichard, on that topic:

To me, artificial intelligence is the opposite of luxury because it makes creation predictable – it’s losing the emotion of the creative imprint. A beautiful creation is working on and with the raw material, with human sensitivity. – Aurélien Guichard, interview with Glass Magazine.

So I’m sharing my review because the goal of this here Green Stars Project is to encourage y’all to include an ethical rating when you review a product or business online. After all these years of trying, I still believe that a system of user-generated (i.e., crowdsourced) ratings is one of the best ways to address corporate misbehavior. One of the many reasons why we need crowd-sourced ethical ratings is that they allow us to quickly spread the word on emerging ethical products, such as Matiere Premiere. So, anyway, I figure that sharing my review (with a few headings and minor edits thrown in) might encourage people to write their own (let me know if you do!).

Review of Parfumarija, Dublin

Visiting Ireland last month, I was on a mission to find a particular perfume for a friend. I wandered into Clerys department store, to ask if they stocked the brand (Penhaligon’s) and a helpful lady directed me to Parfumarija, saying that if anyone in Dublin had it, it would be them. Feeling like Harry Potter buying his first wand, I followed her directions to Diagon Alley Clarendon Street. The Parfumarija is a small shop tucked behind the Westbury Hotel. The store’s pretty facade and location made me wonder if I belonged here, with my backpack and hoodie, but the whimsical fly agaric mushroom display in the window invited me to take a chance and enter.

The lady in the store was totally helpful, telling me that they didn’t stock Penhaligon’s but, after I explained that I was after a “discovery set” (look at me, learning the parlance), she said that they had one from a good French perfume maker called Matiere Premiere. Being a cautious wizard and knowing nothing about perfume, I said I’d look into it and perhaps return. I should explain that I’ve had the Miley Cyrus song I can buy myself flowers running through my head all year and, in the end, I decided to take this bold step (after researching Matiere Premiere online, of course!).

When I returned to buy the Matiere Premiere discovery set (€50 for a box of 10 x 1.5 mL samples, covering almost the entire Matiere Premiere range) the lady gave me two samples to go along with it. This was very generous of her as two samples would cost around €10, so it was like getting a 20% discount. Thank you, Parfumarija and nice lady for introducing me to a world of high-quality perfumes! I was glad, in the end, that you didn’t stock Penhaligon’s 😀

Normally I give each business that I review a Green Stars for social and environmental impact but in this case, I’m going to focus on the product that I bought. After all, the majority of the impact of this little store is due to the products that they sell. (I should mention that one of the free samples that I got was from another French perfume maker called Etat Libre D’Orange. Like Matiere Premiere, the entire Etat Libre D’Orange range is vegan and cruelty-free.)

Ethical rating for Matiere Premiere perfume

I’m giving Matiere Premiere 5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on the following:

• Matiere Premiere’s founder Aurélien Guichard is the only major perfumer to grow his own ingredients (Rose Centifolia and Tuberoses). Matiere Premiere means “raw material” and a key company ethos is the ethical sourcing of raw materials.
• In 2016, Guichard founded an organic farm (Ecocert) in the Grasse region of France, a perfume hub that was recognized in 2018 as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
• The perfumes are vegan and cruelty-free (and also phthalate-free).
• Matiere Premiere perfumes contain between 85% and 92% natural ingredients. The main ingredient and the country that it’s sourced from, is named for each perfume.
• Synthetic ingredients are used judiciously as they can be great substitutes for ingredients that may negatively impact nature/wildlife.
• Guichard says, “as a producer of perfume flowers myself, I tend to prioritize partners who share similar ethical, fair trade and environmentally-friendly principles.”
• For example, for the most recent Vanilla Powder fragrance, Matiere Premiere “uses a vanilla absolute from Madagascar issued from a Fair for Life agricultural program, which protects local know-how and minimizes any negative impact on the environment.” This is particularly important as Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in Africa.
• Perfume bottles and the discovery set use a fairly minimal quantity of packaging.

Please join the Green Stars Project movement by including an ethical rating with your own reviews!