Best Matiere Premiere Perfumes in the UAE
Article Summary: The best Matiere Premiere perfumes in the UAE are Crystal Saffron, Falcon Leather and Vanilla Powder, three eaux de parfum built the way the whole house is built: one natural raw material used in overdose, composed by Aurelien Guichard, a seventh-generation Grasse perfumer who grows his own roses and tuberose on an organic farm outside the town. The house is seven years old, backed since 2024 by a minority stake from Kering Beaute, and its eaux de parfum cost AED 810 for 50 ml at Ounass and Bloomingdale's. MOJ interprets all three from AED 43.
- Matiere Premiere launched in October 2019 in Paris; Aurelien Guichard composes every fragrance and is also a senior perfumer at Takasago.
- Each fragrance stars one natural material: Greek saffron from Kozani in Crystal Saffron (2022), Finnish birch tar in Falcon Leather (2019), Madagascar vanilla absolute in Vanilla Powder (2023).
- The house states its fragrances are 85 to 92 percent natural-origin ingredients; it publishes no percentage for the star material itself.
- Every eau de parfum in the line is AED 810 for 50 ml and AED 1,162 for 100 ml in the UAE; the extraits are AED 1,162 and 1,672.
- MOJ's Saffron Crystal and Falcon Leather are available in every size from AED 48; Vanilla Poudree is available in 30 ml at AED 43.
| Original | Year | UAE price | MOJ version | From (AED) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal Saffron | 2022 | AED 810 / 50 ml | Saffron Crystal | 54 |
| Falcon Leather | 2019 | AED 810 / 50 ml | Falcon Leather | 48 |
| Vanilla Powder | 2023 | AED 810 / 50 ml | Vanilla Poudree | 43 |
Who makes Matiere Premiere perfume
One man, and he grows some of it. Aurelien Guichard was born in Grasse into a family that has made perfume for seven generations; his father, Jean Guichard, composed Calvin Klein's Obsession, and his grandparents grew rose and jasmine for the town's distilleries. He trained at the Givaudan perfumery school, spent about fourteen years at Givaudan and is now a senior perfumer at Takasago, with Gucci Guilty and Versace Eros among his credits. In 2016 he bought land outside Grasse and planted an organic farm, rose centifolia and tuberose, with the harvest extracted by Robertet, and in October 2019 he launched Matiere Premiere in Paris with two partners, the name meaning raw material. The idea is in the name: every fragrance stars one natural material in overdose, with a short formula around it, and the house says its fragrances are 85 to 92 percent natural-origin ingredients. In June 2024 Kering Beaute, the group behind Creed, took a minority stake; the founders kept the majority, and the first own-brand flagship opened on the rue Saint-Honore in June 2025.
That matters for the reader in two ways. Guichard composes everything, so the three below share one hand, which is rare; and the pricing is flat across the line, AED 810 for every 50 ml eau de parfum, so the choice is purely about which material you want on your skin. MOJ makes readings of three of them in our designer inspired perfumes collection. The usual rules apply: every fact is stated where two or more independent sources agree, prices are from Ounass and Bloomingdale's as listed this week, and no reading of ours is presented as the original.
Where to try the originals in the UAE
There is no Matiere Premiere boutique in the UAE; the house's own stores are in Paris and Saint-Tropez, and it has named the Middle East a priority for future ones without announcing any. The line is carried by Bloomingdale's, whose Dubai Mall store is its home in the country, and by Ounass online, both at the same prices; Faces does not stock it. Bloomingdale's also carries a Middle East exclusive, Cherry Amber, at AED 1,213 for 100 ml, which MOJ does not make.
The three, with the MOJ versions
1. Crystal Saffron, read by Saffron Crystal
The house's saffron, and the first time Guichard used the natural material rather than a synthetic: saffron oil from Kozani in northern Greece, extracted by Robertet, set over a clean musk, Ambroxan and Somali frankincense. Crystal Saffron launched in 2022 as an eau de parfum, and Guichard's own description is a cool, urban saffron, crisp rather than the warm, spicy saffron the Gulf is used to, which is exactly why it reads as new here. Ounass and Bloomingdale's list the 50 ml at AED 810 and the 100 ml at AED 1,162; an extrait followed in 2024 with Somali myrrh added, at AED 1,162 for 50 ml.
Our Saffron Crystal keeps the order: musk first, soft and clean, then saffron as a radiant dry spice, then Ambroxan and incense in a smoky, mineral base. It is our only Matiere Premiere reading sold in 200 ml, and all four sizes are available from AED 54. Evenings and occasions from autumn onward, and the one to choose if every other saffron you own smells like a souk; its wider family is in our guide to the best saffron perfumes.
- Top: musk
- Heart: saffron
- Base: ambroxan, incense
2. Falcon Leather
The leather, and the one with the Gulf in its name. Falcon Leather was in the first line of 2019, an eau de parfum built on birch tar oil from Finland, the material that gives Russian leather its smoke, over saffron, labdanum from Andalusia and benzoin, and the house says it was inspired by a falconer's glove, the sleek side and the suede side of leather at once. It spent its first year as a Harrods exclusive before the wider release. Ounass lists the 50 ml at AED 810 and the 100 ml at AED 1,162; the 2024 extrait adds oud and costs AED 1,162 for 50 ml.
Our Falcon Leather opens on saffron and labdanum, puts the birch tar in the heart as a dark, smoky leather and settles on oud and benzoin, in all three sizes from AED 48. Office and everyday wear from autumn into winter, for a man who wants a calm, steady leather rather than a loud one; the rest of the leather school is in our guide to the best leather perfumes.
- Top: saffron, labdanum
- Heart: birch tar
- Base: oud, benzoin
3. Vanilla Powder, read by Vanilla Poudree
The newest of the three and the one Bloomingdale's tags as its top seller for the house. Vanilla Powder launched in October 2023, an eau de parfum built on vanilla absolute from the volcanic north-east of Madagascar, Fair for Life certified and cured for eighteen months, then set against coconut powder, heliotrope, palo santo from Ecuador and white musks. Guichard's line for it is an overdose of dark vanilla against an explosion of modern white powders, and the house sells it as gender-neutral. The 50 ml is AED 810 and the 100 ml AED 1,162 at both UAE retailers; an extrait came in 2025.
Our Vanilla Poudree opens on coconut powder and heliotrope, fills the heart with Madagascar vanilla and melts into vanilla absolute, musk, palo santo and lactones. The 30 ml is available at the moment at AED 43; the 50 and 100 ml are not. Everyday wear and date nights in the cooler months, for anyone who likes vanilla soft and powdery rather than sugary; its cousins are in our guide to the best vanilla perfumes.
- Top: coconut powder, heliotrope
- Heart: Madagascar vanilla
- Base: vanilla absolute, white musk, palo santo, coconut, lactones
The rest of the line, and which to buy first
The house has grown to about fifteen fragrances. The 2019 launch brought Parisian Musc, Encens Suave, Santal Austral, Neroli Oranger, Cologne Cedrat and Bois d'Ebene alongside Falcon Leather; Radical Rose, built on the farm's own rose centifolia, followed in 2020 and won the Fragrance Foundation's Perfume Extraordinaire award in 2021; French Flower, a tuberose made by enfleurage, came in 2022; and the extraits of five fragrances arrived in 2024, with Metal Lavender, built on lavandin from Grasse, the newest eau de parfum in 2026. MOJ reads none of those yet, and we would rather say so than card a product that does not exist.
Of the three we do make: Saffron Crystal if you want the house's signature idea, a familiar Gulf material made strange and cool; Falcon Leather if you want the darkest and most masculine of the three; Vanilla Poudree if you want comfort. The originals are AED 810 a bottle and the readings AED 43 to 54 for 30 ml, which is the price of finding out whether an overdose of one material is your kind of perfume before paying for Guichard's. All three sit with the rest of the unisex perfumes collection, and how a reading is built, and what it does and does not promise, is set out in our explainer on what inspired perfumes are.
