MATIERE PREMIERE
VANILLA POWDER
2023
PERFUMER
Aurelien Guichard
coconut powder
palo santo
vanilla absolute
white musk
‘Vanilla is a raw material I’ve always wanted to include in the Matiere Premiere collection. This fragrance is a refined vanilla. Its dark richness meets an explosion of white modern powders.’ – Aurelien Guichard
‘INITIAL IDEA: an explosion of white modern powders on a dark vanilla bean. MAIN INGREDIENT: Vanilla Absolute Madagascar, Fair for Life agriculture programme. CREATIVE APPROACH: the addictive character of vanilla is reinforced by coconut powder. Bright palo santo wood brings structure and verticality. White musk envelops the vanilla and powders for a contemporary, luminous perfume. ‘ – Matiere Premiere
A vanilla or any gourmand Matiere Premiere was definitely something that I was excited to get my nose on. Here’s my first impression after almost 8 hours of wearing it (I hope to revisit in the near future and may revise my thoughts if I do so).
This is a safe, enjoyable enough fragrance, but to get it out of the way: I was left wanting something very different and… more. This review should be seen in light of my expectations and wishes and I want to clarify up front that it’s a pretty nice scent that I’d gladly wear, but I was quite disappointed nonetheless.
Straight away, Vanilla Powder didn’t feel like it would be a homerun for me. Starting out with quite a bit of sweetness, but I was expecting a different (and in my opinion better) smelling type of vanilla scent from this brand. For me, this is a (luckily better) take on the type of vanilla scent that you’d find in a Jean-Paul Gaultier. Picture Le Male or Le Beau (especially with the coconut) as a full-on vanilla scent, with all the aromatics stripped away and elevate it… a notch? I don’t know if this reference makes any sense to you readers, but if Kayali made a men’s vanilla fragrance (based on their last couple of releases), I would expect something along the lines of Vanilla Powder.
I’m not sure what causes it, because when I really hone in on the vanilla and smell my skin up close, there is a nicer core there. Yet it’s surrounded by a scent that I find hard to describe other than ‘popular designer/JPG sweetness’. It’s not as aromatic and at the same time not as cloying. As mentioned, I do much prefer the Matiere Premiere take.
Further in the wear, the vanillic essence builds and I do get a rather strong coconutty vibe from it, with a lot of musk. To be honest, I feel the same ‘popular designer’ vibe applies to the textures here. The opening is powdery, but it’s not defined, not tactile. It’s dry and more on the airy side with the muskiness later on, but to me it all feels a bit flat and meshed together into a big sweet musky, and later also woody, accord. It’s soft and easy on the nose, but this lacks the clarity of ingredients that I think Aurelien Guichard has done much better before in the Matiere Premiere line.
The general (non)consensus so far seems to be all over the place in regards to how much sweetness is perceived. For me, it even borders on cloying at some points. At the same time there are multiple reviews out from people that felt that there was not enough or even any vanilla in it. I disagree with that, but I get it. For me it comes down to this being a different kind of sweetness than I’d like for a gourmand. In particular in the opening, Vanilla Powder smells almost as much as a Sephora’s men’s section to me than something I’d like to eat. Do give it some time; I get most of the actual vanillic scent in the mid of the wear, which I prefer over the opening and later hours.
While I do think this is a pleasant scent as someone who likes vanilla and coconut usually, and I do think it’s an upgraded version of that ‘designer styling’, I don’t think Vanilla Powder will make any ‘vanilla-recommendation’ lists of mine any time soon. It falls in the category of new sweet designer-ish leaning niche releases alongside BDK Vanilla Leather & Parfums de Marly Althair. I’d wear all 3, but none of them lived up to what I hoped for and to my own surprise, I don’t think that Vanilla Powder would be my first pick among those either based on my first wearing.