MATIÈRE PREMIERE BLACK CURRANT Review

MATIÈRE PREMIERE BLACK CURRANT extrait de parfum by Oli

 MATIÈRE PREMIERE’s new perfume BLACK CURRANT is hard to ignore. Both because a) it’s served as an extrait so it delivers incredible projection and b) because it so affably manages to twist the polite connotations of blackcurrant into something much darker. Built around a French blackcurrant absolute, sourced in Burgundy, it’s a Harrods exclusive that unites the ingredient’s characteristic staunch, cassis greenery with a more pronounced, fruity berry note and a potent Assam oud sourced from Bangladesh.

Aurélien Guichard photo courtesy of the brand. Blackcurrant via Unsplash.

“This blackcurrant absolute gives an immediate savoury pleasure,” offers perfumer (and brand founder) Aurélien Guichard over email, “but it also has darker and almost ambery facets with remarkable persistence.”

The first spray of MATIÈRE PREMIERE BLACK CURRANT is absolutely wanton and addictive: an apple sharp, fruitate-full, explosion of juicy blackcurrant that soon becomes grounded in a powerful blend of Indonesian patchouli, leather and the aforementioned oud – which has been purposely selected to emphasise the blackcurrant absolute’s facets that Guichard alludes to. It feels like the combination has been properly pondered, choosing these two core ingredients that can complement each other and create something vivid and new.

Courtesy of Harrods

It works wonderfully; the heart of the currant’s nuance somehow continues on, subtly perched behind the full-throated combination of dry leather and oud, right till the very end. Guichard noted that he wanted a perfume where that “purple vibrancy of cassis gradually darkens into leather, woods and musks” and he’s certainly achieved that, creating a perfume that is personified by its moreish fruity tones as much as it is the scope and complexity of the leather and oud.

MATIÈRE PREMIERE BLACK CURRANT extrait de parfum by Oli

If I’ve made it sound simple – as if MATIÈRE PREMIERE  BLACK CURRANT is just a splash of blackcurrant here and oud there – it’s not. Working with high impact materials such as these takes real balance and as much patience as it does instinct. Guichard creates shades and nuance in his lower, dark layers, bridging the fruit to the oud with a beam of rose oxide, a coarse smelling leather and a patchouli that, when combined, offers a grounding that stays sturdy whilst the oud does what all natural ouds do: pull the nose in ten different ways at once with its simultaneous dry, hay-like/tobacco nuances, smoky depths and animalic purr.

Notes: Black Currant Absolute, Patchouli Oil Indonesia, Rose Oxide, Leather Accord, Oud Assam Oil Bangladesh

Disclaimer: a bottle of BLACK CURRANT was provided by the brand for review.

MATIÈRE PREMIERE BLACK CURRANT is currently exclusive to Harrods.

 – Oli Marlow, Senior Editor

Read Michelyn’s exclusive Interview  with Aurelien Guichard here

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