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Louis Vuitton

Matière Noire

Matière Noire is one of the seven perfumes with which Louis Vuitton returned to perfumery in September 2016, all signed by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. The house sets two dark woods, patchouli and agarwood, brightened by blackcurrant, against the whiteness of narcissus and jasmine. The critic Kafkaesque smelled mostly narcissus in it, and almost none of the announced oud.

Brand
Louis Vuitton
Launch year
2016
Perfumer
Gender
Women
Olfactory family
Oriental
Secondary family
Woody
Concentration
Eau de Parfum

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Matière Noire

Where to buy

Louis Vuitton launched a collection of seven eaux de parfum in September 2016: Rose des Vents, Matière Noire, Mille Feux, Apogée, Turbulences, Dans la Peau and Contre Moi. The house had not sold perfume for some seventy years, and it framed the collection as a journey through the emotions.

An in-house perfumer in Grasse

The collection is the work of Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, born in Grasse, who created Acqua di Giò, L’Eau d’Issey and Poême at Firmenich. He left Firmenich in 2012 to join LVMH and compose Louis Vuitton’s first perfumes.

The house set up its creative studio at Les Fontaines Parfumées, an estate in Grasse acquired to house its future perfumes. Four years passed between the perfumer’s arrival and the collection’s release.

A journey into darkness

For Matière Noire, Louis Vuitton speaks of exploring the universe as the traveler’s ultimate fantasy, and of a plunge into intangible depths, through the darkest and most precious woods.

The house promises a disruption that is “total, almost mystical,” in which narcissus and jasmine cross the darkness of the woods like a comet.

Olfactory pyramid

  1. Top notesThe first minutes
  2. Heart notesThe heart of the perfume
  3. Base notesWhat lingers

What critics say

At its release, Kafkaesque found a light, linear bouquet dominated by narcissus, where the announced oud barely shows, pleasant but unsurprising for its price.

Read what critics say

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The advertising

Léa Seydoux by Patrick Demarchelier

Léa Seydoux embodies the 2016 collection in a campaign photographed by Patrick Demarchelier at Lone Creek Falls, in South Africa.

Louis Vuitton entrusted the campaign for its perfumes to the actress Léa Seydoux, an ambassador for the house from 2016. The images carry the whole collection, not Matière Noire alone.

Patrick Demarchelier photographed the actress in South Africa, at Lone Creek Falls near Sabie according to WWD: in black and white in front of the waterfall, in color holding a pink flower. Marie-Amélie Sauvé handled the styling.

For the actress, Louis Vuitton is as much about travel as about dreams, a spirit made of adventure, discovery and emotion.

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