Pierre Noire is a 30% extrait de parfum from the Grasse house Marie Jeanne, mineral, woody and smoky, built around the idea of cold, dark volcanic rock with a lunar landscape behind it. A mineral accord sits at the center, pulled taut by Madagascar black pepper and nutmeg, with the tarry smoke of cade alongside. Ceylon tea and a rum extract bring light and a small gourmand edge to the heart, while cedar, Haitian vetiver and ambroxan give the base its depth. On skin it leaves a dry, woody, almost spectral trace, like stone worn down by erosion, time and silence. What keeps you going back to your wrist is the balance: the cade is dosed to the finest point, where one drop more would turn it into a cold cigarette, and instead it is what makes Pierre Noire so sensual, disappearing and coming back as if daring you to work out how it was done.
WHY IT'S SPECIAL
Pierre Noire makes a smoky, metallic perfume out of something that has no smell at all, and does it with restraint rather than bonfire. Marie Jeanne's founder grew up in the family behind Robertet, one of the great suppliers of natural raw materials in Grasse, so the house tends to name where its materials come from: Caribbean rum, Sri Lankan tea, French cade, American cedar, Haitian vetiver. Like the other extraits, it comes in a green lacquered wooden case designed to have a life after the bottle is empty.
NOTES
Top: black pepper (Madagascar), mineral accord, nutmeg
Heart: rum (Caribbean), Ceylon tea (Sri Lanka), cade (France)
Base: cedar (United States), vetiver (Haiti), ambroxan
DETAILS
Extrait de parfum, 30% concentration
100 ml / 3.4 fl oz
Olfactive family: mineral, woody, smoky
Presented in a green lacquered wooden case
Made in Grasse, France
INGREDIENTS
Alcohol Denat., Parfum (Fragrance), Tetramethyl Acetyloctahydronaphthalenes, Acetylcedrene, Juniperus Virginiana Oil, Pinene, Beta-Caryophyllene, Limonene, Rose Ketones, Terpineol, Isoeugenol, Alpha-Terpinene, Terpinolene, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Linalool, Eugenol, Tocopherol.
THE BRAND
Georges Maubert was born in Grasse and founded Marie Jeanne there in 2014. He belongs to the fifth generation of the family behind Robertet, which has worked in perfumery since 1850 as farmers, chemists, perfumers and sourcers. He composes with perfumers such as Sidonie Lancesseur, Alexis Dadier, Karine Vinchon, Serge de Oliveira and Michel Almairac. His approach is to simplify the formula until the raw material is what you smell, and the house traces those materials from planting to harvest. The green glass bottles are made in France, a nod to old laboratory flasks that protected their contents from light, and the boxes are wood, with no plastic.
