French Fragrance Brand Maison Matine Expands US Presence, Eyes $10M In 2024 Retail Sales

While colleagues at Paris design agency Centdegré, Marie Kellou and Arthur Ponroy noticed a trend. Nearly all of the high-end fragrance brands they worked with used seduction, power or success as themes of their marketing campaigns. In 2019, Kellou and Poroy launched Maison Matine, a fragrance brand of their own, to tell an entirely different story.

“Maison Matine has a unique brand positioning,” says Kellou. “It doesn’t refer to an act of seduction, power or success as most perfume brands in their marketing approach. More simply, Maison Matine is about creativity, commitment and generosity. It also draws inspiration from our experiences and feelings in our daily lives.”

Kellou and Ponroy, who have longstanding fragrance ties (she grew up in Grasse, the French epicenter of fragrance, and his father, Thibault Ponroy, was previously president of Guerlain), poured about $100,000 into developing self-funded Maison Matine. Some five years after its launch, the brand surpassed $6 million in retail sales. Now, it’s targeting $10 million in retail sales for the year.

Maison Matine’s Original Collection with six perfumes was inspired by the emotions the pandemic gave rise to for Kellou and Ponroy. It includes Avant L’Orage, which has pink pepper, jasmine, vanilla and sandalwood notes, and Espirit de Contradiction, which has tangerine, black pepper, coriander, ginger, ylang-ylang and sage notes.

Maison Matine’s Refresh Collection has three scents inspired by relief following the pandemic, and its Voyager Collection has two perfumes inspired by the co-founders’ zest for exploration. The perfumes are priced at $85 for 50-ml. sizes and $35 for 15-ml. sizes. The brand sells candles, soaps and hand creams along with perfumes.

Maison Matine’s products are made in France from natural ingredients. It uses organic wheat alcohol in its perfumes and olive and cocoa oil in its soaps. The brand’s eco-conscious packaging contains aluminum tubes, concrete candleholders and recyclable bottle caps constructed from cork and synthetic leather. It features with bright, painterly graphics done by graphic artists and illustrators Perrine Honore, Mathilde Purseigle, Nakamura Kyoko and Charline Dajean.

“Maison Matine is about creativity, commitment and generosity.”

Initially, the brand had a direct-to-consumer distribution model, and it partnered with Blissim, a monthly subscription beauty box company, to provide samples for customers to test its products at home at the height of the pandemic. “Maison Matine was an instant success in this depressing time,” says Kellou. “We were able to attract our first customers by offering a positive and playful product.”

Today, Maison Matine has a presence in physical stores. Among its French retail and e-tail partners are concept store Fleux, department store Le Printemps, perfumery Jovoy Paris, and online perfumery Sens Unique. In the United Kingdom, the brand is stocked at Harvey Nichols and Liberty London. In Japan, it’s at the Nose Shop.

In 2022, Maison Matine expanded to the United States due to interest from Anthropologie. The retailer rolled it out to 150 doors. In 2023, Maison Matine teamed up with brand management company About-Beauty to increase its U.S. retail footprint, particularly at independent lifestyle and concept stores. The brand is now sold at 178 U.S. specialty stores and four Urban Outfitters stores. It’s in the process of entering Free People.

Kellou attributes Maison Matine’s success to four key factors: playful packaging, appealing and sophisticated scents, sustainable business practices and affordable pricing. She says, “We have proven that the brand resonates in the marketplace and has potential for further growth.”

Next, Maison Matine plans to extend its distribution to Canada and pursue more regional accounts in the States. In addition to escalating its retail reach, the brand will introduce new products. It expects to soon build its home and lifestyle collection with what Kellou calls “ancillary products.” In 2025 or 2026, it’s slated to release a new collection of five perfumes.