What inspired you to create Tonka Kumaru?
Tonka Kumaru was born from my desire to explore the tonka bean, an absolutely fascinating raw material known for its olfactory richness and depth.
It’s also an ingredient that holds a very personal resonance for me. Its scent instantly brings back a very specific childhood memory: the smell of Cléopâtre glue, an iconic glue in France that countless children experienced at school, recognizable for its soft, slightly almonded fragrance. This gentle, familiar scent has always stayed with me.
With Tonka Kumaru, I wanted to take this intimate olfactory memory and transform it into a contemporary expression of sophisticated, adult gourmandise : elegant, textured, and layered. The goal was to preserve the emotional essence of that memory while framing it in a refined interpretation, true to Atelier Materi’s approach.
How did you choose the main ingredients for this fragrance?
The idea was to explore the tonka bean in all its richness, uncovering its many facets. The tonka bean is almost a fragrance on its own: an incredibly expressive material with woody, balsamic, vanilla, and almondy nuances, as well as hints of tobacco and hay.
Together with Céline Perdriel, the perfumer behind Tonka Kumaru, we built the composition around ingredients selected to dialogue with these facets and highlight them. Bitter almond, cardamom, roasted barley, hay, vanilla, and amber, each note accentuates a particular dimension of the tonka bean without ever overpowering it. This careful balance gradually reveals its complexity and depth.
Musks also play a key role in the composition. They add a soft, enveloping, almost tactile texture that extends the comforting sensation evoked by the tonka bean, contributing to the idea of a subtle, contemporary adult gourmandise. At the same time, they give the fragrance a skin-like, sensual, and elegant presence, a signature touch of Atelier Materi’s storytelling.
What role does tonka play in this fragrance, and why highlight it?
Tonka is the heart of Tonka Kumaru, the ingredient that gives the fragrance its structure and identity. More than a single note, it becomes the soul of the perfume, connecting all the other materials and creating a balance between gourmandise and elegance.
We highlighted it because it embodies the spirit of Atelier Materi: a singular, expressive element capable of evoking memories while remaining contemporary and sophisticated. Tonka is what gives the fragrance its presence and instantly recognizable signature.
How does Brittany, or your personal universe, reflect in Tonka Kumaru?
Brittany is deeply part of my personal universe and naturally shapes the identity of Atelier Materi. It’s a region of raw, authentic beauty, never ostentatious, where nature expresses itself with strength and simplicity. This connection to landscape, elements, and slow time influences how I conceive perfumes: creations that prioritize the precision of raw materials, the depth of sensations, and a discreet, sensitive, and sustainable form of luxury.
This combination of strength and softness, austerity and poetry, is at the core of my approach. It guides the choice of ingredients, the structure of the perfumes, and how each fragrance unfolds, present, sophisticated, without artifice.
You can feel this same signature in Tonka Kumaru. The inclusion of a hay note amplifies this dimension, evoking the raw, wild nature of Brittany, touched by wind and light. It also calls back to childhood memories, simple and essential sensations. Hay naturally interacts with tonka and musks to create a warm, enveloping presence, both raw and elegant, contemporary, and true to Atelier Materi’s spirit.
What sets Tonka Kumaru apart from your other creations?
Tonka Kumaru stands out for its more indulgent and gourmand character. It explores a rounder, warmer, and more enveloping facet of my olfactory signature while remaining faithful to the balance and precision of materials that define Atelier Materi.
Tonka bean gives it a particularly rich and sensory texture, amplified by bitter almond, roasted barley, vanilla, and musks, extending the sense of softness and depth. The result is a more generous sillage, yet it maintains discreet elegance and natural sophistication. With Tonka Kumaru, I wanted to create a perfume that feels comforting and contemporary, continuing our collection while opening a new expressive territory.
The tension between raw materials and delicate notes is a signature of the Maison. How is this duality expressed in Tonka Kumaru?
Contrast is at the heart of every Atelier Materi creation. In Tonka Kumaru, this duality appears on multiple levels. The soft, enveloping tonka bean interacts with drier, textured materials like hay and roasted barley, creating a balance between gourmandise and minerality, comfort and structure.
Musks extend this subtle tension: adding a warm, tactile presence while letting the fragrance breathe and enhancing its understated elegance. This interplay of softness and strength, roundness and texture, makes Tonka Kumaru both sensual and contemporary, surprising with its refined contrasts.
If Tonka Kumaru were a work of art?
If Tonka Kumaru were a design object, it would be a sculptural, pure white ceramic piece simple at first glance, but revealing hidden depth over time. Its matte, velvety surface would invite touch, each gesture uncovering subtle variations of light and texture, like a breath coming to life under the fingers. Like the perfume, it combines presence and delicacy, cocooning and sophistication, encouraging the observer to explore its nuances slowly, appreciating its richness and uniqueness.
Three words to describe Tonka Kumaru
Addictive, comforting, sensual.
