Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

  Soon after I started blogging in 2006, I began to write of the incredibly restrictive and unreasonable "guidelines" of the International Fragrance Association, and the resultant laws from the European Union that effectively killed perfumery.  True, they also ranked some synthetics as "dangerous" (brain disruptions), but the list of naturals, which had been used for centuries without major problems, was overwhelming.  I rarely bother to blog about these issues anymore.  I discovered I was the ONLY perfumer doing so at the time, and it cast a bit of a bitter pall over my blog.  I'd rather be blogging about the beauty and luxury of naturals, so here I am. I passed the ball on to other bloggers! Nine bloggers will be participating this week, and you can find their links at the end of this post. They're all insightful, intelligent and passionate about perfumery.  Their readership far outstrips mine, and the Outlaw Perfume project is a great way for them to

I was noodling around the Internet this morning and found this: "Until recently, the EU banned the sale of ugly carrots with knobby protrusions, cucumbers that were grossly curved, and equally unaesthetic specimens of 24 other fruits and vegetables. "It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' shape," said the EU's commissioner for agriculture." I've often related to disbelieving friends and colleagues that the EU is so out of hand with their Draconian, bad-science, big brother is watching you (and forcing you out of business) mentality that they regulated the curve in bananas. Too much curve, can't be sold in the EU. My particular peeve with them is the bad science and horrid fees they impose on perfumers both artisanal and corporate alike. They've been partly to blame for the reformulation of many perfume classics, deeming oakmoss and orange oil alike too dangerous for us poor silly une

STOP THE FDA GLOBALIZATION ACT OF 2008 Time for a break from blogging again. Time to network more with the people around the globe who are aghast at the bad science, bad attitude and outright bias that International Fragrance Association (IFRA) and also the European Union (EU) are exhibiting towards natural perfume materials. Just when natural products are enjoying a 20% annual rise in sales, and traditional products only 3-4% rise, they want to severely limit our access too these gorgeous, lovely natural aromatics. Yes, perhaps some essential oils or absolutes, if used in an excessive amount *may* cause a rash in in some people; wine causes allergies, too, but we don't see the EU limiting it, or banning it. My time has been eaten up by the learning curve necessary to work on this. On Sunday I had to take a few hours to cobble together a printout for an esteemed ethnobotanist and natural perfumer because he is without a computer, and I couldn't just send him links to websites.