MoonDance Perfume from Anya's Garden: a sexy slow dance

MoonDance Perfume Launched October 5, 2009 to celebrate Anya McCoy's birthday and the next "perfume as art reflecting life" phase of Anya's Garden Perfumes

Cool, sophisticated romantic love, as you slowly dance under the full moon, and a sweet and long-forgotten memory of eternity emerges from MoonDance. Sweet violet flowers, a touch of mint, sulty tuberose and sambac and the iconic accord of rose and apple-scented chamomile softly radiate over a woody, sultry base.

Top notes: American Violet Flower Isolate, Indian Water Mint

Middle notes: French Tuberose, Chinese Jasmine Sambac, French Rose de Mai, American Chamomile

Base notes: Carolina Ambergris, Haitian Sandalwood, Sustainable White Sandalwood, South African Hyrax

MoonDance is now my signature scent. I originally conceived this perfume at the end of 2007, and thought I'd release it in 2008, along with StarFlower. They're both homages to tuberose, that heady, swoon-inducing and sensual flower from Mexico. During the modifications of MoonDance I felt a need to go sweeter, softer and more lunar, if you will. Why not? The name evokes a very yin quality of surrender, and surrender to the soft, yielding call of the MoonDance I did.

The arrival of a glorious opoponax absolute created the perfect creamy, resiny base I wanted to cushion the perfume - along with an incredible white sandalwood I sourced from old wood reserves. And, in a moment of impetuous fun, I double-dosed the ambergris at the final blending! Sometimes the moon just takes over and you have to surrender to your impulses, yes?

I think that the inclusion of a touch of water mint at the opening was needed, even though I found that the heart was reaching up and creating the topnotes from heaven. If you're slow dancing in a garden, maybe there is a tiny bit of mint, wet and sprightly underfoot, and your step will gently release the scent, but you are already enveloped in the waft of the jasmine sambac, rose and tuberose. What's that? A hint of apple? The siren call of tuberose? How delightful! Your recognition of the floral dance of violet flowers makes the rapture complete.

Admission: I frequently lie in the garden at night here in tropical Miami, enjoying the sultry scents that sweep around in the evening air. I also harvest a lot of my night-blooming beauties then, and have for many years. Neighbors are used to seeing me out there at midnight, carefully harvesting the scented wonders of the dark.

MoonDance is my perfume that most closely resembles the fragrance of my back garden which is the more secluded place of private midnight reveries and dances. I will be wearing it every day this month in honor of my birthday, my perfumery and my desire to create art that reflects my life and gardens.

To celebrate the launch of Moondance, all perfume sample sets are $35 and individual perfume samples $5 during the month of October. No need to enter a code, just checkout. All full bottles of perfumes and botanicals are 10% off. Use the code moondance at checkout. I hope you will enjoy a slow dance in the moonlight, a MoonDance of beauty and nighttime pleasures.