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Showing posts from February, 2010

The Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute Basic Course February 2010 is full.

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  Ah, I'm sentimental for the image I used on the old website. It was easy to visualize the international body of students gazing at this ;-) I forgot to announce that the class was full a few weeks ago, that we had reached the class limit on the number of students  and two additional students actually got in the door after that ;-) Very interesting students, too - a medical doctor from Germany and a former Marine now working in Kuwait. It's going to be a very exciting, fast-paced course, and everyone is gearing up for the professional experience of sharing and learning the wonders of natural perfumery. In this economy, I was wondering if the class would fill up. However, as one student wrote: "I took the time to research what instructors had recognition from bloggers and great reviews for their perfumes, and your reviews and awards stood out above the rest." That made me blush, but on reflection, she's right. Why study with somebody who hasn't made perfumes

Sending Love and Thanks to the Teachers, the Crones, the Wizards, the Mentors of Perfumery

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 A beautiful fanciful image of a tree with branches that form a heart,  rising up from deep roots. I was speaking with one of the wise women of perfumery the other day and she bemoaned the fact that today's crop of students, followers, enthusiasts -- whatever the term may be -- were so easily shedding any bit of acknowledgment of those who came before and helped them on the perfumed path.  I reminded her that this is not a current problem, because perfumery for centuries has been fraught with jealousy, corruption and all sorts of chicanery. So odd to remember my studies in university that the spice trade of old, herbalism and many other scented or healing arts are the same way. Remembering back to 1976, when I discovered William I. Kaufman's book Perfumery and the lush photos and history of perfumery and the -gasp!- essays by Edmund Roudnitska and Jean Carles, I can only smile at the great, fantastic strides that have occurred in this world, where artisan perfumery now can

Liability Insurance for the Bath and Beauty Microbusiness Community

I am posting this ad for Stratus Insurance, letting everyone know about the great deal they offer to the bath and beauty microbusinesses.  I was in negotiations with them for both the Guild and the 1800+ member Yahoo! natural perfumery group and the natural perfumery community at large.   They're offering great rates to the Natural Perfumers Guild, and some folks might want to join to save over non-Guild rates ;-) Don't forget we have a 20% off rate for Guild memberships until 11:59 PM February 14th. http://naturalperfumers.com/payment20.htm BTW, if you have a business that is not 100% natural perfumery, you can still join in the Stratus deal. I did negotiate on behalf of the NP community, but I realize many here may use fragrance oils or aromachemicals. You can still get this insurance. Just make sure you use this page to apply: http://www.stratusins.info/perfumers_app.php At the bottom of the page, if you're not a member of the Guild, check off if you are a membe

The Perfumers Neroli Sussed Out

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  So What Variety of Orange Tree Gives us the Prized and Loved Neroli? The short answer is - nobody knows for sure, but it's pretty certain that it isn't soley the often named variety Citrus aurantium var. amara. I started this quest to find out what variety in my last blog post. I was trying to figure out why Citrus aurantium var. Bouquet des Fleurs wasn't named, since that was the variety I studied at one of the top citrus schools in the world. Turns out it's probably either/neither/a mix/or a bunch of others. I got feedback on a Yahoo group, and called UCR and spoke with one of the professors there. Neither source wanted to be quoted, since they're giving their opinion, and cannot point me to a source that will quote the facts. Due to their experience in the field, actually having visited neroli groves in several countries, I do accept their statements. Citrus hybridizes readily and oftentimes there are gaps in the groves due to a tree dying for a number of r