Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute - Basic Natural Perfumery Course

-
Is 2012 the year you will take the big step and enroll in natural perfumery studies?  Since 2005, I have witnessed the phenomenal growth in the number of natural perfumers and the integration of them into mainstream perfumery.  Many reviewers now say that they will judge a perfume on its merits, not whether it's composed of all-natural ingredients or contains synths.  This is a huge step for us natural perfumers, because in 2005, the opposite was true.  Natural perfumes have come a long way in being accepted on one major criteria: they smell great.
I began teaching basic perfumery in 2007, because members of the natural perfumery group I host on yahoo demanded it of me.  It was good they did, because I had not shared 30 years of accumulated knowledge since I started studying the art.  
I had started a natural perfumery line in 1991, Anya's Tropical Essences, and in 2006, I launched Anya's Garden Perfumes. The perfumes were lauded for sophistication and professionalism, when many natural perfumes were dismissed as "hippie headshop" poorly-made perfumes.  You can read reviews going back to 2006 here.  I haven't updated the reviews section since 2009 or so, except for awards my perfumes have garnered, because, frankly, there are just so many!  This is not bragging, it's just a statement of fact. Besides running the Natural Perfumers Guild, my perfumerie, the 2200+ member yahoo group and being an always-present instructor for my students, I just haven't had the time.   A surfeit or riches, to be sure.
It's been a long time since I've blogged about my course, and this year is a turning point.  So many have expressed such regard for my basic course, I put off the Intermediate level course.  Many of the certified perfumers have booked time with me for individual lessons at the Intermediate level, and have progressed beautifully in their perfumery skills.
My course has been called the most dynamic, comprehensive perfume study course available online (and also for distance learning.)  I will be blogging more often about various aspects of the course as I refine and redefine the next step, the Intermediate level.  Eventually, I hope to have most of the information on my course catalogued here for perusal by the prospective student.
This is a portion of the table of contents for Module Two from my Basic Natural Perfumery Course. This is the supplemental portion of the module, meant to give the student a good foundation in topics associated with the art.
The breadth and depth of this information helps the student in many ways, from talking to other perfumers to knowing the sources of the natural aromatics they're studying and all of the issues and opportunities around them.

2.1: Sources of Aromatics
Natural Sources of Aromatics
Botanical
Animal
Soil
Sourcing and Purchasing Aromatics
Aromatics Sold by Weight or Volume
Methods of Aromatics Production
Wildcrafted
Organic
Organic Certification
Conventional
Constraints on Sourcing Aromatics
Threatened or Endangered Crops
Sustainability

http://perfumeclasses.com/1year.htm
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boxgasm - for perfumers, aromatherapists, bath and body manufacturers, chandlers. What the heck is a boxgasm? Well, read below and you may have one.

-
Image
Project Boxgasm Announcement: If you are an artisan who makes perfume, bath & body products, aromatherapy products, candles - you can now make your own custom boxes! The Natural Perfumers Guild wishes to share this discovery with everyone, so please share the link to this blog with other groups, forums and chat places you may frequent.  The more the merrier - let's upgrade our products to the next level, with lovely, custom boxes!  I am the President of the Guild, and I like to roam social media sites and check out, and "like" the various projects and announcements of the Guild members.  Little did I dream when I visited a Facebook page of one of our members, a page that only had 21 followers, since it's new, that I'd discover something that can help all artisan small business owners. But there it was, an iconic image out of South Africa - custom perfume boxes! When I called some members of the Natural Perfumers Guild and told them about the discovery th
Read more

Ask the Perfumer Sunday Oct 21, 2012

-
Image
Ask the Perfumer - and an Ambergris hypothesis Guild member Lisa Coburn posted a link on Facebook that took me to a video on how cephalopods--squid, cuttlefish and octopus, are masters of disguise.  As I watched it, I made a perfume connection, straight to the elusive, mysterious, rare and valued ambergris, a gorgeous material used in perfumery. Photo of the famed 'Yeti' chunk of ambergris. Ambergris is produced by the stomach/intestinal secretions of the sperm whale to protect its insides from the sharp beaks of the squid and cuttlefish, two main items in its diet.  The whale evacuates the chunk of ambergris when it becomes large enough to be an irritant on its own, albeit a softer, rounder irritant compared to the beak and cartilage of the squid or cuttlefish.  As a perfumer, I often have to gently remind excitable newbies ;-)  that the scent of the ambergris is secondary to its major contribution to a perfume, which is its ability to 'marry' and allo
Read more

Natural Isolates and the Natural Perfumer - Being the Captain of Your Own Fragrant Ship

-
Image
Get a cup of coffee or tea - this is a long blog post, with lots of twists and turns and surprises - good surprises!  Please see the blog post yesterday on the Guild member vote on the definition of natural isolates if you have not already read it. Backstory Do you ever wonder why I never taught a course in natural isolates or began to sell them on my website? After all, I was the pioneer natural perfumer who first used them in my MoonDance and StarFlower perfumes, both best sellers and award winners. Something told me that I needed to do a lot more research because a wrong move, the wrong isolate sold, could ruin the creations of lots of perfumes made by my (natural perfumer) customers. I have a duty as a trusted authority in natural perfumery, a person who heads the Natural Perfumers Guild, and who started a Yahoo discussion group on natural perfumeryin 2002, to be responsible and proceed slowly. Currently there are no regulations that address natural isolates, or even
Read more