Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

I wanted to post this answer I gave to an Ask the Perfumer reader as a separate blog entry for several reasons. 1) The questions raised a lot of interest in blog visitors.  My stats show that many came back today for the answer, which I couldn't provide late last night as I was tired.  2) It's critically important for a student to elevate themselves from hobbyist and use the tools that truly reflect a professional level of expertise. http://PerfumeClasses.com Hi JC: Wow, your question must have resonated with a lot of readers, as the "hit" count reached an all-time high for the Sunday forum, and I see many have returned this morning to see my answer. Let's say you're working with aromatics that are thick, like labdanum, or a concrete. You're also working with aromatics with a thin, watery consistency, like blood orange or lavender. A lot of absolutes are thick, and also quite pricey. The first things my student learns to do is to dilut

Arabic distiller How detailed is the Basic Perfumery Course?  Very. How comprehensive is the Basic Perfumery Course? Very. http://PerfumeClasses.com One example comes from the well-illustrated section in Module 3 on the Production of Natural Aromatics.  As the head instructor, I believe that a student needs to have a working knowledge of basic information on how the aromatic makes it from the field to the bottle they buy, whether it's rose, vetiver or some new boutique oil. 3.1: The Production of Natural Aromatics                                                              Assaying Raw Materials                                                                                          How Cost is Determined: Crops, Labor, and Demand                                            3.2:  Extraction Methods and Products                                                                  Distillation                                                                                          

Further refinement of the understanding of Fragrance Families - from Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute Module 2 - Copyright All Rights Reserved At the beginning of each module in the textbook, the students of Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute's Basic Course  are given the objectives for the module.  I blogged a portion of the aromatic groups recently, and here I'm sharing a refinement of the fragrance family graphic in a way that places the fragrance families into the conventional scent pyramid.  In the textbook many more fragrance family iterations are explained, the above graphic is for summation purposes only. Module 2 Objectives At the completion of this module, you will be able to: §        Name the categories of aromatics sources, and the components of each category. §        Discuss the difference between organic, wildcrafted, conventional, and endangered sources of aromatics.  §        Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of what cons

If you have bits of essential oils and absolutes made from some of the flowers and fragrant leaves above - aglaia, roses, stocks, frangipanis, eucalyptus, carnations, chrysanthemums, citrus leaves - don't fret over bad mods, bits left in the bottom of the bottle - make Millefleurs! Here's a very helpful tip to the beginning student, and perhaps even experienced perfumers may find this useful.  Waste not, want not! Millefleurs - French, def: a thousand flowers. The definition from my Natural Perfumery Institute's textbook: Millefleurs – A Creative Use of Aromatic Odds and Ends Millefleurs is an industry term for the creative reuse of bits of unused or slightly degraded oils and dilutions, where any left over amounts of aromatics or discarded blends are poured into a bottle together for later use, rather than being thrown away.  This creates an impromptu, happenstance mélange that often smells quite nice.  It can be used as a room spray, put into a diffuser, used t

A busy Sunday is in store: tying up a zillion loose ends for the Love the Guild project, still thanking all the respondants on Facebook who replied with love and loyalty to the statement below, planting veggies, visiting mother and giving up on my mimosa enfleurage project, going for the tincture instead.  My blooming mimosa tree Acaci farnesiana I'll be here until 10 PM tonight EST to answer your perfumery questions.  Hope you have a great Sunday! ----------- Here's my FB post: May I ask a favor of you, and I rarely ask favors, so please bear with me. Would it be possible that you "share" and "like" when I post about the course I teach or the Guild? Why? Last year on this date, someone decided to try to harm my businesses, and a lot of behind the scenes maneuvers were done for months to try to make my businesses less competitive. I decided to wait it out, not take any action, and to take the high road. It took a lot for me to open

htttp://PerfumeClasses.com The Natural Perfumery Institute's textbook for the basic course in perfumery was edited so that students who are not native English speakers could easily follow the information and instructions presented.  The technical editor I hired previously worked for Microsoft and Boeing, writing manuals for engineers from all over the world.  Engineers are known for their ability to pick apart and question what is presented to them, honing the written word down to its most precise and understandable form.  As you can see by my writing, I'm not so precise, so I knew I needed Andrine's expertise.  She's also a natural perfumer and alchemist, so I had the best of both worlds when rewriting my original textbook into its present form. Here is an excerpt from the textbook, instructing the student how to make dilutions.  The student has already read about the type of bottles, droppers, scale, etc., for this exercise, and now the student has the equipment b

http://PerfumeClasses.com In Module Two of the Natural Perfumery Institute's textbook, I introduce the students to the differences between aromatic groups and fragrance families.  It is mandatory that the students understand the characteristics of aromatic groups before they move forward in their studies.  Committing the aromatic group's essences to their scent memory allows them to concisely and correctly identify not only the aromatic group oils they study in the course, but to have that knowledge of the characteristics to allow them to independently identify what group an aromatic is placed when they come across a new one in the future.  Once they fully understand this, they move on to what I term a "Certain Perfumer" - one who is certain about their choices and how to defend their naming an aromatic according to the group it belongs in. After that, fragrance families are a piece of cake!  Fragrance families are an invention of the perfume industry.  They're

I clicked on the link and was truly surprised and delighted - Fragrantica chose my entire line of 12 perfumes to feature this week.  Each perfume is linked to an astrological sign, according to the selection by Hieronimuss, the astrologer for Fragrantica. Click here to read his savvy suggestions. I'm offering all of my perfumes and botanicals for 25% off to celebrate this fun event. Click here and use the code fragrantica for 25% off through Dec. 11th.  For 10% off my perfumery course and kits, use the code F73480022F at the Natural Perfumery Institute page by clicking here.    

Nowhere in the 350 page textbook, nor in the online study area of the website (access via password to the private area) will at student of the Natural Perfumery Institu te find a formula.  Not a formula for an accord.  Not a formula for a basic perfume.  I don't instruct students to study existing perfumes, either mainstream or niche, synthetic types, or natural. Students are given the skill set to properly evaluate, analyze and categorize the array of natural aromatics that they obtain, either by purchasing the course kits, or have purchased on their own.  They are instructed how to create accords and evaluate how the aromatics interact.  They then are given instructions on how make a perfume. This system works beautifully, in my opinion, and allows the students intellect and creativity to combine, allowing them to set their own aesthetic.  They still adhere to the fragrance family paradigm, and select a cohesive theme for their perfume, say, a gourmand floral, but they arri

Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute is the only perfumery course that allows offline students the chance to take part in daily chats with other students and the Instructor!  Anya has many years experience hosting lively perfumery chat groups and has extended this to her offline students. Nobody left out in the cold! Earning a living as a perfume artist is the goal of every hobbyist, and it must start with well-made perfumes! This year has been a very rewarding one for me, and I have a higher income now than when I was working at a very well-paying corporate job.  It may take years to build up your hobby into a real career, but it can be done. Several of the perfumers who were in the two Guild projects this year have reported to me that they have had great sales as a result. The economy is definitely improving, and you may wish to gift yourself with an investment in your future as a perfumer by studying with me. I have spent years mentoring folks in this group, and more re

Earning a living as a perfume artist is the goal of every hobbyist, and it must start with well-made perfumes! http://PerfumeClasses.com Be sure to check out the entire site to fully appreciate what is offered. I can share my skills of perfume creation with you with in perfumery course I offer.  So far, just the basic course is offered, but next year the Intermediate course, which delves into refining your blending knowledge, along with scientific approaches, will be held at my studio, and also perhaps online. Then there will be a Graduate level that will also address the details of marketing and sales. You can sign up now and start your studies immediately.  In February, there will be another semester sign-up for students who wish to study in a group, and any student can enter that group and move through the study modules with them. I am available to the online students at any time to help with their studies. The basic course online enrollment includes lifetime access to the

  How very lovely that two of the four bloggers that grouped together for the Holiday Gift Guide selected my perfumes, Guild, and perfumery courses for inclusion.  I haven't sent any samples to one of the other bloggers ever, and the other in a year or more, so they're not up-to-date on my offerings.  Lucy at Indie Perfumes did make me blush with her praise! I will be offering 10 perfumes come Monday, Nov. 15th, 2010 when I launch Light and Amberess, so that's a little pre-release leak: the 10 will be offered for $65 for the sample size, a wonderful value. Here's links to Lucy and Elena's Holiday Gift Guide picks, so you can read about their choices: http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2010/11/holiday-gift-guide-2010.html http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html#2523908032031520792

Ask the Perfumer is open this stormy Halloween day - don't ask anything spooky of me! I will be blogging later today or tomorrow about the new textbooks arriving for my online basic natural perfumery course - with pictures! After looking at it on a screen, and only printing out sections at a time, I am impressed by the book in its glory. 349 pages, many with color illustrations and photos, the most helpful charts I could design, great evaluation and recording forms, including Excel-based ones that can hold all your info - wow. Sorry for the excitement, but I really am pleased with the book, and four get mailed out tomorrow to new offline option students. Happy, happy.

I have been reseraching on the Internet for years, and I stumbled across an article, in French, on the early Grasse perfumery industry.  I laboriously translated it into English, and copied and pasted the twenty or so illustrations into the English version. What a lot of work, but worth it for my students! This image is just so lovely. It's of the pomade room at Robertet in the 1800's. Here's another image: This image is of the Roure Bertrand plant, and those are orange blossoms on the ground, and people with shovels, scooping them up into the distillation units you see around the wall. Neroli! If you click on the image, you will see it in a larger version.

I hope every perfumer who has ever struggled with a perfume that went "muddy" or was overwhelmed by one or two of the aromatics learns some tricks with this podcast.  The trick is learning to evaluate an aromatic and seeing if it might be an "accessory" note.  Accessory notes can be very wonderful in a perfume due to their uniqueness and ability to add a distinctive scent, but because they are also very intense in nature, they can ruin a blend. I'm posting these podcasts on my perfumery education website , and I'm posting them here until I learn how to create RSS feeds there.  Heck, I hope the RSS feed I'm trying to create here works.  If it doesn't just visit the podcast page on the website. UPDATE:  I have the RSS feed working on the AGNPI website, so you can grab it there.

I posted this on the Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute's blog after I realized the recent list of articles on the Institute's website had never been listed before:   Director and Head Instructor Anya McCoy, natural perfumer of Anya's Garden, just published a list of articles she has authored on the subjects of natural perfumery, perfumery and book reviews since 2004. They are available for download from http://perfumeclasses.com/faculty.htm McCoy, A. - Natural Perfumery:  A Fragrant Evolution (pub. Aromatic Sage.com) McCoy, A. - Steve Earl - Position Paper: Defining Natural Perfumery (pub. self) McCoy, A. - Robert Tisserand, Tony Burfield - IFRA/EU Boycott Primer (pub. self) McCoy, A. - The Beauty of Botanicals Made Liquid: The Passion of Natural Perfumers (pub. Basenotes.net) McCoy, A. - The Stages of Public Acceptance of Natural Perfumery (pub. Basenotes.net) McCoy, A. - Book Review: What the Nose Knows (pub. Basenotes.net) McCoy, A. - Book Review:

I got a late start today after an early visit to my mother, but I'm back in the studio now, so if you have any perfumery questions, ask away.

I rarely check the stats on my website, but I did the other day, and found someone had clicked through to my educational website Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute from Chinese Vogue . What the heck?! LOL.  There's a picture of 190 proof Everclear alcohol, and my name stands out in the chinese words, for sure, so I just had to run the copy through Google translator software. I like that 100% of the respondants wanted to make their own perfume! Here's the translation: Even if you are not an alcoholic, there is a wine you should know, not whiskey is not vodka, but Everclear, has recently been widely used home-made perfume. Everclear (pictured) are specifically fermented wine produced in cereal brands, only alcohol 75.5% (151proof) and 95% (190proof) two kinds of wine. Wow, even more than Erguotou "Lie" is much more alcoholic drink should be and it is no different. DIY for the natural fragrance of Modern Alchemy The modern trend in terms of the pu

Ask the Perfumer is open for today, so ask all your natural-perfume-related questions.  I can also answer questions that apply to mainstream perfumery, if you keep it in the technical area, like weighing, specific gravity, etc. PS:  In case you missed it, I posted two podcasts on http://perfumeclasses.com/podcasts.htm - more to come. PPS:  I also started a Facebook page for my online perfumery course http://www.facebook.com/pages/Study-Perfumery/280777102473 - join it to receive timely updates.

 © Copyright Anya's Garden - 2010 All Rights Reserved I have been posting lectures in the online perfumery course I teach since 2007.  Previously available only to registered students, some of my short, informative lectures will be uploaded to the Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute's website within a week or so. These lectures will be available on the "public side" of of the website, where no log in is required. I'm thinking of uploading the pronunciation key, a short advisory on accessory notes and another topic I haven't determined yet. I hope you'll enjoy my Philly accent and a bit of humor I can't help but interjecting into the lectures occasionally. The lectures will probably be only five to ten minutes in length, in comparison to the more extensive lectures the enrolled students enjoy, which are often 20 to 30 minutes.  I'll post here when they're available.