Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

  Anya’s Garden Perfumed Morning by  Anya McCoy  |  Aug 6, 2014  |  Anya McCoy ,  Anya's Garden Perfumes ,  enfleurage ,  natural aromatics ,  natural perfume ,  raw materials of perfumery  |  2 comments I’m so thankful for the assistance of my apprentice Paula Diaz and Jimmy in renovating my front garden. Edged, mulched beds full of fragrant flowers and leaves look so beautiful, and the plants are so healthy now with proper care. I’ve had some really poor gardeners wreck part of my gardens in the past few years, but Paula and Jimmy have helped undo the poor pruning, weed control, and other afflictions the poor gardeners imposed on my fragrant environment. This is a photo of what I see when I look out my front door in the morning. It’s hard to get the flowers and plants all in focus, due to the light and dark shadows, and the depth of field setting. I fiddled with the settings until I got this long shot, and I’m happy with...

  Ask the Perfumer Dec 28, 2013 and a Year-end Beauty: Golden Gardenia by  Anya McCoy  |  Dec 29, 2013  |  Anya's Garden Perfumes ,  Perfume From Your Garden book ,  raw materials of perfumery  |  10 comments This is the last “Ask the Perfumer” forum for this year. I’ve been busy with the winter garden in Miami, and have to play catchup with my blog posts. So, if you have any perfumery questions, I’ll be here until 10PM ET tonight. Photo from logees.com We had a lot of rain last night, and my garden is so happy! This is a nice nitrogen boost for my plants, and the moistness makes for a welcoming soil bed for my Gardenia jasminoides var. “Aurea” – yellow gardenia. It looks like a yellow rose, doesn’t it? It’s a variety of the common gardenia we all know and love. When I enfleurage “regular” gardenias, and by that I mean G. jasminoides and G. vietnamensis, and G. tahitiensis, they all turn that color a day or two into the process. Quite be...

All gardenias are not the same. Modern natural perfumery has a growing selection of raw materials from different species and varieties of gardenia to choose from, and we're all the better because of it. This image typifies the gardenia perfume fragrance we all want: lush, sensual, wanton, spicy, buttery, floral, intoxicating, over-the-top and proud of it. The creamy, green, almost-obnoxious scent of the full-blown gardenia that is common in gardens, the cultivated Gardenia jasminoides aka Gardenia augusta: Gardenia jasminoides aka Gardenia augusta In the early-to-mid part of the 20th century, there were a few who produced gardenia absolute form the G. jasminoides/augusta. Story has it that the advent of World War II and the discovery of synthetic aromachemicals that mimicked the scent of gardenia put an end to the natural gardenia absolute. In the early 21st century, with the rise of natural perfumery, the demand for a gardenia absolute arose again. I am enfleuraging gardenias, and...

Jasmine sambac "Grand Duke of Tuscany" from my garden As an artisan who grows much of her botanical aromatics, I made a conscious decision not to rely on the vagaries of the open market for many of my supplies. Of course, I have to buy concretes, absolutes and essential oils - but not that much anymore. I have a huge stash of stuff I've stocked over the years, all properly stored to preserve freshness. I am increasingly aware of the fragile nature of the supply chain, and I hope you, artisan natural perfumer, if you're reading this, are too. Heck, if I were a perfumer who used synths in my perfumes, I'd be quaking in my business boots. Even worse if I used bases from major supply houses. You're completely at their mercy. That stranglehold on supply, as more and more smaller supply houses are gobbled up in the EU-fueled stranglehold on the supply of processed aromatics - combined with the weak US dollar, typhoons that destroy crops, adulteration, and the warine...