Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

It’s Hyacinth Tincture and Enfleurage Time by  Anya McCoy  |  Mar 12, 2014  |  Anya's Garden Perfumes ,  Perfume From Your Garden book  |  4 comments Three fragrant hyacinth flower stalks It’s a real hassle to try to grow hyacinths in Miami. Yes, I can get the bulbs from a northern supplier, put them in the refrigerator to force them, try to harden the bulbs after the blooms are spent, etc., but I really don’t have the time or space for that. I’m not going to buy hyacinths from Fresh Market or Whole Foods again. This year I discovered that the local Publix has many stronger-scented ones, and since one stem of the four flowering bulbs in a pot was drooping, I got two pots for the price of one. The flowers were fine, the stem just looked awful. Into the tincture and enfleurage, they go! These processes will be documented in my upcoming book Perfume From Your Garden (renamed Homemade Perfume, pub. 2018). If you like, you can follow the posts about th...

Hyacinth tincture, signifying springtime renewal In December of 2012 I stopped posting my blog here and instead transferred the existing archive of these blog posts over to my websites at both anyasgarden.com and perfumeclasses.com .  Well who's to say people can't change their mind and want to reverse an action? It was quite an effort to find a way to log back in here and it took me quite a while but here I am! I will shortly begin the laborious test of bringing the blog posts from 2012 to 2020 back here.  The reason they only go to 2020 is because in April of 2020 I finished the very laborious job of redesigning my perfume course website perfumeclasses.com and we all really sunk into the pandemic and I just decided to take it easy and look to other interests for a while. We all dealt with it in our own separate ways mine was still perfume related but not so much as being in the public eye . In the future I will duplicate my blogs on all...

Kaffir , a unique and groundbreaking perfume from Anya's Garden, truly is from Anya's Garden - in Miami Shores, Florida, USA. Kaffir Lime leaf, also called Thai Lime Leaf, is used in Asian cooking for the unusual, exciting, penetrating flavor it imparts. The petitgrain oil also imparts an aldehydic kick, and Kaffir the perfume honors and exalts that sensual experience. No other citrus comes close to the odor impact of kaffir, which I call the King of Citrus. There is a story of delight, destruction and rebirth behind the kaffir tree of my home garden. Nine citrus trees were planted - and ripped out - of my garden. I planted them when I moved in, but the State of Florida, in a misguided attempt to stop the spread of a non-threatening citrus disease, cut down over 1,000,000 citrus trees, including my kaffir tree. However, my kaffir was the only one to resprout from the root...