Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

On Saturday, May 3, 2008 Egyptologist and Perfumer David Mark of Chicago's Renaissance Aromas was the guest for the Expert Q&A session (formerly known as Guest Lecturer series) in Anya's Garden online Natural Perfumery class . Originally scheduled for the Spring 2008 students' Module, due to popular demand the Fall 2007 students joined the Q&A, resulting in a student audience of 45 for Marks' session. David had just returned from an Egyptologist conference in Seattle, so he was brimming with news and scholarly insight to share with the students. The subject was the legendary and mysterious Egyptian incense known as kyphi. David has studied kyphi for many years, and he explained that there is no one kyphi recipe - the use of kyphi spanned many dynasties and changed according to new ingredients being introduced to Egypt by trade route introductions. Additionally, it is impossible today to recreate some of the kyphi recipes, since the ancient Egyptian language is n...

David Mark of Renaissance Aromas (website TBA shortly) and an Associate Member of the Natural Perfumers Guild will be a Guest Expert in my online Natural Perfumery class . David's topic will be Kyphi incense, the ancient Egyptian blend whose mystique and legend persists to this day. There are many "recipes" for Kyphi and for the Module 1 History section of my class, I give the students the option of choosing an ancient perfume or scent formula to recreate so that they get a hint of what was fashionable then. Overwhelmingly, they choose Kyphi. David has conducted scholarly research into Kyphi and graciously offered his services to me. I'm very thankful for his generosity, as it will give my students access to a great repository of information. Here's how I broke the good news of David's schedule being firmed up in our class: Well, guess why David can't meet with us this Saturday? Because he's going to a fabulous Egyptologist convention in Seattle! How...