Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

 Originally published Aug. 1, 2013 My student Claire Lautier – who is already an accomplished perfumer, and a member of the Natural Perfumers Guild –  surprised me with a poem about the production of aromatics. who would have thought to find poetry in the growth, harvesting, distillation, enfleurage and other aspects of extracting the essences?  Well, actually, there is a lot of poetry in the process, but it takes an artist to ‘extract’ the words and turn them into art. Exhale A seed, a blueprint for a life Spiraling roots down into the dark damp Holds the earth and is held, still blind The volcanic flutter A gossamer moth’s wing within That yet Moves tides Sends planets hurtling through space Forces to the light A tender tendril This one not crushed underfoot With mighty swoops through the telescoped eye of time shudders toward the Sun Through the fat drops of rain It has a destiny A good thing it’s fearless Now all in flower Swaying with its sisters in the sacred hills ...

 Originally published July 18, 2013 Lucky me!  I received two assignments from students in my Natural Perfumery Institute perfumery course recently, and I just loved the poetry they wrote to describe their experiences with the module’s topic.  Both poems are very different, as different as the authors, one from Ghana, the other from Canada.  I post the second one in a few weeks, and maybe they’ll inspire you to write some poems about perfume.  I am not a poet, so I really admire these talented students! Aba Williams Module 2 29 June, 2013   Illustration of Aromatic Groups from Natural Perfumery Institute textbook Basic Natural Perfumery Course Poem describing some Observations on Aromatic Groups and Differences between Aromatic Groups and Fragrance Families How do I describe an aromatic group in one word, When there is so much going on in there, I thought it would be easy, But then I was kind of wrong.   I thought all WOODS would smell woody, That all ...

 Originally posted April 4, 2013 Today I have a special guest blogger, Hemla S., an Israeli student at the  Natural Perfumery Institute .  She was a little overdue getting her assignments to me, and she wrote…well, the spoiler is at the end of the blog. Hemla: I remember when pregnant with my eldest, prior to giving birth, I read a lot about labor, the human anatomy, the hormones in action, and how to combine all these different aspects of the human to allow a truly empowering birth to happen. I read an article that discussed how to know how dilated the laboring woman is, without actually checking her cervix –the pupils, behavior, sounds made by the woman and more. one thing that really caught my attention: it said, that just before giving birth there is a smell in the room, many people forget it was there, but if you mention it to a woman who had given birth, or she smells it again she will say ‘oh yes’ the article said there is a distinctly animal smell in the air befor...