Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

 Originally published April 23, 2013 We’re featuring a Guest Blogger today.  Daniel Krasofski is a student of mine, and he is generously sharing a report on a class in pre-modern Indian perfumes he attended recently.  The class was conducted by Professor James McHugh at the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) in Los Angeles. April 11, 2013, ‘Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture’ Cover image from Sandalwood and Carrion book On Sandalwood  – “You were born on the heights of Malabar, yet woodsmen found you and brought you to a distant land where men have ground you into scented ointment. Grieve not, sandalwood, my friend; it is your virtues have undone you.” From “Sanskrit Poetry from Vidyakara’s Treasury” Translated by Daniel Ingalls Greetings Natural Aromatics Community, Plant derived materials have been used as perfume and adornment for thousands of years, in every culture on almost every continent. These ancient cultures are heavily influen...

Fan carved from sandalwood Santalum album  -  even the botanical name is beautiful and strong. If rose and jasmine are feminine, sandalwood is strongly, sexily, masculine.  All male. And I fell hard for “him” from the first sniff.  Here’s my decades-long love/lust story, and I’m sorry to say it might not have a happy ending. Sandalwood Mala bead necklace I didn’t get my first bottle of sandalwood oil until I was 18 or so.  I already had some patchouli, as it was the scent of choice for hippies, and if I had some oils from the racks in hippie stores, they’re long forgotten, and I now know they were probably synthetic.  One day I was helping someone unpack some imported goods in the back of the store, and some of the merchandise was from India.  There were lovely colorful glass beads strung into necklaces that were woven from brass wire. Then I found a packet of scented wooden beads made into jewelry.  I’ll always associate the glass gr...