Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Edmond Roudnitska image courtesy Art et Parfum site Many English-only-speaking perfumers have commented on various internet forums that they are frustrated by the fact that they cannot read the written works of famed French perfumer Edmond Roudnitska. His books, L'Intimit du Parfum and L'Esthtique en Question and L'Esthtique du Parfum, when they are available, are only in French. An essay in English was published in the 1974 book Perfume by William I. Kaufman, and that is where I first became acquainted with his writing, and I have reread that essay many, many times over the years. A chapter from Perfumes: Art, Science and Technology edited by Lamparsky and Muller is available via Google books but I was very frustrated at only able to see a portion of a page at a time, so I gave up trying to read it. Reading off a screen really strains my eyes. So I wrote to Edmond's son, Michel, a renowned perfumer in his own right, asking if he knew of any English language articles b...

This is the image I have used for Temple Perfume since its release I haven't released new perfumes for over a year now. I believe each perfume should be a work of art, not just an exercise in fragrance creation. I create fragrances all the time, accords both vertical and horizontal, and I've not a notion to release them. Every perfume I release must have a definite purpose of expression and intent. When I recently sent out my two latest perfumes, MoonDance and StarFlower, to media reviewers, I also sent samples of m previous creations to reviewers who were not familiar with my line. Elena Knezhevich of Fragrantica fell in love with Temple and reviewed it today . Temple is the first, and so far, the only aromatherapy perfume I created. At the time, with hurricanes, wildfires, illnesses, wars, earthquakes and so many other shocks upon the human race seemingly coming at us at record speed, I wanted to draw upon my knowledge of specific scents that could calm and center a person, a...

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...

MoonDance - an Evolutionary Style Perfume StarFlower - a Morphing Style Perfume I recently-launched StarFlower and MoonDance, two fragrances that were designed in two very different ways. There is a historic perfume style that is classic: evolution. Most traditional perfumery schools and textbooks teach that a perfume should evolve smoothly, transiting from top to base notes, with a heart that melds them together. My MoonDance perfume is blended in that manner, and as one reviewer wrote me privately "is very subtle in the changes." That is the exact effect I was looking for. The lovely, fragrant MoonFlower (not to be confused with MoonDance!) slowly unfolds in an evolution that is subtle and beautiful. The tiny bud slowly opens to reveal a larger version of itself, color intact, form barely changed over time. The pointed petal tips, arranged in a rounded, clock-like fashion, softly blend into the overall form of the fully-emerged flower. There is an innate, sophisticated b...

Anya's Garden Perfume Sampling Suggestion List I created a new card that I include when mailing out samples of my perfume. Realizing that a whiff of Fairchild could overwhelm the nose if the next whiff was a delicate perfume like Pan, I decided to create the card to guide my customers through a 'vertical flight' of scent intensity. Not saying Pan perfume is weak - it's not at all. It's cozy and musky and a cult favorite. It's longlasting and extremely wearable, too. It's just that on a scent intensity scale of 1 to 5, it's a 3 and Fairchild is a 4. Definitely a 4, bordering on a 5, which I reserve for Kaffir and StarFlower. The perfumistas on the Perfume of Life forum are chatting in a thread that was started today that touches upon this, comparing wine descriptives to perfume terms, so I joined in with the intensity factor, which I feel is very important. It's good to keep this in mind if you're visiting a perfume counter and have an array of p...

MoonDance Perfume Launched October 5, 2009 to celebrate Anya McCoy's birthday and the next "perfume as art reflecting life" phase of Anya's Garden Perfumes Cool, sophisticated romantic love, as you slowly dance under the full moon, and a sweet and long-forgotten memory of eternity emerges from MoonDance . Sweet violet flowers, a touch of mint, sulty tuberose and sambac and the iconic accord of rose and apple-scented chamomile softly radiate over a woody, sultry base. Top notes: American Violet Flower Isolate, Indian Water Mint Middle notes: French Tuberose, Chinese Jasmine Sambac, French Rose de Mai, American Chamomile Base notes: Carolina Ambergris, Haitian Sandalwood, Sustainable White Sandalwood, South African Hyrax MoonDance is now my signature scent. I originally conceived this perfume at the end of 2007, and thought I'd release it in 2008, along with StarFlower. They're both homages to tuberose, that heady, swoon-inducing and sensual flower from Mexi...

StarFlower Perfume and EdP Fragrances Launched by Anya's Garden Perfumes: An Homage to Mexican aromatics The tuberose flower has always captivated me. When nighttime comes, and the fragrance billows out into the night air, few can remain stoic in its presence. The alluring beauty of the strong, spicy scent can draw people to it like moths to a flame. A native of Mexico, the tuberose has spread across the world, thriving in many climates, from the tropics to the coldest termperate zones, so many know its beauty. In Mexico, they also know its flavor, because they have used it in sweet treats for recorded history. I first became aware of its use in ice cream from an 18th Century book Encarnación's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California, and further research showed its use in other sweet desserts. My perfume musings got me to thinking, well, let's see how it would pair with vanilla and chocolate, two other tasty and fragrant offerings from Mexico. All I can...

Allured Business Media offering 20% discount until Dec. 31, 2009 If you are a perfumer, flavorist, perfumista, spa owner, formulator of body care products, in the fragrance field or any related industry, you'll be happy to know that Natural Perfumers Guild member Allured Business Media, a leading source of publications, monographs, CDs and other educational and industrial materials for the industry is once again offering a great discount to readers of this blog. However, please feel free to spread the word about the discounts to other websites, as this great deal is also meant to reach the bigger internet audience. Now through December 31, 2009, you can get 20% off any book by using the code Anya20 at checkout. Your discount won't show up until you click through the checkout process. Just click here to see the wealth of reading materials offered in this special deal. Hope you have some great publications in your hands soon, thanks to them!

Trademark squatters over common words are so out of control. A few years ago, I was threatened by Bond No. 9 owner Laurice Rahme's attorneys because I named one of my perfumes Riverside, and she claimed control over the name Riverside in fragrance due to her Riverside Drive. I simply changed the name to RiverCali. Then another perfumer got heat from the same attorneys over the use of the word "Peace" in a perfume, because again, Rahme claimed the word was hers alone to use. If you google Anya's Garden, Rahme, trademark, you'll find many bloggers covered this issue. I didn't have the money or inclination to fight Rahme, but now the squatters fight is getting lots of press and money thrown at it. Two folks with lots of money are going to battle , and the squatter lost the first round. Who in the heck thinks its reasonable to squat on the word "nude"? I have termed the word "squatter" for the omnivorous trademarker who, like those who squat ...

New Lilac Flower CO2 too faint and too short-lived - but let's keep hoping! I was very excited to be offered a sample of an ambitious extraction that could have rocked the natural perfumery world - a CO2 form of lilac flowers. The only lilac flower scent in perfumery is synthetic, and many of us long for the ethereal, green sweet tangy floral note on our perfume organ. The CO2 is a pale yellow wax, and at first sniff out of the bottle, I was pleasantly surprised - true lilac scent! No indolic undernotes, either, showing that the flowers had been harvested and quickly extracted before the musky, rank indoles could develop. I invited a student over for the formal organoleptic evaluation. We used the sheets I designed for my online perfumery course, and we sat down with high hopes. She wasn't very familiar with lilacs, coming from a part of the country where they don't grow, so I knew this would be interesting! First we smeared a little bit of the wax on the broad end of the s...

Artisan Perfumery or Being Led by the Nose by Alec Lawless I'm on vacation, so this won't be a long review, but I just had to get the word out on Alec Lawless' new book, Artisan Perfumery or Being Led by the Nose . The title should give a hint of his humorous approach to the subject of artisan perfumery, and he is consistent throughout the book with his sly wink at the industry, of which he's been a part of for over twenty years. The co-owner of Aqua-Oleum , along with his ex-wife, famed aromatherapy author Julia Lawless, Alec knows where the greatest aromatics are to be found, either in essential oil, concrete or absolute form, and after years of playing with the essences, began blending. He has a wonderfully relevant background in wine appreciation, and some of his observations on scent and perception, working in his love of sensory and psychology topics, are eye - and nose - openers. Lest I forget, the book's cover, a small piece of an original artwork he also s...

Omumbiri resin The Yahoo Natural Perfumery Group I host is a diverse, huge collection of lovers of natural aromatics from around the world. Recently, a member from South Africa wrote about a resin that is collected by the women of the Himba tribe of Namibia that shows promise in perfumery. The Himba collect the resin of Commiphora wildii - common name Omumbibi - to make body perfumes for themselves from this lovely fragrance material. It's related to myrrh, but has a lighter, fresher scent. The Himba mix the resin with fat, a process we can equate with an unguent, much like those known in ancient Egypt. Estee Lauder, Robertet and other large corporations have been investigating use of Omumbibi resin for a few years. Thankfully, Sophia, our NP Yahoo group member, was able to connect with the organization that is set up to protect the Himba and their aromatic resin and obtain some for experimentation by natural perfumers. This is the same organization that the corporations have b...

Octavian of 1000 Fragrances blog received a warning from the attorneys of LVMH, the corporate giant that now owns Guerlain fragrances, that he must remove recent posts he wrote critical of their product. To quote from his blog: Without any personal message Guerlain legal service attacked me on blogger.com about what I have posted on Guerlain Idylle - Coty and it seems that I have to remove all, otherwise my acount will be deleted. This tactic should be a warning to other bloggers. My stance is to support Octavian and to call for other bloggers to spread the word on this matter, so that perhaps we can communicate amongst ourselves on how to handle any threats like this in the future. I have no idea if blogger.com will indeed censure Octavian. I encourage you to subscribe to his blog to keep apprised of developments.

About a year and a half ago, Kevin of the Now Smell This blog reviewed my Kaffir perfume and stated he wished it was available in cologne strength for summer. Cost also figured in, and a hope for a bigger bottle. Well, I didn't make it last summer, but I have small 15ml spray cologne offerings of the zesty and leathery/woody Kaffir ready for this summer. (Yes, a perfume can open zesty and get all leathery and sexy and woody!) I wrote Robin, the head honcho of NST and offered her the exclusive release of Kaffir and a bottle to be awarded to a US or Canadian winner of a random draw . There were so many quick responses, and so many disappointed late entrants, I promptly offered two more bottles. As soon as I get the winner's addresses, the bottles will be in the mail, resplendent in their unique recycled boxes - that will grow wildflowers if planted! Its just a way to give back to the community, to thank Kevin for planting the idea of a cologne, and for Robin for being such a pion...