Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

  I planted about 100 tuberose bulbs this past weekend, so the photo above is just a perfumer's dream. Let's see if it comes true. Hello again everyone. I've been kind of off the grid blog wise, and Facebook and Twitter-wise, too, for a few weeks. I've posted a bit on FB and Twitter, because there are just some news items and helpful plugs I have to put out there for friends.  This will probably be one of the most unfocused blogs I've ever written, kind of like stream of thought.....so this blog post is going to be a little of this, a little of that, and just catching up on the busy, fulfilling life of an artisan perfumer. On March 1st, I felt relaxed for the first time in six months. Since September, I had been working on not just my perfumery, which had an incredible upsurge in sales with the release of MoonDance and StarFlower perfumers, but I took part in a big PR effort in NYC, I started scanning rare articles by Edmond Roudnitska *and* started building the...

  Ah, I'm sentimental for the image I used on the old website. It was easy to visualize the international body of students gazing at this ;-) I forgot to announce that the class was full a few weeks ago, that we had reached the class limit on the number of students  and two additional students actually got in the door after that ;-) Very interesting students, too - a medical doctor from Germany and a former Marine now working in Kuwait. It's going to be a very exciting, fast-paced course, and everyone is gearing up for the professional experience of sharing and learning the wonders of natural perfumery. In this economy, I was wondering if the class would fill up. However, as one student wrote: "I took the time to research what instructors had recognition from bloggers and great reviews for their perfumes, and your reviews and awards stood out above the rest." That made me blush, but on reflection, she's right. Why study with somebody who hasn't made perfumes...

 A beautiful fanciful image of a tree with branches that form a heart,  rising up from deep roots. I was speaking with one of the wise women of perfumery the other day and she bemoaned the fact that today's crop of students, followers, enthusiasts -- whatever the term may be -- were so easily shedding any bit of acknowledgment of those who came before and helped them on the perfumed path.  I reminded her that this is not a current problem, because perfumery for centuries has been fraught with jealousy, corruption and all sorts of chicanery. So odd to remember my studies in university that the spice trade of old, herbalism and many other scented or healing arts are the same way. Remembering back to 1976, when I discovered William I. Kaufman's book Perfumery and the lush photos and history of perfumery and the -gasp!- essays by Edmund Roudnitska and Jean Carles, I can only smile at the great, fantastic strides that have occurred in this world, where artisan perfumery no...

I am posting this ad for Stratus Insurance, letting everyone know about the great deal they offer to the bath and beauty microbusinesses.  I was in negotiations with them for both the Guild and the 1800+ member Yahoo! natural perfumery group and the natural perfumery community at large.   They're offering great rates to the Natural Perfumers Guild, and some folks might want to join to save over non-Guild rates ;-) Don't forget we have a 20% off rate for Guild memberships until 11:59 PM February 14th. http://naturalperfumers.com/payment20.htm BTW, if you have a business that is not 100% natural perfumery, you can still join in the Stratus deal. I did negotiate on behalf of the NP community, but I realize many here may use fragrance oils or aromachemicals. You can still get this insurance. Just make sure you use this page to apply: http://www.stratusins.info/perfumers_app.php At the bottom of the page, if you're not a member of the Guild, check off if you are a membe...

  So What Variety of Orange Tree Gives us the Prized and Loved Neroli? The short answer is - nobody knows for sure, but it's pretty certain that it isn't soley the often named variety Citrus aurantium var. amara. I started this quest to find out what variety in my last blog post. I was trying to figure out why Citrus aurantium var. Bouquet des Fleurs wasn't named, since that was the variety I studied at one of the top citrus schools in the world. Turns out it's probably either/neither/a mix/or a bunch of others. I got feedback on a Yahoo group, and called UCR and spoke with one of the professors there. Neither source wanted to be quoted, since they're giving their opinion, and cannot point me to a source that will quote the facts. Due to their experience in the field, actually having visited neroli groves in several countries, I do accept their statements. Citrus hybridizes readily and oftentimes there are gaps in the groves due to a tree dying for a number of r...

A photo of the Neroli blossom Citrus aurantium var. Bouquet de Fleurs I posted this on several Yahoo groups today and I'm hoping to suss out the mystery of the proper name for the neroli tree: For years, I've questioned why C. aurantium var. amara was named as the source of neroli in all the aromatherapy (AT) books. I studied at a Citrus Research Center at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and two of my professors there were among the authors of the industry Bibles, The Citrus Industry Vols. 1-4. I was taught that C. aurantium var. Bouquet de Fleurs was the source of neroli. We had a beautiful stand of the small, rounded trees growing on campus. Early one Sunday morning, my husband and I went down the row, bucket in hand, vodka in bucket, harvesting as many flowers as possible. The tincture was heavenly! For years, however, in my dyslexic way, I reversed the name. I called it Fleurs des Bouquet, and I couldn't find any reference to it. I've since lost ...

Lemongrass plantation - Malaysia I've always been a dreamer and an optimist. Time to move forward with the project I touched upon in my last blog. Backstory: I dropped the ball in September of 2008 when I was scheduling a lunch with someone from the biggest vetiver distillation company in Haiti. That week, and the week following, huge storms swept Haiti, causing horrific flooding and loss of life. I figured to just back off as she took care of business, and I just felt superfluous to the problems they/she were facing, and lost contact with her. As I wrote recently, I'm going to direct efforts into reforestation efforts in Haiti, as soon as I can connect with a local agency. They're impossible to contact this week, but I'll keep at it. I'm also going to recontact my distillation connection for several reasons. I feel terrible I just gave up when faced with the situation in 2008. I guess I suffer from PTSD from all the hurricanes we get here in Florida, and ...

  After the Haiti Quake: Heal the Earth, Heal the People photo source: http://linknzona.blogspot.com/2008/12/environmental-quality-and-natural.html The Natural Perfumer is Not an artist 100% of the time,  they're a caring person 100% of the time: For me, our art is linked with our responsibility to the environment and other people. The image above shows the stark reality of the deforestation of Haiti in contrast to its contiguous neighbor, the Dominican Republic, to the right (east). The first thing that came to my mind when the horrific quake hit was that the people of the cities of Haiti can't flee the city for refuge in the countryside, because their countryside is bare, eroded earth. When it rains, and it will soon, those hills turn into mudslicks, and mudslides follow. Haiti has been plagued by mudslides for decades due to the systematic deforestation of the countryside. Thousands of years of topsoil, created slowly by the breakdown of the underlying rock ha...

About 1.5grams of pricey, rare boronia absolute, just in from Tasmania, just spilled in my studio I posted about my Patchouli panties in 2008. This undergarment scenting occurred by accident when I put a washcloth that I had mopped up a minor patchouli essential oil spill with into the laundry with my undergarments. Due to a farktabulous spill I had about an hour ago when pouring the 2010 boronia absolute for the Natural Perfumers Guild buy, I'll now have a boronia boudoir. This was the biggest spill I've ever made, with one of the most expensive, rare aromatics in the world. We in the Guild are fortunate that the Tasmanian producer sells to us, as he had in 2009, since their supply is so low. They're just servicing their longterm corporate clients, but made an exception for the Guild, realizing that it is lovely to get some spread around amongst the artisan natural perfumers. About 25 Guild members are anxiously awaiting their boronia, and one is coming by this af...

The New Year - Two Thousand and Zen - and a Starry-Moon Full Swoon I've had my nose to the grindstone. There are so many projects, all with varied needs and timelines, I haven't had time to "keep up" with much that's going on. I do have my google alerts set to let me know when "Anya's Garden" pops up in the Internet, and I had to stop and pay attention in the past few days when one after another, alerts came in. I had no idea there was a "Best of the Best 2009" plan among perfume bloggers, but my goodness, am I the beneficiary of some lovely mentions by them! One after another they flowed: From the lovely Elena at Perfume Shrine blog: Best of Niche: Anya's Garden Starflower A gourmand with guts! Unusual combination, great lasting power for an all-naturals. Anya's Note: I was one of a number of niche perfumeries mentioned, but surely the tiniest microbusiness of all, so this knocked me out. From a devoted lover of Anya's Garden P...

This holiday my home is scented with the heady, floral, spicy beauty of white tuberoses. I just got a shipment in of several hundred flowers, and I now have trays filled with the vegetable shortening and scented beauties. I made several pomades "recharges" with this shortening last spring and summer, but I just wanted a bit more scent in the fat so this latest refreshing with flowers. I also had a tray worth left over for a student who stopped by, so she's going to get some more pomade going herself. Ah, the fragrance. It's giving me two beautiful experiences: once when I'm putting the flowers in the tray, and later on when I wash the fat with alcohol and create a usable product for my perfumery.

Distance Learning also available beginning February 2010 in addition to the two online study options at Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute. Registration applications and tuition payments for the Basic Natural Perfumery Course that will launch the end of February, 2010 are now being accepted.. The website is being rebuilt with more features than before, and it will be faster and more interactive for the online student. The front pages of the course site have been posted with the new Syllabus, a Registration page, an informative Home Page, and Testimonials from former students. Started in 2007, Anya's Garden course is the first of its kind for natural perfumers. The online interactive aspect allows all the students to take part in the classes from their home base anywhere in the world. This feature allows the students to save money that might have been spent in traveling, while still enjoying the camaraderie of the other students and one-on-one contact with the instructor...

The next basic perfumery course offered by Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute will commence in late February, 2010. The exact date will be announced at a later date. The revised syllabus and details on the course schedule will be available November 20, 2010. The homepage for Perfume Classes.com has been updated and the latest information for the newly-revised curriculum can be found there. There are now three options for study: Web-based: 1. An interactive, fast-paced course that is six-months long and 2. A self-paced option for those who wish to study on their own. Distance learning non-web-based: 3. Textbook and kit supplied, no website access Since the opening of the school in 2007, about one hundred students have enrolled, and dozens have received their certificate of completion. Since some students fell behind in their studies due to family, work or other issues, it was decided to open the self-paced option. Students can enroll at any time for that option, but the inte...

Elena at Perfume Shrine reviewed MoonDance and StarFlower from Anya's Garden Perfumes, and if you leave a comment, you will be entered in a drawing to win samples - click here to read and enter