Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Click to enlarge and see the beauty of this morning's harvest from the front of the house at Casa Jasmin, where Anya's Garden Perfumes blooms under the tropical sun. I got this quick harvest this morning before the "big" storm hit, and I just beat it by minutes. The big mixing bowl holds about a gallon of liquid, but in other terms, there are 30 vietnamese gardenias in there (about 3" across for reference), several golden champaca flowers, and the tiny yellow darlings are Aglaia odorata flowers. Into the alcohol tincture for the champacas and aglaias, into the enfleurage tray for the gardenias. I'm so lucky! Oh, the bamboo skewer you see on the right was used to "pollinate" my vanilla orchid flower. Let's see if I get a bean. ;-) The vanilla orchid just started blooming, and I have to go out every day for the one flower a day on the vine to try to get a harvest by hand-pollination. It's fun!

Click the image of the batteuse that is used to agitate the pomade and alcohol  to enlarge it so that you can see the details It's 7:00 a.m., I'm off to get some coffee. When I return I'll be happy to answer your questions about perfumery in all it's aspects - raw materials, sourcing, blending, etc. Just post your question in this comments section. Adding this photo of a batteuse in response to a question about pomades.

  Oakmoss The other day I came across a blog entry on Nathan Branch's site, and despite trying to register and log in to post a comment, I couldn't. I wrote Nathan, haven't heard back yet, so I just want to put this out there because I feel there was such a misunderstanding of IFRA regulations a correction was needed. Seems Nathan received a lot of bottles of perfume to photograph for Abigail Levin's The Posh Peasant website. As he unpacked the box, his BF, in the next room, began to have respiratory distress. This continued until the bottles were packed back in the box and sealed.  Here is what I tried to post on the blog: Interesting theory, however, incorrect. IFRA regs cover possible skin-related issues (including oral preparations, such as mouthwash), not the respiratory system.  They also drift into the murky world of potential systemic problems, hence the completely incorrect stance against coumarinic raw materials. http://www.ifraorg.org/files/docu...

Happy Earth Day everyone.   I've celebrated this day since the first one, on Belmont Plateau, in Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia. Have we come far? I don't think so, but awareness is out there, more and more, but change is slow. I never thought we'd be facing new, different environmental challenges on top of the ones we had then. One constant in my life, earth-wise? I loved natural essential oils then, and I still do. I reject mainstream perfumes because of the environmental issues they cause with my body, and that I find them often "flat" smelling. I adore the richness and complexity of natural aromatics, from the flowers in the garden, the pine groves with their clean, fresh scent, and all of the natural extracts, from essential oils, concretes, absolutes, tinctures, CO2s  and more. Natural Perfumery truly seems to be a good outcome of environmental awareness and love of beautiful aromatic raw materials, blended with consciousness and intelligenc...

Answering questions about perfumery is second nature to me. I've hosted the huge Natural Perfumery group on Yahoo for almost seven years, I instruct perfumers, I consult with perfumers about their businesses, and I just live my life immersed in the art. Sometimes I feel questions I answer on the Yahoo group are just stuck in a bit of a hidden-away area of the Internet. I have read *every one* of the 39960 messages there. Yes, we're going to hit 40,000 soon! That's a lot of perfume talk. Whew. The mind almost boggles, but the spirit says take the show on the road, like our well-appointed apothecarian-perfumer in the image above. So, I'm going to open up my blog every Sunday for questions. I know a lot, but there's a lot I don't know, so please forgive me if I can't answer your question. I'll let you know when I can't, and I'll try to send you on a path to find the answer. Oh, math will stump me. A bit. I can't answer math questions on the...

Disclaimer:  It has come to my attention that Douglas Stewart of Scentsual Antiquities has a link to this blog post, perhaps implying that he is endorsed by me.  This is not the case, and I have no affiliation with him, and would wish he would take the link down, as it is deceptive.

I just won this postcard on eBay, and I wanted to share because I really dig the imagery. I also like their setup, it's so simple.

The image is that of an old Frapper map of the students. I think Frapper is going to be gone within the year, and I'll miss it. It hasn't updated for a while, and while it was, it was fun to see where all the students of the Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute were located all over the world. We have had four from Australia since this map appeared, one from Singapore, Germany, Kuwait...the list is truly international. I'm going to find a new way to map the students, "watch this space" as they say ;-) About the course and the website - you know, when you build something from the ground up, with your own knowledge, your own creative ideas, and your own hours of dedication and hard work, it means so much. It's your baby, nobody else can claim it, you made it. It's very rewarding, very rewarding. When I was prodded into teaching back in 2007, I put the coursework together as quickly as I could, to meet the student's demands. So I created a P...

I am posting this ad for Stratus Insurance. I was in negotiations with them for both the Guild and the this group and the natural perfumery community at large. They're offering great rates to the Guild, and some folks might want to join to save over non-Guild rates ;-) 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 member of the Yahoo NP group. I will work with Natasaha Gray to confirm Guild members at this time, since we've had about a dozen new members in the past week and they're not listed on the website yet. In the future, the Guild will have a separate application page. Also, for th...

Below please find the transcript of the Powerpoint presentation Natural Perfumers Guild Associate Tony Burfield of Cropwatch gave to the British Society of Perfumers March, 2010. Tony Burfield was the only presenter at the Safety and Regulatory symposium who did not offer ways for the perfumers to comply EFFA, SCCNFP, REACH et al. Instead, he presented fact after scientific fact as to why much of the compliance requirements are based on bad science and political maneuverings, coupled with a dose of market manipulation. The Natural Perfumers Guild is proud to have Tony as a member and we hope that those reading this will help spread the information presented here. So goes REACH, so go your beloved perfumes. Tony Burfield's Cropwatch is: A loosely based, non-financed, independent watch-dog to the aroma & natural products trade. In existence approx 6-7 years. Best known for its pro-active campaigning activities on natural aromatics, data-bases on threaten...

  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...