Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Sharing Their Story - an occasional series hosted by Anya McCoy.  Featuring the accomplished and  creative members of the Natural Perfumers Guild, the series is debuting with one of the lights of aromatherapy, and a pioneer in natural perfumery, Victoria Edwards of California and France.  Alongside Chrissie Wildwood and Mindy Green, two other accomplished aromatherapists, the three are, to my knowledge, the only aromatherapists who wrote about natural perfumery, and called it natural perfumery, in the 1990s. Visionary and prolific in the art of aromatherapy, please enjoy Victoria Edwards, in her own words:  I love this photo of Victoria, taken in France.  Doesn't she look like a good friend, animated and in high spirits, relating a story?  Well, this is her story. Biography of Victoria Edwards I was born in Chicago, grew up in Louisiana, my mothers family is from New Orleans. My Father is Swiss and I lived in Germany and Switzerland from 4 to...

Is 2012 the year you will take the big step and enroll in natural perfumery studies?  Since 2005, I have witnessed the phenomenal growth in the number of natural perfumers and the integration of them into mainstream perfumery.  Many reviewers now say that they will judge a perfume on its merits, not whether it's composed of all-natural ingredients or contains synths.  This is a huge step for us natural perfumers, because in 2005, the opposite was true.  Natural perfumes have come a long way in being accepted on one major criteria: they smell great. I began teaching basic perfumery in 2007, because members of the natural perfumery group I host on yahoo demanded it of me.  It was good they did, because I had not shared 30 years of accumulated knowledge since I started studying the art.   I had started a natural perfumery line in 1991, Anya's Tropical Essences, and in 2006, I launched Anya's Garden Perfumes. The perfumes were lauded for sophistication and...

Miami gardens have a slow season, too.  Still, there is beauty to share.  Today I was going to spray my Angel's Trumpet with a pyrethrin spray because I noticed white flies on it.  Imagine my surprise when I found ladybugs!  I've never "inoculated" the garden with ladybugs, figuring they fly away just as soon as they're released.  These dear little things found my organic garden on their own, and I'm blessed.  They're having a white fly feast! One of many ladybugs on the Angel Trumpet leaf.  I think the brown marks are made by the ladybugs, but that's OK, they're eating the white flies, so they can do their little bit of damage, it'll be replaced by new leaves. Here are some of the Angel Trumpets the lady bugs are saving. Pretty for a January day, eh? First time I've ever noticed a fruit on the Aglaia odorata tree.  You can see the tiny flower bods to the left.  The tree is ready to burst into bloom! The HUGE hibis...

I slept in really late today, until 10 a.m.  Must be the joy still spilling over into my dreamland that kept me from wanting to wake up, a "hangover" from the wonderful "Joy in January" project. If you missed it, the kickoff was Monday here . Any questions for me this warm and beautiful day in Miami.  I hope to get some gardening in this afternoon, after I bottle up the boronia absolute that arrived last week in the yearly Guild group buy.  It's especially gorgeous this year, soft and spicy, sparkling and golden with the freesia-like topnotes. Yummy!

I'm so pleased to announce the winners of the three random drawings in the Joy in January blog event of the Natural Perfumers Guild Day 1 winner of 15mls of Light EdP - HollyF Day 2 winner of four Food & Drink oils - Dana Day 3 winner of the complete set of 12 of my perfume samples - Hemla Please write to me by midnight, June 21st to claim your prize. Thanks again to everyone for helping the Guild bring a little Joy in January by sharing your storie!

If you're reading this on the third day of the three-day blog event, you can read my initial post about SAD and natural aromatics on day one here and day two here .  There is still time to leave a comment on  day one and day two to increase your chances of getting some joy this January with a naturally-fragranced win ;-) Here's the second story of a move I made to an overcast, cloudy town, and besides some joy, there's some gratitude mixed in with this, a story of small town manners. Corvallis Oregon was the northern locale my then-husband was relocating to for a post-doctoral position.  I knew very little about Oregon, less about Corvallis.  In November, 1978, we packed up Roxy the Rastapoodle and Bootsy the cat and drove nonstop to Corvallis.  The professor who had hired my husband had rented a townhouse for us and we moved in the night we arrived. Corvallis Oregon - courtesy of gardengrumblesandcrossstitchfumbles The next morning we awoke and I was...

 Joy in January - a three-day blogging event to help you deal with your SAD-ness this month. If you're reading this on the second day of the three-day blog event, you can read my initial post about SAD and scents here . When I moved to Syracuse, New York in 1980 for grad school, it was a very impulsive move on th part of my (ex) husband and myself.  He was offered a great job, and we welcomed a move from a very remote small Florida town where the biggest thrill was guessing how many alligators were in the lake across the road. I knew Syracuse was super-cold and super-snowy, but I didn't know it held the rather dismal record as having the least amount of days with sunshine in the USA -- only 55 days of sun per year! That's the number I remember reading in the paper there, but some latest data I looked up doesn't support that .  Still, it's up there in terms of cloudy, rainy, snowy days.  I know that it snowed so much, every day in the winter, that many of us ...

 Joy in January - a three-day blogging event to help you deal with your SAD-ness this month. The Natural Perfumers Guild is an association of perfumers, suppliers and associates dedicated to the use of 100% natural aromatics.  Whether it be a perfume, body spray, soap, candle, lotion or other fragrance product, we concoct them with one goal in mind - to exalt the beauty of the product by adding a gorgeous scent. The Joy in January project is fourteen of the Guild members blogging about how naturally-scented products may help alleviate the depression and lethargy that often overcomes folks who live in dark, cold northern climates. The lack of sunlight during the short days of autumn and winter is a real problem, and those afflicted with this problem are said to suffer from SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder. Please read what we share with you about our reaction to the SAD phenemona, and leave comments on our blogs to be entered to win some SAD-alleviating naturally fr...

I'm very excited because tomorrow, Jan. 15, 2012, fourteen of the Guild associates, suppliers and perfumers will launch the Joy in January blog event!  Check back here and leave a comment when I post my first blog on Joy in January, and visit all of the other blogs, since we'll all be hosting giveaways of our naturally-scented products for three days.  Good luck! I'll be here through 10 o'clock tonight, EST USA, to answer your questions about perfumery.  It's heartwarming each Sunday to see the stats of the loyal 300 or so visitors.  Y'all might not be posting, but I'm sure you're enjoying the questions and answers.  I've always been about the educational forum in natural perfumery, and this is just another facet of it. Can I share a bit of fun as I move forward to Jan 28, a day that an "advisor" (read dictator) violated a written agreement?  Why a "bit of fun"? Because it feels so good to be out from under the thumb of an ogr...

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to the first Ask the Perfumer forum of 2012.  I've been busy over the holiday.  Two huge containers full of lemon petitgrain leaves were harvested and dried, and will be distilled soon. Several new fragrant plants were introduced to the garden and are being coddled through the transplant phase. I got lots of writing done, and am mulling over an anniversary post for Jan. 28 regarding the Guild.  A number of new students enrolled in the past few weeks, so day-to-day details were addressed to get them settled into the basic perfumery course.  We're working behind the scenes for the next Guild Internet project, due to launch next week, and I'm creating a new perfume for the Prima Aroma line. I hope your holidays were a lot of fun and productive, too! I'll be here until 10 PM EST, so feel free to submit questions until then.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MIAMI, Florida /January 5, 2012 Noted French Natural Perfume Company Honoré des Prés Joins the Natural Perfumers Guild Honoré des Prés’s perfumer Olivia Giacobetti’s is recognized as attaining Professional Perfumer status in the Guild. The Natural Perfumers Guild is an international Association dedicated to perfumes and fragrance products made only with natural aromatics. The Guild is pleased to announce that Honoré des Prés, a leading French fine fragrance company, has joined the Guild. Honoré des Prés was established by Christian David in 2008 with a goal to create 100% natural and artistic perfumes with an urban flair.  All Honore des Prés scents are eco-certified and don’t contain any synthetic aromachemicals, colorants or phthalates. The fragrances are composed by renowned perfumer Olivia Giacobetti. Honore des Prés has been widely lauded for its commitment to the global environment and is a favorite among celebrities such as ...

I was going to write a year-end roundup, but time constraints and the general holiday duties got in the way - maybe tomorrow or early next week. I am so happy to share with you that the Natural Perfumers Guild is pleased to announce that noted aromatherapist and author Victoria Edwards has joined us as an Associate.  After returning to the USA from seven years in France, Victoria will be relaunching her website VictoriaLeydet.com in the upcoming months.  An aromatherapist since the 1970s, Victoria wrote a chapter in her book The Aromatherapy Companion on natural perfumery ( available on amazon ) waaaay back in the last century :-)  Her essential oils and absolutes are stellar, and I have used several of them in my perfumes, so I welcome her reopening her store.  She also makes all-natural body creams and balms, and other aromatherapy products.  Welcome back, Victoria. PS: Next week, the Guild website will have a new look, mid-month, the Guild members wi...

Green bananas just two days ago - ripened into the lovely fruits, below I'd love to share a wonderful resource with you.  This is for all who live in warm climates and who love to grow their own.  I just harvested some rare small bananas from my garden today (unknown variety) and received an email query from a Guild member, asking for an ID on a sour orange someone had given her.  She intends to macerate the skin in some fixed oil.  I sent her the link with a joke - more info than you ever need to know! Yummy hand of organic small bananas harvested  today, Dec. 27, 2011 in Miami  - some missing because the cook had dibs. In 1977/78, as I was in my senior year at the University of California, Riverside, one of the world's great think tanks, I asked my major professor, Dr. Gene Anderson, if I could obtain a change of major from anthropology (ethnobotany), which I was working on under him, to economic botany, since I felt closely aligned with...

There won't be any Ask the Perfumer this week or next, Dec. 25, 2011 or Jan. 1, 2012.  Do subscribe to this blog, or check my links from various sites, because I will be blogging about natural isolates, frankincense and some other topics of interest to the perfumery community. Best Wishes for you and yours in celebrating the holidays this time of year, and the most wonderful wishes for a prosperous and healthy 2012.