Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Cold Enfleurage - Vietnamese gardenias from Anya's Garden I recently blogged about production methods in the aromatics industry, and how important it is for students of the Natural Perfumery Institute to be knowledgeable about them.  A basic course needs to cover these topics so that the student perfumer will be able to converse and communicate intelligently and effectively about the sources of the aromatics used in our art. Vietnamese gardenia from Anya's Garden Many students, if ambitious, can extract aromatics from plant material, animal derivatives and soil themselves if they wish.  Here is a list of the topics covered in Module 2 of my textbook. 3.2:  Extraction Methods and Products                                               ...

A photo of the flowers of the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow plant.  Do you know why the plant is named that?  Do you know how many of them I have?  First correct answer wins a 15 minute consult with me for your perfumery question.  The consult will be over the phone or Skype.  Good luck! This is one of the busiest weekends in Miami, as it's the height of the "season" - tourist season.  The Boat Show, The Coconut Grove Arts Festival, The South Beach Food & Wine Festival, and many more.  Whew!  Time for us locals to stay close to home.  I met an old friend at the Hyatt downtown Friday night, and traffic, the lobby, and the entrance to the adjoining convention center were jam-packed. So as I laze around today - did I mention it's going to be 87-degrees Fahrenheit today?  - I'll only venture out to water some newly-transplanted scented plants like Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - I'll be available for your perfumery questions.

The aglaia tree in the front garden is in full bloom, the mimosa, too!  Yet, my heart is pulled to the shady area on the back fence, where my vanilla vine is budding out.  Probably due to the warm winter, the vine, which rambles in and out amongst three varieties of jasmines, is full of buds.  I've never seen so many on it, and I've had it 24 years!  I may succumb to the fantasy that I'll be able to pollinate the buds when they open.  There's a very specific way to bend a small paintbrush to reach inside.  I think it's angled to 40 degrees, and I'll have to check the specifics.  There is a moth that pollinates it in Madagascar and other regions where it's grown commercially, an I don't think that moth lives here in Miami.  I've also read how laborious it is to properly age and develop the vanillin in the beans once they are harvested.  DON'T look to eHow for any advice!  Mercy, how wrong they are on everything.  There are severa...

I wanted to post this answer I gave to an Ask the Perfumer reader as a separate blog entry for several reasons. 1) The questions raised a lot of interest in blog visitors.  My stats show that many came back today for the answer, which I couldn't provide late last night as I was tired.  2) It's critically important for a student to elevate themselves from hobbyist and use the tools that truly reflect a professional level of expertise. http://PerfumeClasses.com Hi JC: Wow, your question must have resonated with a lot of readers, as the "hit" count reached an all-time high for the Sunday forum, and I see many have returned this morning to see my answer. Let's say you're working with aromatics that are thick, like labdanum, or a concrete. You're also working with aromatics with a thin, watery consistency, like blood orange or lavender. A lot of absolutes are thick, and also quite pricey. The first things my student learns to do is to dilut...

I hope last night's dip in the temperature, down to the upper 40s, didn't harm the vanilla flowers that are ready to open.  I'm not dressed to go outside yet, so I haven't evaluated them yet.  In the meantime, as you think of your perfumery questions to ask me, look at this lovely old postcard from South Carolina, and imagine how lovely the garden smells when the magnolias are in full bloom. Don't miss two events:  The Love the Guild event, where you can receive membership into the Guild at a reduced rate, and be in the drawing for some great prizes.  Click here. And my latest post about treasures in my Vintage Vault includes a giveaway to a lucky winner of one ml of some rare, beautiful neroli.  Click here. Now I'm off to find my slacks and a jacket.  I only own three jackets - I hate the cold, and I hate dressing for it!

After roses, I'll bet that orange blossoms, when in season, are the next most popular flower in a bridal bouquet.  Sweet yet seductive, the orange blossom has persisted through the centuries as a floral symbol of love.  Neroli, the distilled essence of the flower, if cherished for its ability to raise the spirits by generally providing an uplifting, beautiful aroma. My vintage neroli treasure comes from Lautier et Fils, a Grasse-based perfumerie and distillery dating back to the 18th Century.  I have found bits and pieces of the history of this well-regarded company on the Internet, most of it in French.  This was the only bottle from them I ever found.  When I took it from the refrigerator to photograph the other day, the glue had dried up, and the majority of the label started to fall to the floor.  As I reached to catch it, due to its age, it broke into pieces.  Using perhaps not the best solution, in a panic, I used tiny bits of double-stick glue...

More on the ongoing love and revelations about the frankincense trees of Oman.  All photos are by Trygve Harris of Enfleurage, who lives in Oman. In Trygve's words:  Here are some pictures--these trees are from a high humidity area by the sea. They get rain during the summer and there is lots of fog. But they are ridiculous creatures as you can see! White butterflies pollinate them. I had no idea until I caught the butterflies in the act. The flowering spires of the Boswellia sacra tree in Oman being pollinated by white butterflies. This is a beautiful artistic composition: the striated rocks, the gnarly branches of the Boswellia sacra and the finer-textured sand/rocks of the ground. Is this a double-trunked frankincense tree, or two trees? The flowers are emerging before the leaves on all the trees, I believe.  I vote this is a sprawling single tree. The ability of the frankincense tree to emerge in what looks like a barren, hostile environment is proba...

Arabic distiller How detailed is the Basic Perfumery Course?  Very. How comprehensive is the Basic Perfumery Course? Very. http://PerfumeClasses.com One example comes from the well-illustrated section in Module 3 on the Production of Natural Aromatics.  As the head instructor, I believe that a student needs to have a working knowledge of basic information on how the aromatic makes it from the field to the bottle they buy, whether it's rose, vetiver or some new boutique oil. 3.1: The Production of Natural Aromatics                                                              Assaying Raw Materials            ...

I need to photo-document all of the jasmines growing at my home here in Miami, Florida.  If you're visiting this blog, use Casa Jasmin to search for images.  I'm inaugurating this topic today, Feb. 8, 2012, but I have published many photos of the many fragrant plants, not just the jasmines, that I grow here.  I'm not up-to-date yet on coding the search for the entire blog, so maybe the search term flower will suffice in the meantime. I took this photo yesterday morning of two stupendous Jasminium grandiflorum flowers by my front door.  I took out the Jasminium auriculatum that grew up the wrought-iron pillar, and transplanted the J. grandi in its place.  I'm going to cut it back in March to encourage a strong topgrowth over the summer. Click to enlarge. Isn't this photo almost a bit surreal?  I feel the jasmines glowing, giving out energy. The green mound in the background is Jasminium sambac var Maid of Orleans, the jasmine used to perfume tea and rice...

I've decided to get serious about creating a photo album of my perfume treasures.  I have never had the heart to break this bottle to get at the contents.  I have tried every method possible to get the stopper out, but to no avail. I adore cassie absolute, so you know I have great self control - and a respect for a true antique. 1906! I think you can click the image on to enlarge it.  You can see the one-ounce bottle is about 2/3rd full.  Another perfume once told me to smash the bottle with a hammer and filter the contents. NO!

Further refinement of the understanding of Fragrance Families - from Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute Module 2 - Copyright All Rights Reserved At the beginning of each module in the textbook, the students of Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute's Basic Course  are given the objectives for the module.  I blogged a portion of the aromatic groups recently, and here I'm sharing a refinement of the fragrance family graphic in a way that places the fragrance families into the conventional scent pyramid.  In the textbook many more fragrance family iterations are explained, the above graphic is for summation purposes only. Module 2 Objectives At the completion of this module, you will be able to: §        Name the categories of aromatics sources, and the components of each category. §        Discuss the difference between organic, wildcrafted, conventional, and endangered sources of aromatics.  ...

What a glorious day in sunny, warm Miami!  I have a lot of gardening to do today, but I'll be sure to answer your questions about perfumery when I take breaks.  I'll post a photo here later day, showing how my pineapple patch is starting to fruit.  It's very early for this, and I guess it's because we've had a very warm winter.  Usually the pineapples don't start to fruit until late March/April and the fruits are ready to harvest in June/July. There are so many fragrant flowering plants right now, I can hardly keep up with the harvest for tinctures and enfleurage! I hope you saw my post yesterday about the aglaia.  I really wish I could be a virtual Anya Aglaiaseed and get this fragrant wonder into everyone's home!

  It's 79F in Miami right now, and I just came inside after photographing some flowers in the front garden.  I'm going right outside to work on the veggie garden in the back, but I had to stop and share these photos with you.  Jasmines and aglaias are easy to grow indoors.  Have I tempted you to get some for yourself? The underside of the glorious Jasmine grandiflorum has a slight pink tinge, hinted at in the unopened bud, below.  I so adore this plant!  I don't harvest the ones from my garden for enfleurage or tincture anymore, I just like to enjoy them scenting the air in my garden. This is a big cluster of aglaia odorata flowers.  I cannot urge you strongly enough to grow this!  Even if you're in a studio apartment, you can easily grow this carefree, extremely fragrant plant.  Each cluster panicle of flowers you see is a little bigger than a thumb.  The flowers are tiny, but their scent "throws" out about 30 ft or 10 meters!...

I'm beginning a weekly series about frankincense for a number of reasons: 1.  I love the resin warmed in an incense heater. 2.  I love the essential oils from all the various species. 3.  It was probably the first plant harvested for its fragrance, for incense. 4.  It was probably the first plant made into unguents, and used medicinally. 5.  It is, according to some sources, on a path towards endangered status, for various reasons. 6.  My friend Trygve, of Enfleurage NYC, lives in Oman, takes hundreds of pictures, and has shared them with me, and I'll share them with you.  PS. She makes frankincense ice cream! 7.  I have a tiny sapling of Boswellia sacra, and I call "him" Baby Franco.  I'll chronicle his growth here. 8.  Two types of frankincense, an oil and a resinoid, form the base of my Light perfume.  The frankincense highlights and bridges the various citruses used in Light, and makes for a seamless, long-lasting colo...