Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Click the image to enlarge it for viewing My entry in the Memory and Desire project was posted last night . I'll wait a few days to see the comments and answer them here, as that forum is just for reader comments, not perfumer-answers-the-readers comments. Thanks so much to Heather, she's a peach for all the effort and intellect she put into this monumental Internet project.

Below is a letter I just received from Tony Burfield of Cropwatch. Feel free to redistribute it. Dear All, Citrus Oils: the Situation Cropwatch is directly opposing IFRA's Risk Assessment on furanocoumarins, and its proposals to severely restrict citrus oil usage in cosmetics products. Unfortunately, because of the lack of transparency exercised by RIFM, IFRA and the EU Commission over this matter. it means that unless you, dear reader, belong to a professional association, probably won't get to see IFRA's information letter IL799 on the topic, or the Risk Assessment that the EU Commission was given in late 2007 by IFRA. IFRA have apparently suggested a cosy future chat with the EU Commissioners, some unnamed industry moguls and fragrance consumers (presumably IFRA or RIFM members) to 'explain matters' - presumably code for agreeing their highly restrictive citrus oil proposals (see below) with the EU regulator. Nobody with an independent or contrary opinion is to

My gigantic plant of Jasmine sambac Duke of Tuscany is starting to bloom. This sambac is slow growing and has huge - for jasmine huge I should qualify - flowers about the size of a tiny carnation, full of tightly-packed petals and the most tender non-indolic jasmine scent ever. I just adore it! I just plucked the first blossom of the season from it today, and left one on for the birds and lizards to enjoy ;-) It's full of about-to-open buds, and I hope I have some to bring to the lunch tomorrow of the Miami NP crew so they can enjoy it. I coined the organoleptic term "tender" and I have to add that to the Aromatic Lexicon on the evaluation sheet my students use. So many of the home-grown jasmines I have become "tender" upon tincturing. Sigh. They're just so lovely, tender, powdery, soft, sweet and delicious. April and May are the big jasmine blooming months here in Miami, not August and September as they are in India and France. Don't know the reason fo

Click on the photo for enlarged view Long before the marketers and perfume houses got savvy, a display spilled the coal, er, the beans: the source of many of the synthetic aromachemicals used in perfumery since the 1880's were made from coal or petroleum sources. The lady in the photo seems to be raising a glass lid over a container that holds scent strips of the coal-derived scent, and the glass jars on top hold the natural materials of fragrance. I can identify rose and jasmine in the jars. Not much else to say about this, just that I do prefer the complexity, richness, sustainability and beauty of natural aromatics.

Luca Turin, perfume critic, author of the soon-to-be-released The Perfume Guide just wrote about a custom perfume he had made by Dominique Dubrana of Italy . We in the Guild know him as a Professional Perfumer who prefers to be called Salaam, a longtime member of my Yahoo Natural Perfumery group and Guild member. His keen insights and helpful comments offered in our private group always have a ring of experience and clarity, and he gets to the soul of the matter with ease. Turin found it refreshing that Salaam did not require a questionnaire about astrological sign, personality traits, or other psychological items that are so often the tool of the custom perfumer. Instead Turin got to choose the raw materials from a list. The resultant perfume has increased the openly-skeptical Turin's opinion of what a perfume made only with natural ingredients can be - and we must thank Salaam for that. Additionally, Salaam is the only natural perfumer included in Turin's new book, anothe

More Debunking of Bad Science from Tony Burfield of Cropwatch I've known Natural Perfumers Guild member Tony Burfield of Cropwatch for about ten years now. We "met" in online forums on aromatherapy, where we, and many others were real "safety nuts." All this precedes the recent upsurge in interest in niche perfumers creating fragrances in their (often unregulated) studios. At the time we were alarmed at the new folks flooding into the aromatherapy world, enticed with, and in love with, natural aromatics. Often they had no idea of maximum allowable usage rates and surrounding safety issues. Natural aromatics do have some risk factors, depending upon the chemical composition of the aromatic and the rate at which it is used in a blend. Some are fairly innocuous. Others can permanantly scar you with Berloque dermatitis markings, which look like dark, blotchy birthmarks. Others may cause blistering rashes, itching and lifelong sensitization. A few cause allergenic re

There are several French suppliers with pristine reputations for supplying pure and natural aromatics, and fewer still that have a history of continuous manufacturing since the 1920's. Albert Vieille is such a company, and the people that work there are a delight and also very helpful, so it is a pleasure to work with them. The Natural Perfumers Guild is pleased to welcome Albert Vieille onboard as a Supplier member, and this membership is one more step forward as we join forces with those we admire and respect in the natural aromatics field.

I completely missed these reviews when I was offline due to eye strain. Thank you Robin, the Queen of NowSmellThis for letting me know about Kevin's reviews .

The Fragrance Foundation + Mindy Green + John Steele The Natural Perfumers Guild is proud to announce the addition of three new Associates to our membership roster. Two of the new members, John Steele of Lifetree Aromatix and Mindy Green of Green Scentsations are noted aromatherapists, authors and educators. Neither has a website, so the links above are to websites that summarize their illustrious careers. Trained in aromatherapy, John has taught natural perfumery, and Mindy wrote a seminal book on Natural Perfumery . Mindy is also the Clinical Aromatherapist for the Aveda Corporation , a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild and associate editor of the American Herb Association Newsletter Their careers are devoted to natural aromatics, writing, education and promoting the industry, and we are honored to have them on board. The Fragrance Foundation is the educational arm of the international fragrance industry. The Guild, just one-and-a-half yea

Left box and bottle: Ascent Natural Perfumes Right side: Janita Haan Perfumes In August 2007 the Guild welcomed natural perfumer Rohanna Goodwin Smith of Ascent Natural Perfumes onboard as a Professional Perfumer. I noted that the similarities between her packaging, down to the size and shape of the box, the color of the box, the shape of the perfume bottles and the delicate, sophisticated style of her perfume was nearly identical to that of Janita Haan, another Guild Professional Perfumer, who joined June 2007. My photograph here does not show the color similarity so well. I think the flash brought out too much red in Janita's box, the one on the right with the larger bottle. The gold drops you see behind the bottle are from the sealing wax. When anyone joins the Guild they submit some items to me for the Guild Library, so I've seen a lot of packaging, but never anything like the similarities between these two perfumers. When Janita saw the name of Rohanna's company, her

Illustration for the article chosen for no reason other than its beauty - a bunch of blue lotus flowers. Bravo to Tony Burfield for waging a tough negotiation and getting two great copyrighted articles in this month's Cropwatch newsletter.  Downlload the .pdfs, such as the one that is a very funny speech by Kim Kleimann, President of Berje Inc. titled "What you'll never hear from your boss." Mr. Kleimann pulls no punches, but there are lots of punchlines - in the form of very comical takes on the state of the raw materials industry. No one is sacrosanct - REACH, buyers, Scandanavian dermatologists (what a back story that is to the current state of regulation!), IFRA, sellers, anybody. I like Mr. Kleimann - he's a real straight shooter. The WFFC that this speech was presented at is the Women in Fragrance and Flavor Commerce group in New Jersey. Robert Tisserand , noted aromatherapist and I'm proud to say a member of the Natural Perfumers Guild , gave a br

The Natural Perfumers Guild has partnered with Cropwatch in the past, most notably in early 2007, when the Guild joined them in challenging the adoption of IFRA's (International Fragrance Association) 40th Amendment without public review or input. We further support Cropwatch in their ongoing efforts to bring an outside evaluation as to the practices related to the legislative control of natural aromatics as they are used in the body care, aromatherapy and perfumery industries. The information presented below is further documentation of Cropwatch's ongoing efforts: CROPWATCH STATEMENT ON TEA TREE OIL Jan 2008. Pre-amble. The SCCP has the subject of tea tree oil (TTO) on its agenda for its Brussels meeting of 22.01.08. You will remember that allegations about the instability & skin safety of tea tree oil, as well as complaints about gaps in the toxicity data, were previously made in the flawed SCCP Opinion SCCP/0843/04, to which the Australian Te

Sometimes it's difficult to find items for the work we do. Scent strip holders are nearly impossible to find, and the ones coming out of France, which are usually given away at trade shows, are ugly, in my opinion. I corresponded last year with the *only* firm in France that produces them (at least that's what I was told) and I just gave up. I am wanting to have some made with the Natural Perfumers Guild logo on them, either in steel or wood. I either had to contract for a minimum of 1000 or buy their squat, off-the-shelf ones. Sometimes photo or memo holders can do the job, like the Sputnik photo clip contraption found at Target and other stores. Diane Rowles, a student in my class , deserves a round of applause for discovering that antique wire "frogs", used to hold flowers in place in a vase, fit the bill. You can just push the scent strip in with one hand (a real advantage over the "clip" models,) and they're small and don't take up much room o

The image above is really nice viewed in its original size. Just click it on. The world image is used in the online course website's internal pages. The students see that pictorial banner when the log in for their study modules, chats, or when the access the site to catch up on the downloads needed for class, to follow links or any of the many options available. The image was chose to best illustrate the ability of this course to link up natural perfumery students worldwide. You can click on the detailed Classes page on Anya's Garden for details and to read a testimonial from a Fall 2007 student. More testimonials are available upon request. The Fall 2007 class contains 26 students spanning the globe from Australia to Belgium. The Spring 2008 class, which is just being formally announced here for pre-registration is already half full, and the geographic stretch is a little further: China to Italy. I am very, very humbled by the interest and passion and dedication these studen

It was a great surprise to find out this morning that I won something yesterday, the first day of the new year. Here's what I posted on my Yahoo group, and please note the contest I've now posted there is only open to members of that group: I'm not like many other perfumers -- I do not sample, or keep up with what's on the market. As an artist, I like to create for my own muse. I do get to sample the lovely perfumes of the Guild members, because they send them to me for the Guild Scent Library. Marina, of the great blog Perfume Smellin' Things http://perfumesmellinthings.blogspot.com/ recently had a drawing for eight of her special favorites of the past year, and I won, picked at random out of 112 entries! I used to win stuff all the time when I entered contents, and I haven't for a while (entered contests, that is), so I'm going to start again. Stuff I've won in the past: An Apple Ibook, a trip out of town to an away game with the Tampa Buccaneers, l

Kaffir Perfume has been reviewed on the Bittergrace blog and both Kaffir and Temple are reviewed by Helg on Perfume Shrine .

I've had a lot to celebrate lately, in both my professional life as a perfumer and President of the Natural Perfumers Guild, and my personal life. After 2.5 years of grueling work, I'm able to take some time off, party more, enjoy life and just have fun. One of these events was taking my 88 year-old mother to a favorite Slow Food restaurant of mine, Michael's Genuine Food and Drink in Miami's Design District. It's practically a neighborhood place for me, being just a short drive from my house. We had reservations for a little before noon, as I knew the place gets slammed with guests and I wanted to get her settled into her seat before the place filled. When we got to the Design District, Art Basel crowds filled the streets as the galleries were open and excitement was in the air. It was very festive and a lot of fun! Michael's is set back in a treed courtyard, with the choice of indoor or outdoor seating. We choose indoor, even though the weather was nice bec

I posted this the other day on both Perfume of Life and Basenotes. I've never met another perfumer before, and wanted to see the glitz and glamor surrounding Mr. Christian and his luxe line. He is well-known for creating "the world's most expensive perfume." Quite a heady experience for a niche artisan perfumer like me, LOL. One thing I didn't realize until afterwards -- the Neiman Marcus store was not awash in strong perfume fumes, despite many spraying and testing. I suppose they have good air "scrubbers". I appreciated this, as my nose is very sensitive, and it could have been an unpleasant experience. I was told his appearance made the nightly news locally, as did Paris Hilton's presentation of her perfume Can Can the next day. I did somehow restrain myself from going to her event, but had fun relating my visit to NM, the Chanel boutique next door, etc. Please not what a sanguine "reporter" I am, not even getting the names of the perf

The Winter 2007 issue of Glow, a beauty and fashion magazine published in Toronto, features an article "Two Scents" that yours truly is quoted in on the subject of natural perfumery. They give equal time to Thierry Wasser, perfumer with Firmenich, and a fragrance scientist both working on the synthhetics side of perfumery. The editor has written a rather balanced view of the two camps of natural perfumery, and I think it's a good read that will help the general public get a grasp on the major differences between our artisan art and their corporate product. Click here to visit my site where you can view the PDF of the article.

November 16, 2007 Two new perfumes launched by Anya's Garden 11/07 Be the first to experience and luxuriate in the fragrance of two very different, new-to-the-market citruses , paired in unexpected ways for very different results. Mirroring the new citruses, you'll find agarwood in the base, but two very different agarwoods - one light, golden and spicy, the other true Laotian and Vietnamese dark, deep, hypnotic Ouds. Read more on the perfumes page. Kaffir Fragrance Family: Citrus-Leather Exotic, gourmand, flirty, fun, and radiating good vibes of sexy playfulness, Kaffir can transport the wearer to explore their own version of intrigue and romance -- then smoothly moves into a rich, leather drydown. For the worldy and artistic man or woman. Temple Fragrance Family: Citrus-Spice-Wood Luscious, fresh and a wake-up delight, the orange juice essential oil grabs your attention, and t

Kaffir , a unique and groundbreaking perfume from Anya's Garden, truly is from Anya's Garden - in Miami Shores, Florida, USA. Kaffir Lime leaf, also called Thai Lime Leaf, is used in Asian cooking for the unusual, exciting, penetrating flavor it imparts. The petitgrain oil also imparts an aldehydic kick, and Kaffir the perfume honors and exalts that sensual experience. No other citrus comes close to the odor impact of kaffir, which I call the King of Citrus. There is a story of delight, destruction and rebirth behind the kaffir tree of my home garden. Nine citrus trees were planted - and ripped out - of my garden. I planted them when I moved in, but the State of Florida, in a misguided attempt to stop the spread of a non-threatening citrus disease, cut down over 1,000,000 citrus trees, including my kaffir tree. However, my kaffir was the only one to resprout from the root