Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Please post your questions, and forgive my slight delay in answering during the morning hours.  I will be available on a timely basis the rest of the day.

You know I can't take an outrageous statement like that lying down.  It comes from this poorly-written and poorly-researched article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/28/not-easy-being-green-perfume-synthetic They don't allow comments there, but I welcome them here, where they will be out on the Internet.  Please post your feelings!

The new sample set from Anya's Garden Perfumes now includes the latest releases, Light and Amberess.  You can read more about the two very different, very beautiful perfumes in my post immediately preceding this one, which is about the Outlaw Perfume project of the Natural Perfumers Guild. Each sample is about a half a milliliter, enough for two applications.  The cost for the 10 is $65, and if you use the voucher code outlaw at checkout, you'll get 10% off the price.  They're included in the new Anya's Garden fabric pouch, so they can be carried in a purse, or stored together.  Each order comes with a card that describes the order in which the perfumes should be sampled.  Think of it as a perfume guide akin to a wine-tasting guide.  You'll want to sample the softer, lighter perfumes before the powerful, full-bodied ones, much like a flight of wines. The samples now come in a satin fabric pouch with Anya's Garden Perfumes embossed on the fabric. Don'

The outlaw is in the house ;-) I hope y'all have been following the Outlaw Perfume project and it's fired you up to be one, too.  Use that rose and jasmine in appropriate amounts.  IFRA and the EU are getting pushed back at by some artisan perfumers! Well, outlaw or not, you're welcome to submit questions on perfumery today from 10 to 10.

  Soon after I started blogging in 2006, I began to write of the incredibly restrictive and unreasonable "guidelines" of the International Fragrance Association, and the resultant laws from the European Union that effectively killed perfumery.  True, they also ranked some synthetics as "dangerous" (brain disruptions), but the list of naturals, which had been used for centuries without major problems, was overwhelming.  I rarely bother to blog about these issues anymore.  I discovered I was the ONLY perfumer doing so at the time, and it cast a bit of a bitter pall over my blog.  I'd rather be blogging about the beauty and luxury of naturals, so here I am. I passed the ball on to other bloggers! Nine bloggers will be participating this week, and you can find their links at the end of this post. They're all insightful, intelligent and passionate about perfumery.  Their readership far outstrips mine, and the Outlaw Perfume project is a great way for them to

Ask the Perfumer is open and I'm waiting for your questions about perfumery, especially natural perfumery and natural raw materials.

  How very lovely that two of the four bloggers that grouped together for the Holiday Gift Guide selected my perfumes, Guild, and perfumery courses for inclusion.  I haven't sent any samples to one of the other bloggers ever, and the other in a year or more, so they're not up-to-date on my offerings.  Lucy at Indie Perfumes did make me blush with her praise! I will be offering 10 perfumes come Monday, Nov. 15th, 2010 when I launch Light and Amberess, so that's a little pre-release leak: the 10 will be offered for $65 for the sample size, a wonderful value. Here's links to Lucy and Elena's Holiday Gift Guide picks, so you can read about their choices: http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2010/11/holiday-gift-guide-2010.html http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html#2523908032031520792

The Natural Perfumers Guild is having a membership drive. There are vintage and contemporary perfumery books and article included in the membership, plus many prizes to be awarded in a random drawing of the names of the new members. Fees are marked 20% off the usual rate, and can be found at here . The dozens of books and articles that new members can download are listed here. Deadline to join at the reduced membership rate and be in the drawing is Nov. 30th. Winners may state their choice of prize from the following list: *Five one-year Basenotes Supporters memberships A $59 value* Thinking of starting a perfume business? Take part in the chat on the most active perfume site on the Internet. The Basenotes Plus ( née Basenotes Supporters) is a great way to connect to the community. *One Basic Natural Perfumery textbook A $500 value* This is the textbook for Guild President Anya McCoy's Basic Natural Perfumery course. 349 full-color pages. Winner will be emailed a

Turning the clock back has me up early, and I'll get you are, too, with perfumery questions. Ask away!

Ask the Perfumer is open this stormy Halloween day - don't ask anything spooky of me! I will be blogging later today or tomorrow about the new textbooks arriving for my online basic natural perfumery course - with pictures! After looking at it on a screen, and only printing out sections at a time, I am impressed by the book in its glory. 349 pages, many with color illustrations and photos, the most helpful charts I could design, great evaluation and recording forms, including Excel-based ones that can hold all your info - wow. Sorry for the excitement, but I really am pleased with the book, and four get mailed out tomorrow to new offline option students. Happy, happy.

I'll be here on and off all day to answer your perfumery questions. Hope y'all are enjoying the weather and having fun!

Ask the Perfumer is open for questions. I almost forgot to post today, as I was out early and running most of the day. Sorry about my tardiness, but I'm here now, so ask away.

I'm blending new perfumes today - what are you doing? Ask the Perfumer is open for this cool Sunday in Miami.

I'll be here on and off all day to answer your perfumery questions. Hope y'all are enjoying the weather and having fun!

I have been reseraching on the Internet for years, and I stumbled across an article, in French, on the early Grasse perfumery industry.  I laboriously translated it into English, and copied and pasted the twenty or so illustrations into the English version. What a lot of work, but worth it for my students! This image is just so lovely. It's of the pomade room at Robertet in the 1800's. Here's another image: This image is of the Roure Bertrand plant, and those are orange blossoms on the ground, and people with shovels, scooping them up into the distillation units you see around the wall. Neroli! If you click on the image, you will see it in a larger version.

I have a !signed! first edition (1945) of Edward Sagarin's The Science and Art of Perfumery, and I love the fact that I got a lagniappe when I purchased it. Tucked inside was the business card of a Givaudan employee.  I had high hopes that when I scanned the card, the perfume alchemist image would be clear, but age, and the texture of the card worked against my wishes. However, it is still fun to look at, so I'm sharing it with you.

I hope every perfumer who has ever struggled with a perfume that went "muddy" or was overwhelmed by one or two of the aromatics learns some tricks with this podcast.  The trick is learning to evaluate an aromatic and seeing if it might be an "accessory" note.  Accessory notes can be very wonderful in a perfume due to their uniqueness and ability to add a distinctive scent, but because they are also very intense in nature, they can ruin a blend. I'm posting these podcasts on my perfumery education website , and I'm posting them here until I learn how to create RSS feeds there.  Heck, I hope the RSS feed I'm trying to create here works.  If it doesn't just visit the podcast page on the website. UPDATE:  I have the RSS feed working on the AGNPI website, so you can grab it there.

I posted this on the Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute's blog after I realized the recent list of articles on the Institute's website had never been listed before:   Director and Head Instructor Anya McCoy, natural perfumer of Anya's Garden, just published a list of articles she has authored on the subjects of natural perfumery, perfumery and book reviews since 2004. They are available for download from http://perfumeclasses.com/faculty.htm McCoy, A. - Natural Perfumery:  A Fragrant Evolution (pub. Aromatic Sage.com) McCoy, A. - Steve Earl - Position Paper: Defining Natural Perfumery (pub. self) McCoy, A. - Robert Tisserand, Tony Burfield - IFRA/EU Boycott Primer (pub. self) McCoy, A. - The Beauty of Botanicals Made Liquid: The Passion of Natural Perfumers (pub. Basenotes.net) McCoy, A. - The Stages of Public Acceptance of Natural Perfumery (pub. Basenotes.net) McCoy, A. - Book Review: What the Nose Knows (pub. Basenotes.net) McCoy, A. - Book Review:

I got a late start today after an early visit to my mother, but I'm back in the studio now, so if you have any perfumery questions, ask away.

I rarely check the stats on my website, but I did the other day, and found someone had clicked through to my educational website Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute from Chinese Vogue . What the heck?! LOL.  There's a picture of 190 proof Everclear alcohol, and my name stands out in the chinese words, for sure, so I just had to run the copy through Google translator software. I like that 100% of the respondants wanted to make their own perfume! Here's the translation: Even if you are not an alcoholic, there is a wine you should know, not whiskey is not vodka, but Everclear, has recently been widely used home-made perfume. Everclear (pictured) are specifically fermented wine produced in cereal brands, only alcohol 75.5% (151proof) and 95% (190proof) two kinds of wine. Wow, even more than Erguotou "Lie" is much more alcoholic drink should be and it is no different. DIY for the natural fragrance of Modern Alchemy The modern trend in terms of the pu

I'll be available to answer your perfumery questions until 10 PM EST.  I'm happy to help!

Ask the Perfumer is open for today, so ask all your natural-perfume-related questions.  I can also answer questions that apply to mainstream perfumery, if you keep it in the technical area, like weighing, specific gravity, etc. PS:  In case you missed it, I posted two podcasts on http://perfumeclasses.com/podcasts.htm - more to come. PPS:  I also started a Facebook page for my online perfumery course http://www.facebook.com/pages/Study-Perfumery/280777102473 - join it to receive timely updates.

Are you laboring over perfumery issues this long, hot Labor Day weekend?  Let's see if I can help you solve them. Ask the Perfumer is open for questions.

 © Copyright Anya's Garden - 2010 All Rights Reserved I have been posting lectures in the online perfumery course I teach since 2007.  Previously available only to registered students, some of my short, informative lectures will be uploaded to the Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute's website within a week or so. These lectures will be available on the "public side" of of the website, where no log in is required. I'm thinking of uploading the pronunciation key, a short advisory on accessory notes and another topic I haven't determined yet. I hope you'll enjoy my Philly accent and a bit of humor I can't help but interjecting into the lectures occasionally. The lectures will probably be only five to ten minutes in length, in comparison to the more extensive lectures the enrolled students enjoy, which are often 20 to 30 minutes.  I'll post here when they're available.

Can you believe the summer in the Northern Hemisphere is almost over? Perfume wardrobes will be changing for those in temperate climates. Ask the Perfumer is open, thinking of hemispheric differences and the perfumes that love them. PS:  I've started a page for the Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute on Facebook - you can click to join there.  I'll be updating that page frequently.

Hi Everyone: I'll be here to answer your perfumery questions today, so please submit them via the comments option.

The Natural Perfumers Guild is onboard to help fund the effort to defeat the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. We've registered a recurring monthly donation to the lobbying fund, and I urge you all to do the same because the future of your business is in jeopardy due to the SCA2010. The Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild has started an advocacy fund so that they may hire a lobbyist to go and fight this Act. See the page at the link below.At the bottom of that page there is a link that connects you to a place where one can make a donation, the smallest increment being $5.00. The donations can be one time, monthly, etc.  http://www.soapguild.org/industry/leg-advocacy.php

This bill, as written, will effectively destroy all small businesses that produce natural care products, such as natural perfumers, aromatherapists, soapers, etc. The Natural Perfumers Guild is opposed to the passage of this bill, and urges everyone to sign the petition against it at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oppose-hr-5786-safe-cosmetics-act-of-2010/ Due to an ongoing family crisis, I have been unable to blog for some months now, since I have to focus my energies on the healing process for my mother.  On July 27, 2010, I posted a link, via the private forum for the members of the Natural Perfumers Guild, to the petition against the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010.  Shortly after that, I started a blog on the subject, wanting to state the Guild's position and to link with others opposed to this egregious Act that will put us out of business, but I was pulled off the post by my family obligations - I just didn't have the time, nor could I focus to write a good, informative b

Hi Everyone: Ask the Perfumer is waiting for questions on this hot, humid mid-August day.  Wear some refreshing cologne and post your queries and I'll answer up to 10PM tonight.

I apologize for launching the "Ask the Perfumer" forum so late today. I slept late and then went to the hospital where my mother is for a long visit, went shopping, - and just plain forgot until now!  I'll answer your queries until late tonight, so ask away.