Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

You can ask your perfumery questions until 10PM EST today, and I'll be happy to help you.  In the meantime, I want to share my renewed interest in natural botanical architecture.  I first saw photos in the magazine Co-Evolution Quarterly in the 70s.  As I recall, the photos showed specially-manipulated trees growing in pools of sun, rising up from an underground cave type setting.  The photos I'm showing here are from a website that documents the botanical architecture of   Axel Erlandson on this website .  Erlandson was a visionary who created what became known as the 'tree circus'. Very inspiring, quirky and now, sadly the trees no longer exist.  If you search botanical architecture on google, and scan the images section, you'll see some modern examples.  If you ever come across the original images from Co-Evolution Quarterly, please let me know.  I'd love to view them again. UPDATE:  I did a google search, and the results indicate that Mark Primack, the a

August in Miami is a pleasure to a perfumer's nose. Some of the blooming treasures in my front garden this morning are jasmine grandiflorums climbing by my front door, Vietnamese gardenias, ylang ylangs, jasmine sambac longipetalum, angel's trumpets and four o'clocks. Everything but the angel's trumpets and four o'clocks are fragrant now. The angel's trumpets will start pumping out their sweet, spicy perfume around dusk, and the four o'clocks will start smelling of grape soda around, well, four o'clock in the afternoon. Such inspiration! Do you have any perfumery questions, or scented plant questions? I'll be here to answer them unti 10 PM EST. Grape-soda scented four o'clock.  I know the natural chemical constituent that makes it smell like the commercial grape soda, but I prefer the common, less technical common name for the flower. Angel trumpets touching the sky, heralding down their fragrance from above. A solo jasmine gra

I love, love, love my soon-to-be-launched Room Candy ambient fragrance line for some many reasons!  First, it's 100% natural, with just beeswax and essential oils or absolutes for fragrance. Second, it's the ultimate recyclable product. I put together this quick little photo montage to illustrate that 1. You melt the little flower wax tarts, getting the fragrance into your home  2. After it's given upmost of its scent, you can put it into a cloth or pouch and use it to scent your drawers or closets, or, 3., Use it to recondition wood chopping boards, furniture or even to bind together the ends of frayed rope (an ancient use for it). Can you think of any other uses?  Please share.   PS the packaging is recyclable, too!

I'll be around all day to answer your perfumery questions, just popping in and out as I have a meeting or two. Here's some photos of the vintage candy molds I'm using for my Room Candy wax melts. The wax melts smell soooo good!  Read my previous posts to find out more about them.

The paper captures the deep teal of the tropical waters that surround Miami and the lush botanicals that go into the Anya's Garden perfumes The new custom tissue paper for Anya's Garden Perfume has arrived.  It will look gorgeous with my boxes and satin bags. 

Organic Room Candy - First 100 Percent Natural Fragrance Wax Melts Released by Anya Garden Perfumes  For Immediate Release MIAMI SHORES, Fla./EWORLDWIRE/Aug. 1, 2012 --- Miami-based natural perfumer Anya McCoy once again leads the trends in natural perfumery by launching 100 percent ambient room fragrances in wax melt form. Room Candy takes the latest hottest product on the market and adapts it using 100 percent natural ingredients. Organic beeswax is the wax of choice for this entry into the ambient fragrance line for this is a world-renowned perfumer who is the president of the Natural Perfumers Guild and Director of the Natural Perfumery Institute. Pure essential oils and absolute oils provide the scent for this groundbreaking line of wax melts, also known as wax tarts and wickless candles. McCoy hand-pours the fragrant blend into vintage candy molds she has collected. Testing the wax melts, she discovered that they diffused scent over a 300-square-foot room

I can't burn fragrant candles because I have cats and overhead fans that are always on here in Miami.  So I was limited in fragrancing my home.  I use room sprays and potpourri. Below, read the latest news in my newsletter today - and an incentive to sign up for my newsletter in case you haven't done so - a giveaway.  If you miss this one, there will be future giveaways, great discounts and new products announced in the upcoming months.   Anya Presents Room Candy - the first 100% natural wax melts Fragrances : Outlaw Perfume - the first oakmoss, lime and bergamot chypre room fragrance ever! Lemon Vetiver - sweet candied lemon myrtle with an herbal twist and earthy vetiver Cafe Chocolata - yummy gourmand scent, mouth-watering combo of chocolate and coffee Bay Rum and Honey - dark bay rum and soft honey beeswax smell like a scented topical night Anya once again leads the trends in natural perfumery by launching 100% ambient room fragrances in wax melt form. Room Can

I'm resisting the urge to tincture or enfleurage my ylang ylang or jasmine grandiflorum flowers.  It's a way of 'turning off' the work and just enjoying them for their beauty.  Do you have any questions for me today?  I'll be here all day, since I'm working on my new launch and new edition of the Natural Perfumery Institute's textbook with the wonderful assistance of Andrine Olson.  Also wish to thank Bruce Bolmes for his contributions to the textbook.     Beautiful ylang ylang flower in my garden last week.  Photo by Elise Pearlstine

White champaca - Michelia alba Last week I showed you the beautiful golden champaca, this week I'm sharing a photo of the beautiful white champaca growing in my garden.  What a gorgeous, highly-scented tincture this makes!  It's so strong, I have to dilute it for standardization. Do you have any perfumery questions this week?  I'll be here until 10 PM ET to aid you in your perfumery work.

Good morning, dear friends!  I started drinking high-octane coffee again this week, and I'm wired and have already been very productive this not-very-hot-or-humid morning in Miami.  My front garden is a floral wonderland today, and I'm sharing my photos with you.  I hope they inspire you to grow your own fragrant botanicals, whether you harvest them to scent extraction or not.   I'll be here today, working on my hush-hush new fragrant product, so I'll be answering your natural perfumery questions. Gold Champaca Greeting me at my front door - a vigorous Jasmine grandiflorum plant Not scented in the morning - night-blooming jasmine A closeup of the pretty little nightblooming jasmine flowers Tahitian gardenia - yes, the one Monoi is made from My ylang ylang tree is loaded with blooms A harvest basket before 9 a.m. Wonderful work if you can get it!

Ask the Perfumer is taking the day off to care for the parched plants in the garden and to TCB.  See you next week!

July 1st!  Hope you're having summer fun in the Northern Hemisphere, and cool times in the Southern.  Any perfumery questions today?

SHARE with your perfumer and B&B friends - Allured Books is again offering a great discount to make your summer cool! Read below: SUMMER DISCOUNT: 30% through September 15, 2012 Coupon Code:anya30 All Alluredbooks including new ones below. A few sample pages on the title page (links below) will help youdecide if the book is right for you. Of course - Arctander Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin- still in stock! http://www.alluredbooks.com/Fragrance-Creation/Arctander-s-Perfume-and-Flavor-Materials-of-Natural-Origin.html New Books: Coloring the Cosmetic World http://www.alluredbooks.com/Coloring-the-Cosmetic-World-Using-Pigments-in-Decorative-Cosmetic-Formulations.html Practical Modern Hair Science http://www.alluredbooks.com/Practical-Modern-Hair-Science.html Essential Oils Volume 9 http://www.alluredbooks.com/Fragrance-Creation/Essential-Oils-Vol-9-2008-2011.html Preservatives for Cosmetics (regulatory and preservatives may be of special interest.)

Take a break from your fun summer (or winter, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere) activities and Ask the Perfumer your questions about any aspect of perfumery.

  Horst P. Horst: Lisa Hands With Vase and Flowers, 1941 I just love it.

I was looking for vintage aromatics on eBay, and came across the ad, below. I didn't save the image, so I googled and found the one above.   It seems that the firm of Magnus Mabee and Reynard was sued for adulterating their oils in 1914, and they lost.  The history of the herb and spice trade, and then the essential oils/absolutes/attars trade have historically been rife with adulteration.  I learned about this when as an undergraduate, completing studies in economic botany I found out that the word "sophistication" had its roots in this price-gouging, false-advertising practice.  From Dictionary.com:  so·phis·ti·cat·ed [ s uh - fis -ti-key-tid ]   adjective (after what you would expect, i.e., worldly), comes: 3. deceptive; misleading. and sophisticate - verb (used with object) 3. to make less natural, simple, or ingenuous; make worldly-wise. 4. to alter; pervert: to sophisticate a meaning beyond recognition.   Here's the recent ad that spa

Tahitian Gardenia Vietnamese gardenia The photos are of the Vietnamese and Tahitian gardenias growing in my front garden in Miami Shores.  I've been making enfleurage pomade from them, and it is heavenly!  I just added two new tiny varieties of the Tahitian gardenia to my collection - Heaven Scent.  They're double flowered! My co-author and I are in the midst of writing all the extraction secrets up for my book, Perfume From Your Garden.  We're at opposite ends of the country, so we'll have most growing zones covered. Today is Ask the Perfumer Sunday, and I'll be here until 10PM ET to answer your perfumery questions.

PRESS RELEASE:  June 14, 2012 (Miami Shores, Florida, USA) On June 14, 2002, natural perfumer Anya McCoy founded the Natural Perfumery group on Yahoo!.  She had several goals in mind: promote the ideals of 100% natural perfume; establish files, links, databases, archives and other materials that would establish a strong educational foundation for members; and hold standards of friendly discussion and respect for other's ideas paramount to maintain a helpful, sharing group. The group now has over 2300 members, and those goals have been met and surpassed. The Natural Perfumery group on Yahoo was founded on June 14, 2002 by Natural Perfumery icon Anya McCoy and is the largest perfumery group of its type worldwide. The group website health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalPerfumery/ has been the center of the growth of the natural perfumery world during its dynamic growth ph

I never can get enough of these tiny, highly-fragrant Aglaia odorata flowers!  They're blooming right now in hot, hot, humid Miami, and will bloom just about once a month. The Ask the Perfumer forum is open for questions until 10 PM ET today.  Any question about perfumery, from raw materials to making tinctures, supplies, etc., is welcome.

Tahitian gardenia in Anya's Garden My Tahitian gardenia plant is flowering like crazy!  It's in its second year and really taking off.  I just got two tiny Tahitian gardenia *double* flowering plants that will be in the ground soon. I'll be here until 10 PM ET tonight for any perfuming questions you have.  Stay cool - it's going to be way over 90F here today (Tahitian gardenia weather).

Fan carved from sandalwood Santalum album  -  even the botanical name is beautiful and strong. If rose and jasmine are feminine, sandalwood is strongly, sexily, masculine.  All male. And I fell hard for “him” from the first sniff.  Here’s my decades-long love/lust story, and I’m sorry to say it might not have a happy ending. Sandalwood Mala bead necklace I didn’t get my first bottle of sandalwood oil until I was 18 or so.  I already had some patchouli, as it was the scent of choice for hippies, and if I had some oils from the racks in hippie stores, they’re long forgotten, and I now know they were probably synthetic.  One day I was helping someone unpack some imported goods in the back of the store, and some of the merchandise was from India.  There were lovely colorful glass beads strung into necklaces that were woven from brass wire. Then I found a packet of scented wooden beads made into jewelry.  I’ll always associate the glass green/aqua necklace and the crimson red o