Anya! Part 1 - Natural Perfumes

Anya has made two new soft and subtle American Southern-tropical  perfumes with mystic qualities.  Moondance is a surprisingly soft, subtle, restful  tuberose mixed with night blooming florals.  Star Flower begins in one way  (a crystalized sugar-candied lily packed in moss) and ends in quite another (by the lily dissolving into almond poured into chocolate and vanilla dusted with clove).  They are both very relaxing but at the same time clarifying.  It must be their purity.

Anya McCoy of Anya's Gardens has studied natural perfumery for many years, and has devoted herself to natural aromatics, often growing and tincturing the perfume's components herself in her own Florida garden.  She has over the course years of avid collecting compiled a range of sources to the purest supplies of fully organic traditional perfume materials from around the world.  She is now become quite experimental at the same time, trying all kinds of materials that are not traditional.  After all the years of experience and exposure to many influences, I think she has now created a distinctive and very particular line.  Her compositions have a sense of delicacy and complexity, and develop over time, going from strength to softness and opening into different aspects of the notes over the evaporation period. which is playing an aesthetic game seldom engaged with purely natural elements.  What she does is provide a unique sense experience of the the natural world that is rich yet ethereally soft and at the same time clarifying and sharpening the sense of smell and memory.

She made a box of seven samples with a suggested order of application while sampling, with the lightest and softest to be tried before the strong and full bodied.  In that way, as she says "the delicate nuances of the lighter creation is not lost due to the intense fragrance of the more assertive perfumes."  Botanicals are subtle and delicate elements anyway, and this method of presenting her perfumes deliberately educates the mind and nose to become more aware of the nuances and also moves into a dance about what the sense of smell is capable of once developed.  People get stressed from too much information and we sometimes become jaded through overexposure to difficult smells. This set is a pleasurable lesson plan to recalibrate the brain/body connection through the sense of smell.  Starting out in naturals by getting a full set of these samples would be a lovely way to afford trying a wide variety of special natural substances you don't normally run across in daily life.  It's an experience in and of itself and also a way to find those tones that most appeal to you before deciding on  a full size.

One blessing is that it is unlikely that people with a heightened sense of chemical sensitivity will be offended by a perfume made with botanical elements.  They hold very close to the body, and do not leave a big scent trail. The longevity of regular commercial perfumes can't be matched by organic natural perfumes because there are no preservatives or chemicals that would extend the natural life of the scent once exposed to the air. My skin has always tended to dryness, so I need to moisturize well if I want a natural botanical perfume to last more than an hour.  I know there is a lot of variation because these fragrances last a number of hours on most other people.  It's a very individual thing, so you have to see for yourself. 

The seven, which are (in order from softest to strongest) are Pan, Moon Dance, River Cali, Temple, Fairchild, Kaffir and Star Flower.  I have written about Pan before.  The presentation of a suggested order of sampling in order to heighten the experience is delightful    More in my next post...