Anya’s Garden Perfumes Miami

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hello Niche Nerds,

Today I bring you a perfumer who is doing some beautiful work, Anya McCoy: perfumer for Anya’s Garden, President of the Natural Perfumers Guild and Founder & Head Instructor of the Natural Perfumery Institute.. This is small batch, niche, natural perfumery from Miami, Florida, USA that has been produced by Anya since 1991. The beautiful Anya sent these samples for me to try and so I’m going to spend a couple of days with them and do a review on my 3 favourites.

Anya's Garden FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

The instruction card that comes with them tells you to sniff from lightest to heaviest so you don’t over or under whelm your nose at any point, clever. Even the packaging is beautifully thought out and presented, it all bodes very well.

Temple Anya's Garden VK.comPhoto Stolen VK.com

Light 2010: Crisp, bright, sharp and sexy are the four words that keep springing into my mind here. we have a very citrus fragrance with deep green facets, floral wafts and an animalic backbeat. This is like a 1950s men’s fragrance, before they took all the good stuff out. Slightly outrageous and narcotic, this is exactly how I want to smell. Light must mean physical light rather that lack of heft because this fragrance has a wonderful sillage making my room smell fresh and friendly when I return to it. Being all natural I’m surprised at how long the citrus lasts on my skin, also the incense is cool and rich and hums along nicely, weaving in and around, reminding me it’s there at intervals. I would LOVE to smell this on someone else but I’ve used up my whole sample over the last two days and will have to wait for a bottle to arrive.

LightA truly modern take on a classic cologne-style, blended as a pure perfume. Israeli yellow grapefruit, cedrat (citron) from Sicily, aglaia flower, genet, frankincense.

Modern Citrus Cologne

cedrat Sicily
yellow grapefruit Israel
juniper berry Bulgaria
neroli Tunisia
genet France
aglaia China
aglaia tincture Anya’s Garden
ambergris Ocean
frankincense Oman
frankincense resin Somalia

Temple Anya's Garden HDWallpapers4DesktopPhoto Stolen HDWallpapers4Desktop

Amberess 2010: At once haunting and riveting Ambress opens sweet, spicy, resinous and a little sweaty. Gorgeous in a way only natural perfumerie can be. Layered, hefty, intricate and deep yet has a sheer floating beauty that slowly unfolds and becomes an ethereal veil that highlights the beauty of my own human smell. Yes i smell rose and spicy/minty geranium, the warm resins, soft and regal sandalwood melting deliciously into vanilla but Amberess is more than all these notes. Amberess is a journey, there is no smoky darkness here it is all smooth glamour and light. Way too over the top for most workplaces before the hour and half mark it is a siren song of entrapment. Lasting power is moderate and sillage excellent.

AmberessRare musk rose from Africa opens this soft, lush amber perfume. Ten carefully-blended base notes provide a gorgeous amber base that melts into your skin.
Floral Amber

musk rose absolute and otto Zambia
rose geranium sur fleurs South Africa
ylang ylang extra Madagascar
balsam of peru El Salvador
 styrax Honduras
labdanum Spain
tolu balsam Brazil
amber fossil Himalayas
tonka bean Venezuela
sandalwood Sri Lanka
benzoin siam Laos
vanilla Madagascar

Temple Anya's Garden Lotus Temple RealWowzPhoto Stolen RealWowz

Temple 2007: Interestingly with Temple my skin skips the oranges almost completely and goes straight to spicy, herby, sizzling BarBQ goodness. The juice is there but it’s not top of nose, I get the warmth, animalics and smoke of ambergris, ambrette, civet, castoreum and oudh. I get a waft of coffee, cool grounds after they’ve been used, slightly bitter and wet. The spices are rich and dry like being in the spice marketplace in Fiji or Vietnam and what feels, or smells, like an incense. This fragrance is killer! I want to start all over again. Temple is beautiful but I think it may need some warmth to really blossom. Currently I’m in Sydney winter and its lovely and lively but I think I’m missing something. Sillage is good and the scent bubble is not too big, but noticeable across a cafe table. The story as it dries to a smoky, soft, warmth is cuddly like polar fleece but stylish like leather.

TempleOrange juice surprises you, spices warm you and exotic Oud soothes you

Modern Oud Spicey

orange juice Brazil
ginger Indonesia
cardamom Indonesia
aglaia flower China, Anya’s Garden
coffee Brazil
civet Ethiopia
temple spice blend Anya’s Garden
benzoin siam Thailand
oud Laos
castoreum Canada
mitti – India, Anya’s Garden
ambrette India, Anya’s Garden
ambergris Ocean

4th of july gif photo: 4th Of July GIF_7.gif

Anya’s Garden GIVEAWAY!

giveaway kbairdPhoto Stolen kbaird

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 3 prizes this week in our special 4th of July GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

3 x .5ml Anya’s Garden samples (missing what I used to review and no you don’t get to choose)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

Go to Anya’s Garden website and get an ingredient from one of her perfumes not mentioned in this post, and the perfume it came from. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie @AnyasGarden PERFUME SAMPLES GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1Fm #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 7th July 2013 11pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post Monday 8th.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Sunday 14th June 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE,

Portia xx

75 thoughts on “Anya’s Garden Perfumes Miami”

  2. Hi Portia,
    I have been cooking with pandanus leaf and found it in Fairchild.
    Looking at Anya’s Garden with covetous eyes!
    Please enter me, I follow with RSS.

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  7. I don’t wanna be a wet picnic blanket, parade rain-er or a (political) party pooper esp. on the 4th of July… but the site states Anja’s Garden Perfumes does not test on animals yet castoreum (from beavers) and civet are listed as ingredients. To my knowledge these secretions cannot be obtained without distressing or injuring (fatally i.e. killing!) a beaver or a civet. Is AGP’s castoreum and civet sourced from individuals that died of natural causes??? But who’s collecting beaver road kill and civet carcasses for use in the perfume industry?!? Or do they use synthetic substitutes? But the brand clearly and proudly claim the products are 100% natural. I’m confused and concerned by these contradictions…

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    • Good questions. Parade rained out. I will ask Anya.
      Maybe Anya creates natural accords to replicate these smells. I have sent a question on.
      Killing animals for their parts and testing on them are different though, semantics yes but they are not the same.
      Portia x

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    • Hiya ADAMbergris,
      I have been asking some questions and have some answers. I hope they are helpful.
      For myself, I think it admirable that the perfume industry has taken a part of animals killed for fur trading and use it. Though I am not a huge fan of fur farming itself.
      Portia xx

      This from Anya:
      Civets are never killed! The substance is excreted by them.
      Castoreum is a byproduct of the beaver industry, they’re not killed for it. To clarify: the beavers are killed, but for their pelts. Think cow/meat/shoes,purses. They used to throw the castor pods away.
      The First Nation people of Canada use the castor pods for medicine. Civet paste is used for medicine in Africa, musk in China.

      Like

  8. How about “bee goo” in Pan? I think I would have made up a more glamorous name for it. I follow with Bloglovin. Thanks for the draw.

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  10. I see that Pan has Labdanum in it, and I do love that note! Thank you for introducing us to Anya’s Garden. I follow by email.

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  11. Mmm, I found Champaca Gold from India. In the Fairchild fragrance. Thank you for introducing me to Anya’s Garden, so much to look forward to trying someday! I follow by E mail.

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  13. The Moondance fragrance lists Mentha arvensis (also known as corn mint or wild mint). I love the smell of this plant! Thank you for the draw, Portia. Anya McCoy is amazing!

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  14. I have to go w/Bee Goo from her Pan perfume. I mean Because its Bee Goo & how can you not get a giggle from that description! I follow you via email. I am intrigued w/her perfumes. They sound lovely. Here’s to a Happy 4th to all the American followers!

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  16. Bitter almond from Starflower. This is a divine scent that I was privileged to own by winning a draw for new subscribers to her newsletter!! She is amazing and I have sampled other ones that I would love to own. I follow via email and would be thrilled to be the lucky winner of this draw!

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  21. Woops! Just saw I doubled up. I’ll go with pink pepper USA, Anya’s Garden still from River Cali & still dreamy. ta!

    Like

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  26. Dear Portia, everyone – sorry I’m so late to the party, yesterday was a major holiday here. Thank you so much for your lovely write up, Portia, you really have a great nose!

    To clear up some questions: bee goo is the alcohol-tinctured stuff inside the bee hive after the bees have departed. It’s sort of a less-expensive beeswax absolute in a method pioneered by a perfumer on the yahoo group I host. I think Jen first scraped the inside of her dormant beehives in 2003 or so, and the stuff looked like “goo”, hence the name. Perhaps a modern name update is in order, due to the feedback here. Beehive tincture is more appropriate, do you agree? Votes welcome 😉

    Thank you, Portia, for sharing my animal extract product information.

    I have NEVER used synthetics in my perfumes, and never will. I believe in 100% transparency, listing all my ingredients, and have been a natural perfumer since 1991, so I’m pretty savvy about ingredients, and source from trusted suppliers that I have had relationships with for decades. Plus, I make a lot of my own essences from gorgeous plants in my garden in Miami.

    xoxo,
    Anya

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    • YAY! Thanks for dropping in lovely Anya.
      Honestly, I love the Bee Goo, it is a wonderfully evocative name and started conversations, even in my home. So maybe leave it
      I can’t wait to read what our lucky winners say about you delicious perfumes.
      Portia xx

      Like

    • Oh please keep Bee Goo as a ingredient name. It’s such a fun turn of phrase & it made me giggle when I saw it. The scent lists for your frags sound amazing and they certainly peaked my curiosity. Huge thanks to the lovely Portia for bringing your company to my attention!

      Like

  28. I enjoy reading your blog via RSS and thank you for the draw. I would be interested in sniffing garden created pink pepper in Anya’s RiverCali.

    Via your description I just may have to purchase a sample of that “1950’s (style) men’s fragrance” – namely Light.

    Like

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  30. I chose seaweed from France because I have a thing for perfumes that smell like the sea. The perfume is Floral Marine Chypre and sounds really awesome! Thank you for this chance! Wish you all the best! ^_^

    P.S. I’m following AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail.

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  32. Oooh, cool draw and reviews! Temple especially intrigues me…love your descriptions. There were still fireworks tonight.

    An interesting ingredient: choya nakh shell India in Fairchild. I didn’t know people made any scent from this but it is distilled roasted sea shells in earthen vessels. Like Mitti but with sea shells.

    I follow with email, twitter, and retweeted (as mim_i_am)

    Like

  33. Hi
    I follow via email and Kewdra has beeswax in it. I love the smell of beeswax in anything! Your 3 reviews sound interesting, I may have to try a few.
    thanks!

    Like

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