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.

Photo 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.

Photo 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

Photo 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

Photo 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

Anya’s Garden GIVEAWAY!

Photo 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