Anya's Garden Revisited

Here are my notes about the four other scents from Anya's Garden, each quite original on its own terms, I must say I had a great time suspending my prejudices and taking each of them on their own as scented experiences.  But I always like to change my mind and perceptions, hopefully this facility will last me well into old age ; ) 

Pan is her notorious scent with tincture of billy goat hair in the base -- a new animilic ingredient she may have invented.  As a base note kind of girl, the deeply herbal nature of this scent attracts me at once, but I fear my difficulty with cedar rears its ugly head and it fights with the the other welcome basenotes.  Or is the Billy Goat essence turning my head?  I'll wait until Pierre gets home and get a second opinion!  No doubt about it, this is a very original scent, but it's falling apart on me, due to my peculiar relationship with cedar.  Ah, there's Pierre (no that's Johnny Depp, but P has a "Goatee" too ; ) and as I suspected, it comes together on him perfectly, this is one very original scent!  Notes --Top: lavender, white lotus, Middle: cedar, Base: ambriene, hay, patchouli, billy goat hair !

River Kali is artfully balanced between cool and warm, and is probably the scent that would suit many different people, not being as strange and mysterious as Pan, nor as rich and intense as MoonDance.  I must  say here that a kind of mystery is something I am always seeking in a perfume.  I always say that I am terrible at picking out individual notes,  but part of that deficiency must be a kind of willfully stubborn refusal to reduce scents to their notes and my strong desire to be taken somewhere by a fragrance where I've never been before.  I want to be surprised, transfixed, and transported by scent, which doesn't happen to me all too often!     

Of course I can be charmed by individual indelible ingredients, notably saffron or absinthe or anise, but the scents that rely on one standing out above all else don't magnetize me like their alchemically layered cousins.  Although River Cali states Vanilla in its ingredients, it is blended so that its special character is utilized without asserting itself literally.  Notes -- Top: African pink peppercorn, Middle: Turkish rose otto, lemon, lime and orange leaves, Base: Vanuatu sustainable sandalwood, creamy rich African vanilla, sexy musk seed .....

Temple is the most straightforward of the four I've tasted so far, with a rather cool woody incensey core.  Orange juice (see there's the acid) and mysterious borneol crystals must sharpen it a bit so it doesn't go too soft, and it has a bit of a kitchen spice quality that has often appealed to me in the past, but isn't what I'm after lately.  Incense Woods and Spice lovers will all find Temple very satisfying indeed.  Notes -- Top: distilled orange juice, borneol crystals, Middle: aglaia flower, cassia, Ayurvedic herbs and spices, Base: sustainable Laotian and Vietnamese Oud agarwood, earth tincture -- yum!

Starflower must be Anya's entry into the Foodie fragrance world, and it's very effective, though not my thing at all!  Totally cherry almond up front which makes a kind of phantom chocolate thing happen, oh, there chocolate is in the base notes with vanilla and a gounding animilic thingy.  It's rather grown up for a scent like this, not sugary or cloying, but very edible, it mostly makes me want to get into the kitchen to bake.  I wanted to make cookies tonight, perhaps chocolate and dried cherries for a food/perfume pairing!  If I were art directing this scent to make it appeal to me as a non foody scent wearer, I wonder what artemisia would do?  The aromatics would take the place of the licorice traditionally used in Absinthe to balance the bitterness of the mythic herb. Here are the notes as is : Top: bitter almond, cherry, lemon, Middle: tropical flowers with a rich dose of tuberose, savory and sweet seed, Base: chocolate, vanilla and some animalic playfulness (cruelty-free) - this stuff lasts on your skin forever, like MoonDance, which is quite unusual for natural scents! 

Thanks to Anya and a select few natural perfumers for taking their scents into the complex and sophisticated realms that I expect of perfume! 

Comments

[Gypsy Purple]

Great post!!

[scenthive.wordpress.com]

Hey Wendy! Lovely reviews, so glad to see you blogging my dear :-)

Hugs,
Trish

[perfumeshrine]

Wendy,

fabulous reviews and wasn't Starflower very unusual for a gourmand, especially out of a natural perfumer's arsenal? It shocked me (in a good way).

Hope you're peachy! (and wow, what beautiful shoes!!!)