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!
