An interview with a perfumer: Anya McCoy from Anya's Garden
It's always gratifying to hear the story behind an artwork's creation, especially when one has already formed an opinion. Like wanting to catch a glimpse of an artist's studio, paintbrushes still wet from turpentine, charcoal pieces on the floor, preliminary sketches for you to see....It is an enriching experience.
So after reviewing Anya's perfumes (Fairchild,Pan and Riverside) recently, it was only natural to want to interview her to get to know more. Here is what she has to say.
*You used to be a landscape architect and urban designer. When did you become involved in perfumery and what brought this about? Was there a specific incentive that sparked your interest in it?
I was obsessively interested in perfumes, plants and design from childhood. I played with perfumes beginning at age 2, and I gardened from toddler stage, I'm told. By 15, I was redecorating my parent's house in a major way, along with the garden -- I loved design. All this came together so that when I entered college I was specializing in fragrant plants and urban design. I already had a sizeable essential oil and attar collection at that time, with a few absolutes, too. I purchased the Essential Oils and attars, and was given the absolutes by a retired perfume salesman who gifted me two of his sample boxes in 1976. My undergraduate degree in Economic Botany segued into my Masters in Landscape Architecture. I was studying perfumery on my own on the side during this time because I just thought it was impossible to go to France and crack open what was a closed world. So I studied various books and methodically studied the aromatics. This was all for my own pleasure and that of my friends and family, since starting my own perfume line seemed impossible. Then, on South Beach in the early 90's, people begged me to sell my homemade perfumes, since they noticed they didn't turn sour or volatilize off quickly in the hot, humid climate. From there, I created private label body care products for several hotels, and that led to bespoke perfumes. I was still rather aimless until Mandy Aftel's book Essence and Alchemy put it all into place. That was the jumping-off point for the majority of natural perfumers - we all became brave enough to take the plunge and call ourselves natural perfumers. I ended my private label contracts in 2005, and readied the Anya's Garden line for launch.
*Natural perfumery is a niche that is witnessing a renaissance, partly due to the disappointment of many consumers with the increasing chemical smell of mainstream mass-market scents that all smell the same; namely soulless. What is the difference in aesthetics that prompted you to become a natural perfumer and subsequently head of the Natural perfumers’ Guild?
When I started blending years ago, I did have a few aroma chemicals, from that salesman's sample box, but they seemed rather flat to me, and the aesthetics of the natural aromas were just so much more interesting I stayed with them. This was in the 70's, when you rarely heard people complain about mass-market perfumes they way they do now. Even though synths were used then, they weren't so offensive - they became so with the introduction of several very strong ones in the late 70s and 80s, when people started to complain about respiratory allergies triggged by perfumes. So I was already on the path of natural perfumery, and it wasn't a decision to avoid the chemical smells, they didn't matter at that time. The richness, uniqueness and complexity of the naturals holds a lifetime of experimentation for anyone who clues into their beauty. I've often read from perfume critics and folks who quote them mostly without any experience of actually blending with naturals that it is too difficult, too complex -- utter nonsense, in my opinion. You either understand them and can work with them, or you can't. Some try, and give up, and move on to synths. That is their choice, but I have no need for that. Like many natural perfumers, however, I can create very beautiful, interesting perfumes with great diffusion, moderate sillage and substantivity. I also know that my perfumes do not mimic any in mainstream stores, and that their aesthetic suits my market. That's enough for me.
*They are very unique to be sure!
Perfume is obviously a very personal matter, both in choosing/wearing it and in creating it. Is there a specific stimulus that prompted you to create each of those scents? Can you reveal the inspiration behind them and the target audience of each?
I created Fairchild first in the garden series, because it is the botanical garden in the city where I live - Miami. I had just gone through one of the worst hurricane seasons ever, and Fairchild was my homage to the wildly fragrant tropical plants and the seashore that survived the ravages of Katrina and Wilma. Like a strong air raid siren, or hurricane watch, the pandanus top note is a bit startling. It fades quickly, but other components of the pandanus do last through the other stages of drydown. A whiff of crushed allspice berries, then split citrus skins, all releasing their volatile scents, mix with the heady narcotic flowers of champaca, jasmines and others to offer sustenance and distraction -- then they offer a glimpse of a wide expanse of freshly-mowed grass, baking and releasing moisture in the hot sun. Finally, it is late in the day and the salty, mossy nature of the nearby brackish waters, mingling with the shore of Biscayne Bay stays with you, with a haunt of patchouli to ground you deeper. All of these plants exist in Fairchild, as do the oceanic notes -- it is a challenging garden. I adore Fairchild and wear it when I want to feel empowered and strong.
The second in the garden series, Riverside is the glory and sexiness of young love, all peppery and rosy and juicy and gourmand. I had a pink peppercorn tree outside my house in the graduate school housing unit at the University of California, Riverside, so that had to be the top note. I studied ethnobotany and plant science there, and had several classes in citrus culture; we got to sample hundreds of varieties of citrus in the labs, so I've made a nice citrus salad, crushed leaves included for a dry, green note, to bring me back. Rose-scented geraniums and rose gardens flourished there, and I loved the peppery rose scent that would arise when the sun baked the rose geraniums that cascaded down the hillsides there. It's where I first discovered vanilla vines and fell in love with vanilla absolute mixed with woods. Truly for the romantic, Riverside is a "go everywhere, wear with everything" kind of perfume.
*Pan is the first scent to feature goat hair tincture; this is based on an ingredient that is animalic in nature, yet cruelty-free, unlike real civet and natural deer musk secretion (which are nowdays substituted with synthetics). How did you come up with the idea of using this and how exactly is it rendered?
Well, at first it was a bit of a challenge by a perfumer on my group, the talented Salaam of http://profumo.it to me to use it since I was looking for pheromonal animal scents that didn't involve animal cruelty.(his site has now up a pheromone link translated into english here ). I took him up on the challenge, and asked a goatkeeping member of my group to snip some hair from the head of a rutting billy goat for me.
But here's what I found that takes the story full circle: Years ago, the goat and sheep-herders on Crete obtained the resin that we know as labdanum by combing the stuff out of the hair of their goats that clambered among the rocks where the Cistus plant grew. There were special combs for this process, and the resin was sent off for rectification into absolute or EO (Labdanum is that warm, balsamic base note we so identify with amber perfumes) or the goat's hair was sheared and boiled in water. (Info on this can be seen here. )
I was merely trying to re-introduce a touch of goat scent to the labdanum, and also looking for the pheromonal pull that animal essence can give to a perfume, while staying away from any that cause harm to an animal. Frontrunner, the goat from Alberta, Canada who had a bit of a haircut around his horns, merely complained that he looked silly for some time, I've heard, LOL. I merely took the very smelly hair and tinctured it in alcohol. It gave up its scent immediately and was ready for perfume production. The labdanum absolute called "ambreine" I used for Pan came from Eden Botanicals (http://edenbotanicals.com). I have spoken with Will, the owner of EB, and his Holy Grail would be to find an old bottle of the labdanum from those old days, replete with goat hair scent. I would like this also, to compare to my Pan.
Pan was the most challenging perfume of the garden series - not that it was a fantasy garden I was trying to recreate, in honor of the Goat God Pan as depicted in Tom Robbins novel Jitterbug Perfume, but that in researching the plants associated with Pan I found most of them were rather unscented - trees, grasses, reeds, etc. I only found white lotus for floral, a lot of herbs that can be rather well, herbal, some fruits and such. Fruit scents are hard to come by in natural perfumery. I have tinctured mango and other fruits, but I didn't want to use mango, which isn't associated with Pan at all. I discovered another Eden Botanical product, recently introduced that filled the bill: a very fruity lavender, Lavandula luisieri, Seville Lavender. From there it all fell into place, and I believe I have created the world's first herbal fruity amber perfume. It is a runaway success because of its unique scent and staying power. It's rustic, clean, warm and friendly. Women love it as much as men, even though the notes associated with it are often found more in men's colognes than women's.
*Fairchild is using the very unsual and interesting ingredients Pandanus and Choya Nakh. Please tell us a few things about them in terms of origin and attributes.
Pandanus is a huge flower, the male flower of the Screwpine, a rather distinctive-looking tropical plant of great ethnobotanical value. All parts of the plant are used in the tropics, for food, housing, medicine, and fragrance. There is a Pandanus Lake and there are many Pandanus trees at Fairchild, so that was easy. I adore the scent of Pandanus, and even though the top note of it disappears quickly, it has a long drydown that is wonderful, with a rosy note. Choya Nakh is another cruelty-free animal product, if you regard harvested seashells, some of which may still have some dead critters inside as cruelty-free. I do, since the shells are the discards after food processing. The shells are codistilled, sometimes with sandalwood, sometimes frankincense, sometimes sesame, I understand. The stuff is STRONG -- very smokey.
*How can a natural perfumer tackle the issue of coaxing multi-nuanced variable smell-blocks into submission?
Ha -- maybe you've been reading too many of those doomsayers who declare naturals are too complicated to work with? Aside from those who have *never* blended, or those who have blended briefly, unschooled, and given up, most who study and know and understand the naturals have little problem, aside from typical perfumers' problems, which is to be expected. As in any discipline, you study your materials, observe them, make notes, and go forward. If you understand the odor intensity and drydown times and properties of the various aromatics, you just get to blending. Despite what is scarily warned about, it's not rocket science, so I don't understand the scare tactics. You create a brief in your head, then the blend, then you jot down the notes on paper, then you do a few mods until you get the balance right, then you blend and age and critique your product. That's all pretty simple to me.
*There is an increasing tendency among companies to launch the latest thing with an expected life-span of most such perfumes not exceeding 2 years (when it was five just a few years ago, not to mention decades for certain classics). Big companies with long tradition also offer limited editions or exclusives in a game of instigating the collector’s instinct in all of us. What has natural perfumery to offer against all that?
It is a tendency whose time has passed, I feel. The growth of the number of releases hasn't fattened the finances of the companies. Sales have remained rather flat. The public has shown a dissatisfaction with both the sameness of the scents and the increased use of synthetic chemicals, if my reading the forums and blogs is any indication. Thus, my commitment to naturals and artistic creation for the beauty of the perfume is strengthened. Many of us natural perfumers smiled when it was announced in the past few years that big companies were offering limited editions, often announced as containing a large amount of a particular harvest of a natural to set it apart. Smile, indeed -- some of the marketing copy sounded like it was lifted from the posts on my natural perfumery group. Wonder if they lurk there? No matter, though, because they create a product and a market that we don't need to address. Our market finds us.
Also, natural perfumery is evolving as a genre: some use animal products, some do not; some use organic aromatics, some do not. Our uniting force is the use of natural aromatics, and offering them to the public as a source-driven product - the perfumes may vary slightly from year to year, as the aromatic's production varies due to climate, harvest time, etc., much like wine production (and please note we were the first to infer the wine vintage/raw materials harvest analogy.)
*Is quality in ingredients that important to the end result of a perfumed product, like it is for good food for example or can one create heavenly music with tin caps and mops, like say- Stomp do?
You must have the highest-quality aromatics. Period.
*If you had to name some of your favourite perfumes (natural or not) and the reasons why you chose them which would they be?
Loaded with synths but lovely still: Chanel No. 5 the iconic giant from my childhod; Femme, ditto; Here's My Heart by Avon, ditto; Thierry Mugler Cologne, so clean, soapy and light; Vintage Vent Vert EdP - truly like a green breeze, refreshing, clearing out the cobwebs, ladylike and personal; Miss Dior - the first time I smelled it years ago I could not make out any one note, I just got lost in the fun of it all. As you can see, I do not like any heavy, oriental scents.
I could wear Mandy Aftel's Pink Lotus in a snowstorm or at the beach, it's that versatile to me; Ayala's Moon Breath is fun, girly and comforting; all of JoAnne Bassett's perfumes have a French touch that is light and charming; ZZsPetals are incredibly floral and classic, and Mistu entrapped me with the sweetest drydown ever, not cloying, just beautifully floral, which is unusual in a drydown. I should just list all of the natural perfumes I've tried !-- this isn't favoritism to the ones mentioned above, I just don't have room to name them all! I just love natural perfumes -- that said, I'll admit I don't like any of the heavy or oriental perfumes, synth or natural, no matter who makes them. I can critique them from a technical standpoint, as to whether they're well-made or not, but I simply cannot wear them.
*You also create bespoke fragrances made to the specifications of an individual, an area that is yet unexplored for most customers. Wouldn’t we all love that! How do you set about it?
It is a complex, very interactive process, so complex in fact, that I'm not taking on any more bespoke projects until after my move. I have a detailed questionnaire that I've shared with my fellow natural perfumers, and they must have a good aptitude for one-on-one interaction and intuition to work this way. You have to set definite boundaries with the client, in the form of a simple contract, re: the process, number of mods, etc., or they will perhaps bog you down with change orders. I learned the design process as a landscape architect, and it is the same. Find out what the client wants and needs, define the process, and design.
*Are we to expect more surprises from you in the future? What are your fragrant plans?
Ah, wasn't the reopening of the Artisan Natural Perfumers Guild enough of a surprise this year? You can read about the backstory of that on my blog, it is a bit much to go into here. Wonderfully, it is a smashing success, taking under its umbrella perfumers, suppliers, associates and enthusiasts. I am writing a book, with the guidance of Robert Tisserand, a well-published and well-respected author and aromatherapist. Robert has been invaluable in whipping my process into shape, advising me about publishers, agents, expectations. I put the book aside to launch the Guild and my new line, and I hope to have it finished within a year. Yes, I have some other aromatic surprises up my sleeve, so stay tuned.
*Thank you Anya for such great and informative replies. It's been a pleasure interviewing you.
Thanks for letting me elaborate on what is my work and my passion.
Anya's Garden perfumes are available here. To get some in depth info on naturals you can browse the Artisan Natural Perfumers' Guild
Pics come from Anya's website
two commentsWhat a lovely and revealing interview !
Ms. Anya is SUCH a Libra, it tickles me no end…and I mean that in a most loving, affectionate way-
This is evidenced in her admitted avoidance of heavy, or oriental perfumes [which I confess to love, if done well- and let’s face it, “done well” is highly subjective at best!].
Also in her love of study, multiple projects…
I look forward to her book, and desire to sample her work [especially Pan, as I’m a farm devotee, and one of the few opera singer/ neurology-oncology nurse/ teachers to have turned down full veterinary college scholarship years ago !]...
Thank you, Helg-
Be well, my dear !
chayaruchama () - 04 10 06
Thanks! I found her answers trully elucidating and thoughtful. It shows when one is an educated, cultivated person, I agree 100%.
Pan is indeed one of a kind, very unique scent (as are her other two, as well! I loved Fairchild) and it’s very worth sampling.
Nice info about your studies and interests! Didn’t know.
I too like the orientals. Pssss…..don’t tell Anya. 
perfumeshrine - 04 10 06
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