BRAVE NEW SCENTS A Natural Perfumers Guild Project: “Savage Garden” by Mark Behnke + Draw

If you went to High School in the US it is very likely Aldous Huxley’s 1931 novel Brave New World made it on to your summer reading list at some point. The idea of a World State tightly controlled and seemingly idyllic until touched by a bit of “savagery” is one of the great novels of the 20th century. In the novel it is the introduction of the character John the Savage that allows for the other characters to come to the understanding that idyllic control leaves out some messy pleasures. As I was experiencing all of the fragrances created by the natural perfumers invited to participate in The Natural Perfumers Guild Brave New Scents project I was considering that they are all similar to the “savages” in the novel.

There is a quote in the novel regarding science which captures the idea:

"All our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody's allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn't be added to except by special permission from the head cook."

Natural Perfumers create spontaneously outside the cookery book and constantly question. They stand outside the mainstream on their own reservation, if you will, happy to create on their own terms. Every time I focus on natural perfumery as these Guild projects allow me to do I am fascinated with the “savage” ingenuity I find. This time around my particular focus is on Royal Lotus by Anya McCoy of Anya’s Garden Perfumes and Wild Rose by Jane Cate of A Wing and A Prayer Perfumes. Both of these perfumers happily and savagely create beauty.

Royal Lotus by Anya McCoy-Anya’s Garden Perfumes

Anya McCoy is one of the natural perfumers who can seem to coax an unnatural amount of intensity from natural ingredients. Sometimes I wonder if that makes her creations a tad bit hard to introduce because they can be a tsunami of olfactive experience. Royal Lotus has the trademark intensity of Ms. McCoy’s but it also seems less overwhelming and I found that to be particularly pleasant in the case of Royal Lotus.

Royal Lotus opens with an unusual citrus mélange of orange, yuzu, and clementine. Orange is as familiar a note as it gets but her choice of yuzu and clementine turn a familiar citrus opening into something less familiar and much more interesting. The heart of this is a rainbow of different sources of lotus and jasmine. Ms. McCoy somehow manages to get the lotus and jasmine to almost languorously rise off my skin like a slowly curling column of smoke. Sometimes it seems the lotus is ascendant other times the jasmine and when both come together it is regal. The base is ambergris and sandalwood soft and creamy as a cushion to finish the royal procession.

Royal Lotus has average longevity and below average sillage.

Wild Rose by Jane Cate-A Wing and A Prayer Perfumes

One thing I have found natural perfumers have a particularly deft hand at is in being able to get the smell of fresh growing things into the bottle. Whether that is because they have a different relationship with their materials is something to be talked about another time. In the case of Wild Rose, Jane Cate has created a rose growing amongst other living things and also the earth it is anchored in. Her inspiration besides Huxley and Shakespeare was Bette Midler’s ballad The Rose. Ms. Cate wanted to create an “outdoorsy rose” and she has.

Ms. Cate also opens her fragrance with yuzu but she pairs it with one of my favorite woody notes, rosewood. This combination works very well as the slightly off-kilter citrus quality of yuzu adds a quirky quality to the soft rosewood. The lush rose accord in the heart of wild Rose is that of a fully blooming rose at its aromatic apex. I love the heady feel of all of this. There is also something here which is reminiscent of turned earth and it really grounds the opulence of the rose. The base is sandalwood and it is a good choice to tame the Wild Rose.

Wild Rose has average longevity and average sillage.

I don’t want to live in a fragrant world where all of our fragrance comes out of the same “cookery book”. Happily The Natural Perfumers Guild seems to be a well-populated savage garden. If you want to break away from the Perfumed World State go visit them on their reservation and embrace their savagery.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by the perfumers and The Natural Perfumers Guild.

Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

 "Bottle of mine, it’s you I’ve always wanted! Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted? Skies are blue inside of you, The weather’s always fine; For There ain’t no Bottle in all the world Like that dear little Bottle of mine.”
– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 5

Michelyn Camen Editor in Chief

 

 

We’ll be reviewing all ten fragrances in the Brave New Scents project over the next 24 hours. 

Check out Neil's reviewsof Hermes, Jessamine and New Dawn. 

Check out Ida's reviews of Avalon, Enchant and Carmine

Any comment left on any of the reviews will be eligible to win one of five fragrances. We have 15mL flacons of Hermes by Adam Gottschalk, Jessamine by Charna Ethier, Royal Lotus by Anya McCoy, Enchant Parfum by JoAnne Bassett, and Ambre Alcheme by Elise Pearlstine. The draw will take place on October 4, 2011.

 

The participating perfumers are:

Adam Gottshalk of Lord Jester

Ambrosia Jones of Perfume by Nature

Anya McCoy of Anya's Garden

Charna Ethier of Providence Perfume

Christi Meshell of Matriarch

Elise Pearlstine of Belly Flowers

Jane Cate of Wing and a Prayer Perfume

JoAnne Bassett of JoAnne Bassett Perfumes

Liz Cook of One Seed Company

Rohanna Goodwin Smith of A Scent Natural Perfumes

 

Participating Bloggers are:

Cafleurebon

All I Am – a redhead

Feminine Things

The Perfume Critic

Perfume Shrine.

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36 comments

  • Thank you, Mark for giving strength and fierceness to our project by finding this quote in the book: “All our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody’s allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn’t be added to except by special permission from the head cook.” Wow. Captures the Guild’s attitude against conformity completely. I missed that quote in the book entirely. So I guess we just be warriors on our path to breaking out of conformity, savage in our actions if need be. Maybe if there is a leader, s/he’ll be wearing a loincloth and carrying a spear whittled out of sandalwood, wafting Royal Lotus 🙂

  • Jane’s perfumes are always a delight, and Wild Rose lives up to its name! Yuzu seems to be the topnote of the moment, isn’t it beautiful. Mark wrote: “If you want to break away from the Perfumed World State go visit them on their reservation and embrace their savagery.” So now I guess I’ll have to call you Wild Jane, Ms. Cate!

  • Excellent reviews, Mark! I want to try both of them. As a foodie, I appreciate those who use the cookbooks as a launching pad for their own creativity – same with perfume. Sounds like both of these perfumes would be parallel to tasting a food one has never tasted before.

  • Talking of natural fragrances, one can expect different facets of raw materials and that’s the joy. Enjoyed the read.

  • I love the comparison of these fragrances to the characters in Brave New World. I am moved to re-read this novel. Royal Lotus has definitely piqued my interest, too!

  • oh let me dive headlong into this brave new aromatic world!

    the way you describe jasmine and lotus… “…languorously rise off my skin like a slowly curling column of smoke” – it made me drool a little!!

    and an outdoor rose- i love this new world. i say more men should wear blatantly rose aromas!

    congrats anya & jane! thank you mark for sharing in the project and with us!

  • Joanne Chase says:

    What a lovely task, to choose among these delights! Wish I were there to do it myself.

  • Awesome new NPG project. Royal Lotus and Wild Rose sound great. I can’t wait to read all of the reviews.

  • Wow loving the sound of Royal Lotus. I have just returned from Sri Lanka and this sounds like it could transport me back to the lakeshore with the fragrant citrus and the sandalwood wafting from the nearby temple.

  • a very apt new organization name — and the tours of the Royal Lotus and Wild Rose are truly interesting — I wonder why it took so long for yuzu to make its way onto the palate of usual ingredients — maybe a story behind that, better source or something?

  • wow. sounds so good the way you put it….
    i so wish i could make something as aliv,- as harmonious an experience- as these perfumes sound

  • Rene Groyer says:

    I would love to try these fragrances.For one thing they are not available in South Africa and the array of natural ingredients is so appealing.I have not read Brave New world but am planning to do so now after reading these reviews.Thank-You

  • These all sound so wonderful, perhaps I’ll get a chance to do more than just read about them!

  • Thank you Mark for such a right on the mark review of my Wild Rose. I just love working with the EOs in the blend, yuzu is a wonderful oil to work with and goes so well with the wild rose and sandalwood. Yes, I guess it does show my more wild side too! Thank you again Anya for making the BNS project a reality! aka : Wild Jane ( LOL)

  • I am so looking forward to trying Royal Lotus! It sounds divine, especially the way you describe it. I am just getting into citrus again, I avoided it for a long time in favor of sweeter scents, but then recently it called to me again. I look forward to this!

  • I adore Anya’s Light and Royal Lotus feels like another romantic scent-ual journey. You had me at jasmine’s curling smoke.

  • Five years ago I became a vegan and an animal rights advocate, three months ago I abandonned conventional (petrochemical) perfumery altogether as I was having serious concerns about toxicity and health issues – synthetics musks, phatalates etc. I only kept vintage Caron Poivre and discontinued Gobin Daude Biche dans l’Absinthe and my favorite Serge Lutens perfume, Encens et Lavande.
    I purchased Honore des Pres Vamp a NY, this is an amazing tuberose but a fragrance. I’d like to explore natural perfumery and see what’s out there.

  • i couldn’t pick just one! truly they all sound so incredible. i love the lore of the lotus flower, the scent and history of the rose,

  • “All our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody’s allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn’t be added to except by special permission from the head cook.”

    that huxley 🙂

    things have not changed.

    all (ALL) our science is still that.

    theory — let us not forget — is always a generalization post hoc of what the generalizer (ha!) has perceived as generalizable.

    nothing more really.
    Mark i want to smell a perfume called “savage garden”!

  • Mark, Thank You for your review, just recently discovered Anya, love natural perfumes. However, I would be happy to accept any fragrance I given!

  • Laura Matheson says:

    I hate it when these projects come out….just more stuff to lust after!!! I have tried all of Anya’s perfumes and fairly well love them all. Royal Lotus is something I will have to try soon (providing it’s still available since it contains some extremely rare components). I am dying to try anything from Charna Ethier so would be thrilled to win her Jessamine. Thanks for the opportunity 🙂

  • Lotus scents always intrigue me as I am quite fond of the lotus flower, can’t wait to see what Anya has done with it!

  • This is great review! I would love to try Anya’s perfume. I read a lot about her and her creations but never had a chance to smell natural perfume made by Anya. Lotus and Jasmine sounds devine!!!

  • Beautiful reviews, and nice tie in to the book! Both perfumers have amazing talent, I have enjoyed from both their lines and look forward to these brave new scents!

  • Loving all the reviews of the different perfumes. I am interested in Royal Lotus because I like the scent of lotus. Find it calming. I ama fan of Jane and she can make a wonderful rose perfume. Bella is beautiful.

  • Royal Lotus sounds exquisite. Such an inspiring title and the ingredients no less it seems, I can’t wait to try it, til then I’ll just shift off to to my memories of Kandi and temples in Thailand..them perhaps the real thing will find me there!

  • I am fascinated by Anya’s Royal Lotus. And I totally agree that Anya can coax an extraordinary amount of scent from her palate. also love the image of the deft hand of the perfumer’s bringing the scent of wild growing things to perfume. Lovely!