Anya's Garden: MoonDance and Starflower

By KristyVictoria on Oct 28, 2009

Anya's Garden is a perfume house that creates fragrances inspired by gardens both real and imaginary. It was founded as Anya's Tropical Essences in 1992 by natural perfumer, Anya McCoy.

I had the opportunity this past week to sample two of Anya's latest releases, and am pleased to share my impressions with you all.

The powdery soft violet, tuberose and jasmine of Moondance smell like emerging twilight. The violet has a distinctly vintage feel and the smooth, fluid tuberose floralcy is accentuated by jasmine. This tuberose isn't buttery or rubbery, but viscous and sweet. The combination of violet and tuberose is somewhat unusual, and I wonder why, as it's really exquisitely beautiful. The spiciness of the tuberose emerges more on the drydown. As a lover of intensely floral scents I can see myself reaching for this in the future, it's the kind of fragrance you can really sink your teeth into. The transition of this fragrance is like a nod to the masters of classical french perfumery and its aldehydic heavy handedness, which is surprising and refreshing considering it is composed of completely natural aromachemicals. If you love Chanel No. 22, this is a must-try.

Starflower is something of a gourmand floral. It's not intensely sweet and dessert scented, however: the foodiness of this one is subtle and this is why it is such a successful composition. The almond is heavily saturated but unsweetened, feeling more like a cordial than a cupcake. The introduction of lemon to the almondy-tuberose accord brings out the tropical feeling of the flower. The amaretto-floral topnotes of this scent are utterly intoxicating bliss, followed by a slow descent into a lemony spicy-floral.

My biggest qualm about natural fragrances is their lack of longevity, but I was pleased to report that these fragrances lasted at least 6 hours, which puts them up to par with their synthetic counterparts.