Perfumer Anya McCoy
Internationally acclaimed perfumer Anya McCoy designs fragrances that showcase the jewel-like beauty of pure and natural aromatics by using modern blending techniques to bring a 21st Century sensibility to her fragrances. The nose of Anya’s Garden Perfumes, she is widely recognized as a primary force behind the revival of natural perfumery, hosting a 2200-member discussion group, teaching natural perfumery courses, and guiding the Natural Perfumers Guild. No other natural perfumer is as involved in the day-to-day and long-term issues and opportunities of the art.
Anya’s fascination with natural fragrance began with her early love of fragrant plants and perfume. During the late 60s – early 70s, when essential oils came into vogue, she already was creating simple blends. After receiving a BA in Economic Botany from University of California Riverside and an MLA in Landscape Architecture from SUNY Syracuse, Anya worked for law firms, land developers and municipalities. She found ways to weave scented plants into riverwalk developments, residential subdivisions and county-wide and downtown projects she designed and administered.
During this time, she held many “scented” parties for her friends and, by dabbing different essences on their fingers, experimented turning them into walking, breathing “scent strips” wafting natural accords of top, middle and base notes..
Always involved in the community and education, she was elected to a State of Florida position as District Manager of the Soil and Water Conservation District (Collier County, 1990).
In 1991, she moved to Miami, bought an Art Deco house and created gardens there to grow her own fragrant and edible tropical and subtropical plants year-round. That same year, she founded Anya’s Tropical Essences, the first all-natural perfume line in America, which was distributed on South Beach and in South Florida boutiques and hotels. Hoteliers and restaurateurs welcomed the herb plants and perfumes she sold out of her car, and looked forward to her weekly visits to see what new fragrant plant or perfume she had to offer. She entertained them with her encyclopedic knowledge of the history and uses of the plants and how they are transformed into natural perfume. Some chefs used her essential oils in their menu items, believed to be the first in Florida to use these lively, beautiful oils to enhance the dishes and drinks they served.
Anya became the South Florida seed tester and correspondent for Organic Gardening magazine in the mid-90s, and established many fragrant plants in her garden to supplement her materials for her perfumerie.
While at the time Anya felt as if she were the only person in America making natural perfumes, by 2002, it was through her leadership that the growing international community of natural perfumers would soon be linked on the Internet. In 2002 Anya created a forum for guidance, mentoring and an education for natural perfumers worldwide, by means of the Yahoo group, which now has over 2,000 members
In 2005, perfume blogs and forums sprung up on the Internet, and Anya took a leading role in the discussions. She launched Anya’s Garden Perfumes in 2006, garnering many “Best of” awards from perfume bloggers within a few years. Her line of perfumes includes: Amberess, Fairchild, Kaffir, Kewdra, Light, MoonDance, Pan, RiverCali, Royal Lotus, Starflower, Temple and White Smoke.
Many of the customers and private clients of Anya’s Garden Perfumes desire handmade, 100% natural perfumes to complement their lifestyle choice of searching out the artisanal creative touch in all things, including fragrance. Reviewers have found her line of perfumes to be bold and exciting, often containing newly discovered rare essences from either exotic locales, or the ones she creates, by hand, from her garden flowers in Miami.
Today, her perfumerie creates sophisticated, beautiful readymade and custom fragrances for clients worldwide. Anya also provides private label fragrance products to hotels, boutiques and several perfume companies, developing natural fragrances for soaps, lotions, hair care, and other bath and body products.
She teaches online and offline perfumery courses at the Natural Perfumery Institute she founded, in addition to being the owner and CEO of the Natural Perfumers Guild (which merged with her website Naturalperfumery.com in 2006).
Entrepreneur, educator and organizer: Anya McCoy remains a singular authority in the world of fragrance, an elixir-like force who nurtured and developed natural perfumery into the growing, vital community it has become.