Friday, March 11, 2016

Anya's Garden Enticing: fragrance review & giveaway

"The Tuberose, with her silvery light,
That Is in the gardens of Malay
Is called the mistress of the night,
So like a bride, scented and bright,
She comes out when the sun’s away.

Then, by a secret virtue, these grateful odours
will add an inexpressible charm to your enjoyment;
but if, regardless of the precepts of moderation,
you will approach too near, this divine
flower will then be but a dangerous enchantress,
which will pour into your bosom a deadly poison,
Thus the love which descends from heaven purities
and exalts the delights of a chaste passion ; but
that which springs from the earth proves the bane
and the destruction of imprudent youth."
[source]



The seduction of Polianthes tuberosa starts in the mind, even if the consummation lies on a warm bed. Destabilizing one's mind, giving impure thoughts, thoughts of opiate intoxication, of abandoning one's self to pleasures of a forbidden nature, in the words of one writer "a voluptuous intoxication from which one does not easily become liberated".

Literally "flower of the city" (from the Greek πόλις/polis for city and  άνθος/anthos for flower), tuberose has been linked with a demi-mondaine existence in the big cities of Western Europe, where courtesans used it alongside other "crass" scents, such as musk and ambergris, to infiltrate themselves unto the lives of their lovers. The Victorian abstinence from using perfume on the body itself, unless it was in the form of a lightly scented product (hair pomade, mouth rinse, linen scent and the like), made the use of intimate forms of perfume even more daring by those deviating outwards of the accepted path of manners. Perfumer Anya McCoy of Anya's Garden chose wisely when she paired the dynamo of tuberose with animalic perfume notes (among them the human-meets-herbaceous scent of clary sage, beeswax and musk tincture), thus allying the two faces of Janus into a composite that is as narcotic as a forbidden substance, as dark as the night and as addictive as good chocolate. The lady is not quite covered, rather surreptitiously revealing, and quite old-fashioned in her naturalness; then again fashions are cyclical and animalic florals are off for a revival at the moment.

When I asked Anya about the process of creation she replied: "I used a combo of purchased absolute and extrait (pure absolute) made from pomade that I made. The pomade was washed with alcohol for two weeks, chilled, filtered. Very old school." Smelling the finished product I can vouch for the old school moniker myself; in the very best possible sense, that is!

Although the scent launched last summer, it took me a while to discover its many facets and to enjoy it on the warmer days of spring that we've been having. The natural warmth of the climate ramps up the carnal aspects to the max and it hangs into the humid air with the insistence of a lover always hungry for more. Maybe this is the deep, dangerous, complicit floral for summer to come.


Ingredients: Organic Sugar Cane Alcohol, Tuberose Absolute, Scented Alcohol extracted from Anya’s handmade Tuberose Enfleurage Pomade, Butter CO2, Opoponax Absolute, Clary Sage essential oil, Terpene Acetate Isolate ex. Cardamom, Beeswax Absolute and Anya’s handmade Beeswax Tincture, Patchouli essential oil, Mushroom Absolute, Siberian Musk Tincture.

Enticing is available in both pure perfume form as a 4ml mini, and as an Eau de Parfum 15ml spray from Anya’s Garden Perfumes store available here.

For our readers Anya McCoy has generously offered a FREE 4ml extrait de parfum of Enticing sent anywhere within the USA. All you have to do is leave a comment under the review and I will draw a winner after the weekend.

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39 comments:

  1. This sounds too lovely, and I am typing from Norway... :(

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  2. Ahhh! tuberose: memories of my granny looking stunning in her black dress and her amazing perfectly polished red lips.
    Thanks to Anya and to perfumeshrine for the giveaway!
    xxx

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  3. Wow!
    Tuberose + cardamom, + musk.
    ZOWIE!
    Deep, dangerous, & complicit florals are just my type.

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  4. I don't think I am terribly seductive or dangerous, but I'd love to smell that way. I've always wanted to try something from this line. Love the poem. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  5. Anonymous18:10

    Tuberose with enfleurage. Narcotic, oh yes! Thank you, Anya, for the giveaway. Such a lovely poem also.

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  6. I love the poetry of your writing. Very evocative. I long to be able to wear this scent so that Anya's poetry, mixed with yours, will be wafting on the breeze around me, enchanting all I encounter.

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  7. Love the poetry. all the notes sound marvellous sounds very elegant and daring.
    Super excited thank you for having such a great giveaway twitter @1chynna

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  8. Mimi G18:25

    Sounds wonderful ! Love this post Elena

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  9. Ooh, I don't feel like you hear of tuberose + musk that often (or at least I don't). Thanks for this evocative post and generous giveaway!

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  10. MMM - the beauty - the scented words - the photo - I can almost smell it.

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  11. EEeeeeeee!! Such a gorgeous review, and fabulous giveaway too!!

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  12. I love tuberose, plus other "narcotic" like scents such as jasmine, orange blossom, and honeysuckle. I will use a drop of a natural fragrance at night as it calms me, strangely enough. On rainy days, such scents seem to transform to a fresh bouquet of flowers.
    Anya's fragrance certainly seems enticing, as it is named.

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  13. Mendy00:49

    Beautiful review! Would love to smell this lovely! Thank you both for the opportunity!

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  14. Anonymous01:25

    Would love to be immersed in these smells ... Thanks Anya for the giveaway!

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  15. I would love to try this scent

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  16. Oh to enter that narcotic dream...if only for a single night...

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  17. "whatever lola wants, lola gets..."

    i always think of tuberose as 'lola', somehow. and i would love to have a sample of this!

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  18. The ingredients look fabulous!

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  20. I love perfumes from shallow, commercial beauties to the sophisticated and obscure but it is of recent that I became enamored of the phenomenal, singular scent of Tuberose. If I only had one flower to choose from for the rest of my life I'd be on bended knee asking, Miss Tuberose, will you be mine?

    I was ecstatic to see the email on this today. Thank you so much for the giveaway. I'm sure who ever wins is going to enjoy it immensely. That said, I hope it's honeymoon time for moi. Wohoo!

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  21. Elena, fabulous review as always. Love the pairing of tuberose with animalics and would love to try this. Thanks to you and to Anya for the opportunity!

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  22. Thank you, Anya, for the giveaway. It sounds lovely. I'll bet the butter absolue makes this exceptionally lovely.

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  23. This sounds absolutely wonderful. Thank you both so much for giving us a chance to try such a seductive fragrance!

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  24. Anonymous14:40

    "Enticing" could hardly be more seductive than its review...but I would certainly like to find out!

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  25. Tuberose is one of my very favorite notes. Thank you and Anya for this wonderfu give-away.
    The photo is also very lovely

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  26. Ah, tuberose - so lovely, so bewitching. I grow it in pots on my porch in the Illinois summers and enjoy their fragrance at night while sipping wine. I am very curious about this "Enticing" blend, for it does just that and I haven't even sniffed it yet!

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  28. I've always loved tuberose fragrances since I was a teenager. I'd love to try Enticing! Thanks to Anya for the giveaway.

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  29. Anonymous17:19

    I really need to be Enticed!

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  30. Anonymous18:00

    I love the poem. I grow tuberose in my garden and the scent is heady. This fragrance sounds beautiful. Thank you so much for the giveaway.

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  31. Tuberose is MY scent. Virginia, USA here.

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  32. Sounds very interesting and I would love to try it. I'll just throw in there that I did not like the picture you chose to add to the review -she is mature -but the face looks like the face of a 5 year old. (When I saw the cut picture on facebook that's what it looked like to me) -I personally feel that the pictures we are bombarded with all around have already taken a disturbing child-pedofiliac direction, and would hope for individuals to maintain a healthier mature image of sexual females...

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    1. I'm certainly noting this observation down for future reference, since I didn't see the cropped picture and can't judge it so. I certainly agree with the sentiment against pedophiliac direction.
      The original photo is a Helmut Newton shot and it appears in his collective opus FWIW.

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  33. i'd love this!

    - judith

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  34. Miss Heliotrope02:01

    My comment: for obvious reasons I am floating in & out of commenting, although still love reading. Have been pleased, at least, with this one thing of my latest chemo: I dont get the overpowering chemical stink, and have thus far been able to relive the strain with lovely perfumes...(hint hint)

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  35. Anonymous08:57

    This was a brilliantly written review of the seduction of tuberose with poetry & pictures that evoke the sensuality of this haunting fragrance. The review of Anya's perfume "Enticing" is exciting! Well done & congrats to both of you for this luscious giveaway!

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  36. Oh Tuberose ...... Mmmmmmm

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  37. smart and beautiful , tuberose and an animalic, the scent is probably more heavenly that the tuberose itself. count me in for all things Tuberose!! and jasmine!! xoxoxo LOVE TO ALL JP

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  38. Thanks for the information and links you shared this is so should be a useful and quite informative!
    Cheap perfume

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