{"id":9715,"date":"2008-01-31T16:29:43","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T21:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/2008\/01\/31\/anya%e2%80%99s-garden-kaffir-temple-fragrance-reviews\/"},"modified":"2009-04-10T19:40:43","modified_gmt":"2009-04-11T00:40:43","slug":"anyas-garden-kaffir-temple-fragrance-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/2008\/01\/31\/anyas-garden-kaffir-temple-fragrance-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Anya\u2019s Garden Kaffir & Temple ~ fragrance reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KaffirNatural perfumer Anya McCoy of Anya\u2019s Garden<\/a> released two new fragrances this winter: Kaffir and Temple. I have a kaffir lime<\/a> tree (Citrus hystrix<\/em>) growing in my bedroom and love the scent of its flowers, fruit and leaves, and the word \u201ctemple\u201d brings to mind exotic travels, smoky incense, and the Buddhist and Hindu artworks I discuss on my gallery tours at the Seattle Asian Art Museum \u2014 so, based on their names alone, I had<\/em> to try McCoy\u2019s latest perfumes.<\/p>\n

Kaffir<\/h3>\n

Kaffir contains kaffir lime leaf, galbanum, tarragon, tinctures of eight varieties of jasmine, Grasse jasmine, heritage oak, musk seed, agarwood and leather. Kaffir starts with sumptuous, and pungent, galbanum and lime leaf notes that produce earthy and deep \u201cgreen\u201d aromas. As Kaffir develops, one smells the foody scents of Thai cuisine, which uses lime leaf to season soups and curries. The first time I wore Kaffir, my partner exclaimed: \u201cYou smell like <\/em>Tom Ka<\/em><\/a>!\u201d (and I do<\/em> love the \u201chot\u201d lime leaf note in this perfume). Peeking through the strong lime leaf and galbanum accords is the scent of lush \u201chothouse\u201d jasmine. I can also detect a (Robert Piguet) Bandit-like<\/a> leather note in Kaffir\u2019s dry-down.<\/p>\n

The oils and tinctures used in this perfume are powerful, especially during the first hour of wear, but after three hours on the skin, Kaffir\u2019s scent becomes very light. I would love for Kaffir to be available in an Eau de Cologne concentration (in the style of Guerlain Eau Imp\u00e9riale) \u2014 in that form, I can imagine using Kaffir every day during hot weather as a \u201cpick-me-up.\u201d Since I can dream of new products in my reviews, I will imagine the sturdy, opaque notes of Kaffir turning sparkly and effervescent with the addition of, gulp, an aldehyde<\/em>! Also, the word \u201ckaffir\u201d has many negative meanings around the world; why not call the scent \u201cLime Leaf\u201d or at the very least \u201cKaffir Lime?\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple<\/h3>\n

\"Ganesh\"The \u201ctemple\u201d I imagine while wearing this perfume is a Hindu shrine in a crowded Indian city, a shrine surrounded by stalls selling fragrant foods, spices and natural medicines. The listed notes of Temple are orange juice, borneol crystals, aglaia flower, cassia, Ayurvedic herbs and spices, Laotian and Vietnamese agarwood\/oud, and earth tincture.<\/p>\n

Temple begins with a robust \u2018hot metal\u2019 aroma (a friend said it smelled like overheated spark plugs). After this rather shocking opening comes a pleasant medicinal-herbal smell that reminds me of insect-repellent crystals I used to buy in Los Angeles at a shop that imported food, art and sundries from India. After its clamorous-camphoric phases have passed, Temple begins to sweeten and smell foody (just as Kaffir does). As Temple turns sweet on my skin, I smell as if I\u2019ve been dipped into a tub of blackstrap molasses. The molasses phase leads to a more complex spice cake phase where I begin to smell cassia and the scent of moist, dark brown sugar. Temple also provides fleeting whiffs of a hay-like note and agarwood. After two hours on my skin, Temple turns musky and comes close to producing an amber-like aroma (all that\u2019s needed is some vanilla).<\/p>\n

As I wear Temple, dark orange, russet, umber, teak and golden amber colors come to mind \u2014 this is a sweet, dense, warm and dusky fragrance. (I can imagine the dessert-loving god, Ganesha, using Temple as his \u201ccomfort scent.\u201d) Temple perfume would be sensational in candles and home diffuser products. Temple is a limited edition fragrance and fifty percent of the profits from its sale will be donated to charities that assist people and animals after natural (and, I assume, man-made) disasters.<\/p>\n

Kaffir and Temple will appeal to people who like quirky scents and scents with HEFT<\/em>; I enjoy both perfumes but Kaffir is my favorite of the two because I find \u201cgreen\u201d fragrances hard to resist. I tried both scents in\u00a0perfume (extract) concentration\u00a0and the lasting power of Kaffir and Temple was OK \u2014 approximately 3-4 hours when applied liberally.<\/p>\n

As with most natural perfumes, the prices of Kaffir and Temple are high: one ounce of perfume will set you back almost $400 for Kaffir and $500 for Temple. Kaffir is available in perfume extract (3.5 ml\/$45) and in Eau de Parfum (15 ml\/$80); Temple is only available in perfume extract (3.5 ml\/$60). For buying information and to learn more about Anya McCoy and her company visit the Anya\u2019s Garden website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Note: both images, Citrus hystrix<\/em><\/a> & Ganesh<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of this article »<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"KaffirNatural perfumer Anya McCoy of Anya\u2019s Garden<\/a> released two new fragrances this winter: Kaffir and Temple. I have a kaffir lime<\/a> tree (Citrus hystrix<\/em>) growing in my bedroom and love the scent of its flowers, fruit and leaves, and the word \u201ctemple\u201d brings to mind exotic travels, smoky incense, and the Buddhist and Hindu artworks I discuss on my gallery tours at the Seattle Asian Art Museum \u2014 so, based on their names alone, I had<\/em> to try McCoy\u2019s latest perfumes. <\/p>\n

Kaffir<\/h3>\n

Kaffir contains kaffir lime leaf, galbanum, tarragon, tinctures of eight varieties of jasmine, Grasse jasmine, heritage oak, musk seed, agarwood and leather. Kaffir starts with sumptuous, and pungent, galbanum and lime leaf notes that produce earthy and deep \u201cgreen\u201d aromas. As Kaffir develops, one smells the foody scents of Thai cuisine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[381,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-9715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-perfume-talk","7":"tag-anyas-garden","8":"tag-natural-perfume","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nstperfume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}