Natural Perfume Academy

29/10/2026

In the video on our YouTube channel, we build a simple three-material “Green Canopy” accord using petitgrain, galbanum and vetiver, and look at how changing just one part of the formula can completely shift the result. Link is in the bio.

29/10/2026

New video - Botanical Accord Architecture

A few people had asked us to do something specifically on building accords, so this one came directly from those requests.

In the video, I build a simple three-material “Green Canopy” accord using petitgrain, galbanum and vetiver, and look at how changing just one part of the formula can completely shift the result.

We cover clarity, balance, ratios, evaluation over time, and one of the most useful habits in perfumery: change one thing at a time so you can actually learn from what happened.

If you’re learning natural perfumery, I think you’ll find this one genuinely useful.

🎥 Watch here: https://youtu.be/vBMZTJE7rxE?si=hY7ltQehPNxbFGB6
And if you’d like to study natural perfumery professionally, you can find our CPD-Certified Natural Perfumery Diploma and Diploma + Advanced Masterclasses Bundle at:

npacertification.com

Natural Perfume Academy
Established 2008

Learn how to build a natural perfume accord step by step, using thr...

29/10/2026

Smell takes an unusual route through the brain.

When aromatic molecules reach the nose, signals travel first to the olfactory bulb. From there they move into the brain’s primary olfactory areas, with close connections to regions involved in emotion and memory, including the amygdala and hippocampus.

That helps explain why smell can feel so immediate.

A scent can bring back a kitchen, a garden, a person, a season or a particular moment before we have consciously worked out what we are remembering.

For perfumers, this is part of what makes smell such an extraordinary medium. We are working with materials that can connect perception, emotion and memory in a fraction of a second.

Have you ever smelled something and remembered a place before you remembered why?

28/10/2026

I know. “If Halloween was a perfume…” is probably about as clichéd a Halloween title as you can get.

The piece itself is really about what Halloween smelled like in Ireland in the early 1980s.

Bonfires. Smoke. Burning rubber. Apples. Nuts. Barmbrack. Tea. Coins in your hand after going around the doors.

We didn’t call it trick-or-treating, nobody was making pumpkin pie, and pumpkin spice had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Then I got curious about what those smells would look like as a natural perfume, including the slightly less pleasant ones.

It ended up being part perfume, part memory, part Irish Halloween.

New on Substack. Link in bio.

28/10/2026

A bit of a ramble about Halloween, for those who wonder what Halloween was really like in Ireland in the early '80's - spoiler, it's not pumpkins and spice :D https://naturalperfumeacademy.substack.com/p/if-halloween-was-a-perfume-what-would

26/10/2026

I had one of those moments this week where I suddenly looked at what is happening inside the Natural Perfume Academy and thought, this is actually quite extraordinary.

In the space of a few days I have been finishing Diploma assessments for students in El Salvador, Cyprus and the United States, while waiting for final perfume submissions from several more students in other parts of the world.

At the same time, the Advanced Perfumery course has suddenly come alive with introductions from Seoul, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Juan Island and elsewhere. Some are newly joining us, some have just completed Level 1, and some are already working professionally in fragrance.

I spend so much of my time inside Moodle, grading assignments, answering emails, checking formulas, dealing with parcels and certificates, that I sometimes forget to stand back and look at the whole thing.

And this week I did.

People in completely different parts of the world are studying together, moving through the same training, talking to one another, sharing suppliers and ideas, graduating, and then meeting again in the Advanced course.

That is the Academy.

And after eighteen years, it’s the part that I find most exciting.

26/10/2026

To our Brazilian NPA community 🇧🇷💚

We know what an enormous weekend this has been for Brazil.

Brazil has always had a very special place within the Natural Perfume Academy. So many of our students, graduates, perfumers and friends are Brazilian, and Brazilian plants, biodiversity and knowledge are deeply woven into the world of natural perfumery.

Today we’re thinking of all of you.

We hope the days ahead bring peace, respect for democracy, and continued protection for the extraordinary natural world that Brazil holds, particularly the Amazon, its biodiversity and its Indigenous communities.

Sending love from Ireland to our Brazilian NPA family. 🇮🇪🇧🇷 Ane Walsh Juliana Cruz Ravena Dias

26/10/2026

Apparently the cats decided to give you a tour of the Academy today…

You’ll spot our CPD Certified NPA Natural Perfumery Diploma Course in there too, but the reason for this little tour is something we’ve just opened up.

Protecting Your Craft: The NPA Supplier Review & Sourcing Hub is now completely free to join.

It originally lived inside the Academy for our existing students and members, but we’ve opened it up so that anyone working with natural aromatic materials can take part.

It’s quite simple.

You can nominate a supplier for review, either because you’ve had a genuinely good experience and think they deserve to be considered for the NPA Supplier Directory, or because there are concerns around a supplier, product or claim that you think need looking at.

There are also discussion areas where people can talk openly about sourcing, authenticity, documentation, safety and the questions that come up when you’re trying to work out exactly what you are buying.

And the video gives you a little glimpse of something people don’t always realise about studying with NPA.

Our Academy runs on Moodle, so your course doesn’t have to live in a browser on a laptop. You can use the Moodle app on your phone or tablet as well as your desktop, receive course notifications, read discussions, reply to forums, check your progress and dip back into your course wherever you happen to be.

If you already have an NPA Academy account, please use the same email address when you join the free course so everything stays under one account. If it has been a while since you logged in and you’re not sure which email you used, log into the Academy first and check the email shown in your profile.

24/10/2026