Athens

[mhickle]

A reformulation and modernization of a true Classical Greek perfume, myrrhine: voluptuous myrrh, golden honey, red wine, and sweet flowers.

I was really hoping for a mostly-honey scent with Athens. In the imp, it's floral with this weird sour sweetness. Once it's on, it gets a little powdery, waaaaaay floral, and makes me sneeze. I don't get any of the honey I wanted to try it for. So, this will be going in the swap pile! Edited August 31, 2008 by Shollin

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Floral/honey, then a tartness. The myrrh is sharp but the other notes are slathered over it like peanut butter on a matzah.

 

Wet: Strong myrrh. Almost every other note has vanished completely, but there's something sweet at the back of my throat.

 

20 minutes: There is sweetness underneath, but the myrrh still predominates, and it's more bitter than any other myrrh scent I've had so far from BPAL. Still, I can't seem to stop sniffing it.

 

One hour: The myrrh has faded some now, and it's better balanced with the other scents. I really like this combination of sweet and bitter, and it's quite powerful on me. But somehow it seems almost wicked, in a way that some of the more overtly sensual fragrances haven't.

 

Four and a half hours: As time has gone on it has worked its way up my list of favorites. From about two hours on I was convinced. I love this scent! It reminds me of "Hetairae," except that the sweetness is better balanced by the bitterness of the myrrh. I can easily believe the hype about its being inspired by an ancient formula. But if I were going to wear it for a special occasion I'd have to target the time I put it on quite carefully. I think it needs two hours to age on me.

[odalisque]

Wow, I think this may be the first time I've used the word "gorgeous" to describe a blend. Athens really is gorgeous.

 

Wet on the skin and for 5-10 minutes, I get an unfortunate period of eau de I just spilled cheap red wine all over myself. I'm very glad I waited this out, though, because it fades and is replaced with a warm, sensuous mulled wine that doesn't smell boozy at all somehow, just luscious -- and after complete drydown I'm left with a glorious, golden, smooth, spicy myrrh and honey.

 

OMG

 

I was wearing this yesterday evening and kept wondering "what smells so GOOD? ... oh yeah, that's me!" Applied a little more before bed for the DH's benefit ("It makes you yummy," he pronounced) and woke up this morning to my pillow smelling like spicy myrrh. I almost ate my pillowcase for breakfast.

 

I do believe this myrrh must also be in Crossroads -- that one dries down, on me, to a spicy smoky champa flower, and now I know the spiciness is the myrrh, presumably in the "incense" notes.

Edited September 3, 2008 by odalisque

[Czarina]

Honey and myrrh. Honey honey honey.

 

I smell like a piece of baklava. But that's good.

[goblinshark]

In the imp: Extremely bitter and sharp. Kind of weird.

 

Wet on skin: Still bitter. Not exactly sure what I'm smelling here so I looked at the description, and I am shocked. HONEY?!?! Where are youuuuuuu?

 

Drydown: Oh HAYYYYYY, there's the honey. I am whacked right in the face with honey. Unfortunately, it is...too much honey. All honey all the time. Crud. Not very me, truthfully. I'm sure I will have no trouble finding a good home for it, though.

[grifyn_whiffs]

A very grown up honey! I layered this with Lush's HIWTK, and it really was a sweet tooth kind of day.

 

I got the wine note on dry down, but not the myrrh so much. I think the flowers were kind of folded in (to my nose) with the honey.

 

The throw was nicely wafting, and I think it stuck around for 2-3 hours (this is a long stint for me!). I may like this just as much as Sudha Segara!

[hellomoonglow]

Minus the honey, this would be lovely combination of scents. I don't like honey. Period. Not to eat, not to wear. I read that a lot of people love this scent, however, and I can see why. It's very complex. Underneath the HONEY I can smell flowers, HONEY, winey grapes and, of course, HONEY.

[Suu4LC]

In the imp this is sweet honey and wine. This smells nice, but I'm not sure it would be the kind of perfume I would wear. Hm, at first this blended really well with my skin, a lovely honey/myrhh, but as it dries, it gets this weird note to it that I can't describe...maybe it's the wine note going a bit sour. Hmm, this fades very fast and ends up just being a very light sweet powder with a hint of florals. Not the complex, classical perfume I was hoping for!

[grashopper8]

Holy schnikies!!

 

GORGEOUS!!!

 

Round red wine, deepest golden honey, and....carnation?....

 

errr I don't really like carnation. And it's starting to dominate.

 

Damnit, this started out so incredible! All the good notes disappeared within a couple of minutes though.

 

My chemistry sucks balls sometimes.

 

2.7 out of 5

[hairfall]

*Edit*

 

On second try, Athens smells completely different from the first.

 

Wine was extremely distinct from the imp, to application, dry-down and all the way until I washed it off.

Like the previous review, the scent is still very smoky with quite a strong throw.

Honey, sweet flowers, I could detect them, just that they were really covered by the wine.

 

I took a sniff after some "exercise" and quite some hours late, I got *urgh* stale cigar.

Granted that the scent was supposed to be wine, just that to me... It smelt more like stale cigar than wine to me.

 

This needs getting used to.

Edited November 23, 2008 by fairhall

[lainevierge]

Wow, this smells just like wine in the imp, and divine on me when it's wet, but it morphs into this gross powdery scent with hints of sweat. Just divine.

 

I hate when scents that should work on me turn into a weird sweaty smell.

 

Anyway, the wine in this is exactly like the wine in Centzon Totochtin, only without the chocolate note.

 

Maybe it'll work in a scent locket?

[Sapphiremo0n]

Oh wow this is another really nice one! Puddin threw a frimp of this in with an ebay auction and I absolutly love it!

 

In the imp it is all dark and intoxicating with the red wine and myrrh. I'm seriously thinking a Greco-Roman bacchanal; wine, women, and debacheury.

 

On my skin, it starts out pure red wine, as it dries, it becomes seductive myrrh and golden honey.

 

After a few hours what remains is a sweet perfume of everything, no one note more obvious than the others.

[pacifick]

It's too bad, because in the vial it only has a hint of wine, but once it's on everything else cowers behind the wine. I smell like I was dunked in a wine bottle, lol.

 

EDIT 9 Jan:

It's aged in a cool dark place for a couple months, and the other notes are coming out once applied. Unfortunately it's still overwhelmingly wine, but not nearly as much as fresh.

Edited January 9, 2009 by pacifick

[LadyLuckless]

Sigh, this was such a delicious honey in the imp and first on, but for some reason it turns into the smell of singed cotton on me! Too bad.

[toomuch]

Definitely getting a bottle of this. It's very heady. I apply it at least a half hour before going out. The picture I get from this one is outside the city, looking at it but standing beside an old vat where they used to stomp on grapes to crush them. The oil has a bit of an age smell to it, in a good way. Like something that aged well. A grape smell without being too fruity. Sweet without being sticky.

 

I started getting these perfumes as aromatherapy. Spinal pain causes me to breathe too shallowly. There's nothing like these wonderful smells to encourage deep breathing. Warning - breathing a heady scent too deeply too many times in a row can cause dizziness. :-) These scents cheer me up on their own, and the extra oxygen gives me more energy too.

[kjirstiben]

After having had such wondrously good experiences with anything else I've found that combine honey and wine in the description (Delphi and Mead Moon), I had high hopes for Athens... and I wasn't disappointed.

 

Initially on and in the imp, Athens smells of honeyed wine and some herbs... though the wine here is a touch more red than the wine in Delphi or Mead Moon...

 

As it starts to dry, the scent develops a certain breath of herbs and flowers, even a touch of dustiness to it.

 

It continues to be a honey/herbal, slightly dusty scent... the throw is noticeably boozy from a slightly larger distance.

 

As it dries down, it continues to stay in this family. It eventually becomes a more respectable tart and honeyed scent that one only smells when sniffing close to the skin...

 

I like Athens very much, and it's good to know that I'll have a GC alternative to fall back on when my bottle of Mead Moon runs out!

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

Honey-sweetened wine all the way.

 

First on:

Tangy red wine.

 

Dry:

After about 15 mins, this is a lush red wine scent with a touch of dry myrrh. Refined, ancient, and elegant!

 

It dries into a dry sort of incense scent, but I don't get any honey, and the wine is pretty non-existent after an hour.

 

Finally:

Lovely to try, but this is swap material.

[hkhm]

imp: myrrh and wine, this is strong.

 

wet: it's an oddity to me that often honey and wine scents turn to a cocoa powder scent on my skin. the myrrh has all but vanished.

 

dry: this dries back down to myrrh with a wine feel and a honeyed incense backdrop. this goes on strong and stays strong.

[Nidaba]

In the imp: Strong, as everyone says.

 

Wet: wow, very strong honey and alcohol and fruit. Very sharp and sweet. Starts to go sour on me.

 

Dry: Sourness left! Yay! Very strong, cloyingly sweet honey now with the bitter bite of red wine. Very interesting.

 

I will keep my imp, but not a bottle purchase for me.

[angelin05]

(this is my first time doing this, so bear with me; this is from a very newbie)

 

In the bottle: I got the honey right off, with a bit of wine and a woodsy undertone.

 

On: Wet- Still alot of honey, more woodsy than winey.

 

30 minutes later: Most of the honey is gone, so is most of the wine; what I am left with is a warm, sweet, woodsy note (reminds me of sweet pipe tobacco straight out of the package in a way-it's a good thing) with a very faint floral under it all. I like it alot.

 

Makes me think of going to a friends house and sitting on the ront porch with a glass of wine in the fall... if that makes sense!

Edited February 24, 2009 by GuiltyPleasure

[Bluestocking]

In the imp: Lots of sweet honey and strong, tangy red wine, with a dark undertone of myrrh. It does seem almost exactly what I imagined it would be, sweet and astringent at the same time, a little bit like Cockaigne without the sweet, buttery cake. Actually… somebody earlier compared this to a Greek marinade and I can sort of see it. The sweetness of the honey and the sharp wine make me think of balsamic vinegar!

On, wet: A whoosh of dark red wine, and then the myrrh really blooms, dark and majestic—definitely not like a marinade now. The honey's out of the spotlight, as strong as it was in the imp; now it's just taking the tart edge off and sweetening this up. I get some blooming flowers here, too, though I couldn't tell you what they are. Maybe just wildflowers, but they're very pretty with the myrrh.

On, dry: Deep red wine and warm, smoky myrrh, just sweetened by a drizzle of wildflower honey. This is much more complex than I expected, and much less sweet. The honey is really restrained; the main focus is definitely on the wine and myrrh, which makes this luxurious. It smells like an Athenian noblewoman's perfume.

Later: Mostly myrrh, with a lingering hint of the wine and wildflower honey. It's surprisingly delicate, very graceful.

Overall: I really didn't expect much from this one, because the wine/honey combination was underwhelming to me in Cockaigne, but Athens works for me in all the ways Cockaigne didn't. The honey never takes over this blend, because the dark wine and myrrh more than balance it out, but it's just enough to give this a golden quality and keep the wine from getting too sour or acidic. Those unnamed flowers add some nice complexity, too. It's a rich, regal sort of perfume and it does have a Classical feel to it. Very nice--strong, though, at least when first applied. I wouldn't slather this one.

 

 

[savage_rose]

Honey and wine...the honey is very strong in the imp and on my skin, but then it gives way more to the grapey wine. I think I like it, but it's A LOT sweeter than I was expecting.

[catatonic1242]

In the imp: Before I even got the imp open, I could smell the honey. Upon opening, the wine joins the party.

 

On, wet: Goodness, this scent is so very strong. It smells like ruined wine on my skin, the kind that is just starting to turn to vinegar.

 

On, dry: Honey, wine and florals. This isn't terribly complex -- it feels like a giant, sticky base layer of honey, then spilled wine, then powdery flowers. The throw on this is insane.

[emily2531]

I read many other reviews of Athens that say the honey note predominates, but I dissagree. At first the wine and honey hit your nose and they are very sweet, but there's a strong woodsy earthy smokiness underneath... it's almost too smokey, and I see where one reviewer had a point in calling it stale cigar. However, after an hour or two, something amazing happens. Once the wine mellows and the myrrh blends in with my skin, and there's just a hint of honey and flowers.

 

I love this scent for the drydown, but unfortunately for me it takes a couple of hours to reach that point.

[jarvenpa]

Frimp from the lab (thank you, I keep meaning to try more of the Wanderlust scents because they are fascinating).

 

I always test without reading notes in the vain hope that someday I will actually be right about what I think I am smelling.

 

First sniff, wet-daubed on wrist: virgin olive oil; I actually see green transparency. With a bunch of wine. Okay, wine dark sea and all that, makes sense, but...am I going to smell like tossed salad?...oh, wait, here's honey. Lots of honey.

 

Honey on my skin is an iffy note, but I will ride this out. For the moment--and it at this point has been about 5 minutes--the scent seems to be fading away entirely. Hello? Athens? Are you there?

 

Walk dog in rain drenched graveyard (now, that would be an interesting scent for Beth: wet dog, mud, daffodils, cold stone).

 

Sniff wrist: okay, honey is still there, but now there are spices of some sort. Guess wildly what they are. Reject all guesses. But spicy.

 

The scent clings very close; I really don't think it has much throw. After a few hours it is a faint, pleasant, sweet spice.

 

Rather pretty, interesting progression of scents (and now I am going to go look and see what's really in this!)