Hetairae

[jewelbug]

The sublimely beautiful, fiercely independent, impeccably cultured, fascinatingly worldly and witty courtesans of ancient Greece. A seductive and dazzling blend of golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang.

 

Bottle: First I smell honey and fruit, followed up by a non-dirty-hippie type of patchouli and some spice. The very last impression is that of an unidentifiable floral. Overall the scent is quite sweet.

 

Wet: This is more floral now, perhaps a citrusy realm of floral. There is that sweetness in the back. Right now, it's not much more than that. It's also not as intense as I would have guessed from the imp. It's very warm, and I actually just got horny all of a sudden. Don't know if that was the perfume or my impending womanly cycles--I should test this again later.

 

Drydown: Floral and perfumey--like generic perfume. I can smell the fig slightly, but not as I'd hoped. This reminds me of a not-as-good Gomorrah, but it's got a bit of sweet honey right at the end.

Oh, wait--I take that all back, its turning lovely. It's getting much sweeter (about 20 mins), there is some smooth round fig, with a warm floral combo and HONEY. A tiny bit powdery. Still thinking this is similar to Gomorrah. I've noticed that from far away its more honey fig and from close up its more like the more floral/herby notes in Gomorrah. It ends here with sweet honey and powdery/herby fig with woodsy fig in the distant background.

 

Overall: This lasts FOREVER. I could still smell it when I woke up the next morning, which was like 20 hrs later. Its throw and staying power are amazing, and it’s a wonderful honeyed floral with a hint of fig by the end stages. I really REALLY like this (I'm a fig lover), and I must compare it to Eden and Gomorrah before I make more decisions.

 

edit: I'm retrying it now and comparing to the others. Its FAR more floral and patchouli than I remembered from last time, and less sweet. Compared to my other fig scents, this is too much in the vein of dept. store perfumes, and I think it will head to my swaps. Its also not as smilar to gomorrah as I'd thought. I'm crazy. it still ends many hours later as a blissful light honey, but I don't think that's enough for me.

[maewitch]

At first, his smells a little bit like walking into a Lush store...the ylang-ylang and patchouli. Unfortunately, while I like that smell in the store, it's just plain unpleasant on me, and just gets nastier within minutes. Acrid, nose-tickling florals and something like food, only nothing I'd ever eat.

 

This one is up there with Siren as just plain icky on my skin.

[quimerula]

Wet I can smell honey and patchouli with a tinny bit of fig.

 

As it dries down more fig comes out along with the floral edge of the ylang ylang. This is a ripe and sweet fig, quite intense. The clove makes a warm and spicy bottom line.

 

It changes from fruity to floral and fruity again each time I smell it!

A sweet perfume with a good throw.

[Abbie]

This was a frimp with my Carnivale Noir order... I'm not too big on honey, so let's see if I like this one.

 

In the bottle: Sweet with a coconutty undertone like suntan lotion. I can pick up a bit of patchouli but mostly it's the sunblock smell all over. Not bad... a very summery scent.

 

First on: The heat of my skin brings the patchouli forward, as well as a slightly rank sweaty smell and a green smell... not herbal, not floral, just green. It's like mowing the lawn on a summer day. This is one of those scents that is completely different on my skin.

 

Dry: Slightly sweet patchouli.

 

Overall: Not a favorite... there's still that nasty undersmell that I do not care for.

[Freyja Lux]

I had to edit this because the first time I applied Hetairae I must have had some other perfume on under it because when I later applied it to clean skin, it smelled much different than before. Yes, soapy. And kind of boring. Floral, light and indistinct. Sometimes it reminds me of baby powder. Oh well, another for the swap pile...

Edited September 30, 2005 by Freyja Lux

[Loligo]

Huh, this didn't work nearly as well on me as I had hoped. It starts out smelling like honey, sweat, and burning plastic. Then there's a phase of earthy honey, earthy in pretty much a good way, but then it gets sweaty and stale again, with a faint touch of department store perfume. Away with you, Hetairae!

[shayelea]

In the bottle: At first, all I smell is a kind of nutty sweetness. After a few more sniffs, I was able to pick out some individual notes; definitely the honey, which is the sweetness, something earthy and spicy which I think is the patchouli and the clove, and underneath that a sort of green note that logically must be either the ylang ylang or the fig, since those are what's left, but I don't know that I'd peg it as either of those.

 

Wet: The sweet, nutty scent gets even stronger. I can still tell there's the honey, and the spiciness of the clove, but this is a very well-blended scent. None of the notes stand out all that much.

 

Drydown: This has gone powdery on me, which may be the fig, or it may be the ylang ylang - floral scents tend to do that. I can still smell the honey, and that "green" scent I was getting earlier, which make the powdery note a little less noticeable. A tiny bit of the nuttiness remains. Overall, I think I would rather wear Tiger Lily than this.

 

After three hours: although, several hours in, the fig starts to come out a little more in this, without being overly-powdery, which is the first BPAL scent I've found that achieves this on me. I'll probably keep this one around.

 

After six hours: Dude, it's still there! And now it smells like spicy chocolate. This is definitely an interesting scent - and it keeps changing. Smells warm on me without being overpowering or setting off my allergies. Nice, indeed.

[lemonade]

In the bottle i loved this yum yum yum

 

 

Honey and clove and a little flower field of passion

 

 

And this was my first ever BPAL only 3 weeks ago

 

BUT...................

 

It hates me waaaaaaa waaaaaaaa

 

So much so it brought on this vile headache and started to remind me of some type of 80s perfume that i cant put my finger on.

 

I went form honey in a flower field to plain headache in a bottle

 

I was devestated ,,,,, i wonder what note hates me.... will have fun trying lots of other BPAL to find out.

 

 

Gingerbread Poppet next

[niter]

Imp

Mmmm, the fig note is so heavenly. This patchouli *might* even work on me as from the imp it is tamed by the fig to an earthy scent. I can pick up the tinest tweak of sweetness and the ylang ylang smells so very lovely.

 

Wet

The interplay between the fig and the patchouli is captivating. My skin amps equally my favorite note (fig) and my most detested note (patchouli). This time the patchouli is winning, but the fig blends with it well and makes for a sexy, manly scent.

 

Dry

Raw, woodsy, man scent. MMMM. Must try on the man.

 

edit: it DOES smell really great on him!

Edited October 17, 2005 by niter

[PennyPretty]

This starts out as spicy fig on me and then dries down to the spicier cousin of "O" as the honey note comes out. It's one of Beth's honey skin scents that I love so much. I am debating a big bottle of this one.

[wanderingredhead]

in the imp this is a very sweet patchouli.

On my skin the fig comes out, and as it dries the clove and honey start to drape themselves over the fig. The patchouli is very subtle, and works as a nice stable anchor for the other notes, which work SOO well together. By dry down I can't distinguish any individual notes, but a lovely mellow, sweetly spicy blend.

Bottom line: I LOVE this scent, which is surprising because usually patchouli really frightens me. But this one works so well that it will be the first to go on my big bottle list.

[Ancientgirl]

This is a scent I would have had to try even if I hated every note in it, simply from the name. Fortunately, that is not the case---I am starting to realize I really like honey scents.

From the bottle: the scent is pretty, but with a slight heaviness that I think might be the patchouli? I really have to learn what that smells like.

On me: honeyed fig, with a little bit of green-ness underneath. It's quite lovely!

After an hour or so: The ylang-ylang comes out and merges with the honey and fig. It's a beautiful blend, seductive and spicy, and it suits the name well. The scent of a woman not only beautiful, but trained in all the arts of seduction. I'll probably be wanting a big bottle.

Ancientgirl

Edited to Add: This is a definite big bottle for me . . . eventually (I have too many! I have to start making lotions or finding other new ways to use up the big bottles I have!). I brought my imp with me on my trip to Greece, and not only did my conference presentation go well (the subject was hetairae, and other aging beauties, so it felt appropriate), but I also got picked up by a cute Greek guy ten years younger than I am( 26 to my 36)! Woohoo for Bpal-derived self-confidence!

Edited January 8, 2006 by Ancientgirl

[Monster]

This is honey and ylang ylang right away out of the vial...and, strangly, this smells a little bit like a wet towel that's been hanging around a stale bedroom.

 

On my skin the honey and clove come out a lot more, and the strange wet towel, almost sort of a mildewy scent is very prominent.

 

I really thought I was going to like this, but sadly, Hetairae just isn't for me.

[sophia_helix]

Dang. I used to think honey was a no-fail scent on me, but so far it's only worked in Tiger Lily and Honey Moon. This, like Delphi, was a gross combo of sweet honey and spicy, musty herbal potpourri. It lasted a while and had decent throw, but I think I really need to keep the honey with the florals.

[LiberAmoris]

I really liked Hetairie in the imp, but on my skin the ylang ylang is absolutely broadcast above all other notes. I get a fleeting mint-like note as well, so perhaps my sense of smell is totally off. The honey is so yummy that I'll test this one again before giving up. Until the ylang ylang cuts in, Hetairie is lovely.

[Fefferbella]

Very nice... honey and ylang ylang.

 

The warmth of the honey note is so perfectly blended with the ylang ylang. As it dries, the spicey clove comes out. This is really delightful.

 

Hetairae has some staying power too, I could smell the little dab I tested all day. Deffinately a keeper.

[SeaMonkey]

eeeiiii! Patchouli, figs, and cloves.

 

This reminds me of my last semester at LSU, sitting on the Indian mounds outside of the dance studio, smoking cloves and eating fruit with other dancers, and wearing patchouli.

 

*sighs*

I miss that.

[ajcj213499]

I tried this during a bit of imp testing madness (I had just gotten a bunch of imps) and I thought, "meh, fig".

 

However, yesterday I was going through my imps, deciding what to let go, etc. I thought I'd give hetaire a fair trial.

 

This is a nice blend. I'm not crazy about fig (like in forbidden fruit- ick) and I think that was what I had regaled it to before. This is a warm honey with a bit of fig but with a nice floral that balances it out so it's not too food-ey.

 

The thing that impressed me the most was it's staying power- way more than average (especially for me, scents leave my skin so quickly). I'll have to try it a few more times to see if it's bottle worthy.

 

I think it might be nice layered with aureus. Maybe I'll try that later today...

[Miss Lynx]

In contrast to Aglaea, which I just reviewed, this one I really was sure I'd like, but I ended up not being as impressed with it as I thought I'd be. I think it's that "blushing touch of ylang ylang" that's the major problem -- on me it turns into something more like a raging onslaught of ylang ylang. (For those not familiar with that note, it's a sort of high, sharp, ferociously sweet floral.)

 

Thankfully, the nose-burning ylang ylang assault doesn't last too long -- as with Aglaea, the floral component dies down within a reasonable length of time, though not as quickly here as with that one. The balance of the scent is pretty nice - I mean, what's not to love about honey, fig, patchouli and clove? The fig is little waxy-smelling, as it tends to be, but not to an unpleasant extent.

 

If they just could have left the ylang ylang out, or at least cut it down to about a quarter of its strength, I'd really, really like this scent. Or if my skin didn't have such a tendency to amp high sweet florals. Increasing the patchouli to give it some more depth wouldn't hurt either - as it stands, it's pretty light and sweet, and I don't really get any patchouli from it at all. All in all, this is a case of like rather than the love I expected.

 

Grade: B

Edited December 19, 2005 by Shollin

[desu]

In the bottle: Spicy honey sweetened with fig. After trying Honey Moon and falling in love, I had to try this one.

 

On my skin: This is like the sassier sister of Honey Moon. I can definately smell the honey and fig, but there's also a spicier edge in the back. The throw isn't anything to write home about, though, even though I desparately wanted this scent to linger about me. It's a very sexy scent.

 

Later on: Faded a bit, but still smells wonderful.

 

 

For more information about the hetairae, try James Davidson's Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens.

[feline.by.design]

I've had this imp of Hetairae for a while, but the last time I tried it, I wasn't really too sure about it. So I tossed it back into my "to be tried" box of imps and that's where it stayed.

 

Finally, in a fit of "I'm gonna try all these imps and review 'em!" I have decided to take Hetairae out to test... again. I'm planning to take the load of imps I have that I don't care for and take them into work sometime next week for my coworkers to dig through and maybe find a friend. I did this last year, and it was a nice way to find homes for unwanted imps.

 

The honey note seems the most prominent on me, followed by the fig. The fragrance is nice and spicy at first, but it goes into a sort of chalky edge after about five minutes of wear. The initial bite Hetairae had goes the way of the dodo, and I'm left with something akin to the smell of deoderant mingled with the musk of underarms. Okay, it's not that terrible, but Hetairae feels like it's threatening to be that bad.

 

Aside from that dusty, chalky note that I get, Hetairae is lovely. Unfortunately, because of that fragrance, I think I'll toss this into the bag to be given away. Maybe the smell won't appear, or won't bother, someone else in my department.

 

-doreen

[tarotgirl99]

Well, I'm a honey girl who was first seduced into BPAL-dom with Honey Moon.

 

I have looked for something that could excite me as much for a long time. And now I've found it! I love fig, too (before BPAL, my signature scent was Premier Figuier), so I can finally say, "It's okay that Honey Moon isn't a catalogue scent."

 

In fact, I think I may like Hetairae even more. Not as sweet, but lotsa honey and fig.

 

I'm in LOVE!

[sookster]

i get all honey and fig from this blend.....no patchouli or clove whatsoever.....

after awhile the honey definitely gets more intense....this is a strong blend on me....

within 30 minutes the clove pops up briefly.....and a touch of floral.....then it dries

down to all honey .... which is kind of unique for me as beths' honey blends are

simply astonishing & work miraculously with my chemistry ... nice!!

[Sycorax]

Mm! In the vial this is all honey and fig.

 

When worn, this is a sultry, earthy scent. The clove becomes very apparent. Hetairae grows sweeter over time, but the spice never really leaves it.

 

For me this is like a more sophisticated version of O. While I'm not a fan of most honey blends, the fig and clove really turn Hetairae into a winner. I know that a lot of people love O and Snake Oil, and while I like them they're a bit too sugary for me. I think that this is much nicer!

[Hawke]

I am learning, slowly but surely, to trust my nose.

 

Out of the imp, I got a strong whiff of florals, combined with a sweeter honey note. But, as florals are for the most part bad on me, I was nervous.

 

I should have listened to that instinct.

 

Hetairae, I think, would be lovely without the ylang ylang. Unfortunately on me, that's what got amped, and I don't like ylang ylang as a stand-alone scent. The warmer it got on my skin, the more floral it got until I had to wash it off. Which was a feat in itself as this baby likes to stick.

 

Too bad. I like the concept but not the smell.

Edited February 3, 2006 by Shollin