Anthesteria

[ellebelle]

Anthesteria, one of the four central feasts of Dionysus, is held for three days during the month of Anthesterion-- the time of blooming. It is a celebration of the birth of spring, expressed symbolically though the ceremonial opening of the pithoi containing the previous year’s vintage. A time of joy and drunkenness, it is both a celebration of earth’s renewal and springtime’s bright passions and a festival of the dead. During the three nights of Anthesteria, the ghosts of our ancestors roam the streets. This commemoration of death and rebirth, passion and springtime was one of the few, precious moments when all were equal in the Hellenic world; during Anthesteria, man, woman, and child, free man and slave, human and spirit were all unified under the auspices of Nature’s great cycle.

Dénthis wine and Bibline grape, with honey and a touch of thyme and oregano.

 

For me, this is mostly white wine. It seems like the same wine scent from Horreur Sympathique and from Bon Vivant. I also get some sticky sweet honey as well. No thyme or oregano to speak of. There is almost a tropical feel to this scent - I get an almost quince like effect from the wine and honey. Pretty!

[HerbGirl]

Grape, wine and honey. This dries down to such a beautiful waft of grape and honey on me! I really didn't expect to love this, I just knew that I liked it enough to get a bottle. Well, I love it enough to need a backup. Wet, I almost get a touch of Oregano, but it's very pleasant in a non cooking sort of way. Dry, this smells like a not so sweet Alexander the Grape Otter Pop. Genius! 5/5

[zankoku_zen]

On wet, this smells like sweet grape candy. As it dries, its more of a wine and honey. The honey is definitely predominant on wet.

[dawndie]

In bottle: light winey grapes

 

On skin: peppy fizzy white grapes

 

Half-hour later: still nice and sweet with some light honey

 

In conclusion: these are the grapes from Glitter making another cheery appearance. It took me a couple of outings, but I realized this smells like Pink Phoenix on me, swapping out the strawberry for the grapes. Light, fresh and perky.

[edenssixthday]

Anthesteria - This is a gorgeous scent in the vial and when first applied. It smells like clear, cool, ice-wine grapes and reminds me of the The Chained Phantoms, which I adore. As it warms up on my skin, the wine/grape smell becomes a background scent, and the honey becomes prominent. Unfortunately for me, it's the same honey that's used in O, which means it starts to smell plasticky even before dry-down. I don't smell the herbs at all. This will have to be a scent locket fragrance for me, as it doesn't play well with my skin chemistry due to the honey in it.

[milo]

If grape kool-aide could be alcoholic, this would be what it would smell like. Kind of fake grape, honeyed with a winey booze note to it. The honeyed part does not smell fake, however, it's the grape note. This kind of reminds me a bit Gluhwein and other red wine blends. Glad to have this empty sent in a package, but ultimately, this is not for me.

[Little Bird]

Anthesteria isn't as dark and heavy as I thought it would be. The wine goes on smelling like a glass of cool white grape juice, but dries down to more of a fakey, sweet, grape flavored candy smell on my skin. The honey is golden and sweet.

The grape is strong at first, but within ten minutes this has dried down to mostly a creamy, slightly powdery, golden honey with hints of grape bubblegum. It's surprisingly light on me and only lasts about an hour before fading into a vague, nondescript sort of sweetness. I don't smell any of the thyme or oregano, or anything herbal at all.

[filigree_shadow]

Really I just smell grapes. White grapes... I guess that's from the wine? Can't really smell any honey. No herbs at all. It's not a bad grape scent, but there doesn't seem to be much else going on here.

[Incendiare]

A blast of grapes! The wine is sort of there in the imp but to me, it is still leaning more towards juice than wine. The honey shows up to the party once I apply Anthesteria to the skin. It's quite shy though. Dry, this smells like a certain something but I just can't put my finger on it. Damn it Beth, this happens way too often! All I know is this smells very purple.

 

Come to think of it, the sugariness in the background reminds me of the sugariness in Faith.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - A fresh bright red wine scent, perhaps more like grape juice than wine

 

Wet on me - Still the fresh wine-y scent but with a hard green metallic note beneath it, I suspect it may be the herbs

 

Dry on me - Slightly darker purple-y wine

 

Overall - I don't know; there's nothing like it, but it doesn't grab me

[mazaru]

This is really special on me. It changes as the day goes by. To begin with, wet, it smells of red grapes, perhaps fermenting into wine; as the day goes on the initial wet fruitiness dies down and reveals a soft honey-and-thyme scent. Over the day it goes from being a heady, thick smell to a soft, breezy one: like a day outdoors in Italy followed by a large glass of wine, but in reverse. It reminds me of walking through the ruins near the Coloseum in Rome, and the lethargic cats that lounge amid the ancient stone.