The Thales Eclipse

[torikitty]

In the sixth year a battle took place in which it happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became night. And this change of the day Thales the Milesian had foretold to the Ionians laying down as a limit this very year in which the change took place. The Lydians however and the Medes, when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them.

– Herodotus, on a prediction of by Thales of Miletus

Red amber and leather, patchouli, champaca flower, frankincense, oudh, castoreum accord, and black musk.

In the bottle: chocolate and herbs?

Drydown: leather and black musk ooze out from the back. There's a bit of pungentness from the castoreum accord and a hint of champaca flower. It's going a high-pitched bitter on me.

Dry: I seem to amp all the wrong notes on this one. I'm thinking the castoreum is just not working for my skin because everything else in this list is fine on me. I'm hoping that someone with a different skin chemistry can help the notes blend together better.

 

Edit: Hours later, the funk has worn off. Now it smells like a nice, incensey light leather sitting around a heart of amber. It took quite a while to get here, but it is pretty when it eventually calms down. Maybe I'll try this again tomorrow.

Edited August 22, 2017 by Carrie

[patina]

I get the red amber and leather with dark musk. It's not spicy, just red. There's an oily and animalistic sense to this, like leather smoked with incense and rubbed with some slightly odd smelling grease. Plus amber.

[omphaloskeptic]

The Thales Eclipse (Great American Eclipse/LE ’17)
preconceived notions: this one has champaca which is always a NOPE for me b/c of my partner’s “that smells like grandma” associations but the rest of it sounded SO tempting that i had to try… plus i am mildly fixated on the lab’s castoreum accord so i wanted another blend that had it

wet: …uuuuuhm, this smells like a dirty bathroom GOD DAMNIT OUDH! on me it smells like a champaca-scented bathroom *sigh* oh, FFS, i was having such a better run of luck w/ the oudh notes until this. i keep going back trying to sniff deeply enough to get any of the other notes (i was really hoping for head-to-head red amber comparisons since i’m testing “The Sun in Anger swore” on my other hand) but every whiff just highlights the dirty litterbox stank there’s no way i can finish out a usual skin test on this, its flat out GROSS on me. nope nope nope… man how i envy people whose skin chemistry doesn’t do this w/ oudh

don’t let my review scare you away folks, this is a known issue w/ my skin vs certain varieties of oudh… i should know better by now but i often play oudh roulette b/c if it DOES work it can be really gorgeous! i suspect on someone else this would be a truly fantastic blend.

[strick9]

In the bottle- Animalic, Musky, inky. Super strong, wet pachouli. That castoreum is strong, though i will say it mellowed significantly. Last week it was almost all I could smell.

 

Wet-The castoreum is amped, and i smell a bit like a horse barn. This is a note that i love in beer, but not so much in perfume. The oudh and frankincense are definitely present. I'm honestly not familiar with champaca flower, so I can't say if that's around or not. This is funky right now. It's not good or bad. Last week when i tried this it distinctly reminded me of a botanica here in Chicago. Lots of sacred woods, oils, dust, incense, resins. This place sold castoreum and civet accord, so that animalic smell was pretty pervasive. It's a fond memory, and i love how that botanica smells. I just don't know that i want to smell like that. I'm sure it will change.

 

30 minutes in-I like this more and more. I looked up champaca flower, and this note has become far more prominent. The castoreum and musk have faded into the background and are now just a super solid base. The pachouli has gone from earthy and wet to drier and dustier, and the red amber is relaxing in the middle. If the amber could wear a leather jacket, that's where the leather is. Its not super intense. I always apply to both my wrist and inner elbow, since scents work differently in those places on me. There's far more leather and far less champaca flower on my inner elbow. Right now, I'm into this, and I'm really surprised to say this considering how much I didn't like it last week.

 

If i were to hedge my bets, i would guess this will age marvelously, and I'll report back once Ive worn this for a few hours.

 

Edit-

Ok, so a day.

 

2-3 hours in, and the scent is almost completely incense. It's surprisingly floral incense, but not in an obnoxious way. It's dusty and now smells like my favorite witch shop as opposed to my favorite botanica.

 

Again, i think this will be quite great once it ages. It needs some time, but I think it will seriously fill out in adulthood.

Edited September 18, 2017 by strick9

[lookingglass]

Give me your funky, your difficult, your vamps, warmed with the blood and filth of mere mortals!

 

This scent is FABLOUS! She's unabashed, unafraid, self confident, and honest. She is wild witch kin to power house 80's frags like Chanel's Coco.

 

Fresh on the skin yeah, the castoreum is very forward: weird, bodily, and skanky. But we don't slut shame around here! Oh, no! You OWN that sexuality, Betch! She is leather clad and dewy. Where did she come from? A bar? A dungeon? A concert? Somehow it could have been anywhere. Is she sweaty? Oily? So many questions!

 

Drying down almost immediately, take a second look...lean in... she's now not quite as shocking. She's kind of sweet, isn't she, the way she cocks her head when she looks at you; yes, you're afraid, because you know you're seen...she makes you look at your self. The scent of incense is intoxicating...somehow freshening the air and making your thoughts go deeper, deeper...deeper............

 

Dried out she is embers of precious wood made flesh...round edges chard, center glowing. She's quieted, but make no mistake, she still has power. You know she makes things happen, and you want to do her bidding.

 

I'm so glad she's mine.

[JazzieCazzie]

IN THE IMP: Cannot put my finger on these notes AT ALL. Clean, fresh, resiny.

 

Oddly, when I ordered to decants I missed the part about leather which tends to be a dealbreaker for me ... yet, even more oddly, the leather is never an issue for me during my testing.

 

WET: Ohhhhhh ... amazeballs on my picky skin. NO leather at all! Lovely and what I call "medicinal" (a term I coined for certain BPAL scents in a very positive way). Resiny goodness.

 

INITIAL DRYDOWN: An unbelievably comforting scent.

 

FINAL DRYDOWN: I love this. LOVE it. Total keeper. Not quite enough to buy a bottle (I've found as I get older that two imps are enough since I have SO many sniffies and don't wear then every day and don't expect to live to be 100).

[zankoku_zen]

Black musk and castorerum turn this into a powdery bathroom cleaner. Eew.

 

Super skin chemistry fail.

 

And of course the throw is EXCELLENT.

[myth]

This smells like oudh and butt from the wand, with more of the same on my skin. I don't smell any amber or leather, or any of the other notes really. The oudh is harsh, an olfactory scratchiness, and the castoreum accord is amping over everything else. It's so funky it nearly makes me gag, and it becomes even more horrific as it dries.

 

I finally had to go wash it off, and I try to not do that because I like to let a scent play out. Now that I've done that, in the scent residue that remains I can smell the leather, black musk, frankincense, and patch, which would be a nice scent if this was all it had ever smelled like.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

This is funky, sour and poopy on me. I smell like a litter box that’s shared by 74 cats and hasn’t been emptied for a while. 

[doomsday_disco]

This is mostly champaca and resins for the longest time on me. I get the leather up close, but the throw is mostly incense. By the end of the day, the castoreum and black musk make it mostly a sweet-tinged musky, dark, resinous incense.

 

I'm glad the oudh wasn't funky on me, but it's not something I could see myself reaching for.

Edited August 23, 2021 by doomsday_disco