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A scent of the silence before absolute doom, or the quiet sigh exhaled on the edge of hope: black plum, lavender, narcissus, night-blooming jasmine, lemon peel, labdanum, and white moss.

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This one is odd.

Wet: This one starts out as oudh on me. It's more bandaid than faecal, but there is definitely some barnyard action going on. I am going to hazard a guess and say this is indolic jasmine (which is odd because night-blooming is usually not at all bad on my skin), narcissus, and lemon peel. I'm going to be brave and tough this one out through drydown and beyond. 

Drydown: I am getting the same oudh like note, but now it's blending in equal parts with sour labdanum. I wish I could say this is pleasant, but it's really harsh. Throw is good, of course. 

Three hours later: Now it's actually quite nice. Everything has calmed down. The oudh note is gone, and I'm left with labdanum, still a bit sour from the lemon peel, and a beautiful, powdery moss. The plum and maybe some nonherbal lavender are noticeable to a small degree. The quiet sigh in the description was one of relief as I sat at the edge of hoping it would get better. I really like the final product, I'm just not sure if I can endure the first three hours to get to it. I wish the throw were as good as when it smelled bad on me, but it's pretty much a skin scent when it gets to the pretty part. Hopefully aging will improve it.

3 out of 5 stars.

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This one's definitely a morpher. It starts out with lavender and a hint of dark plum, but as it dries down, the lavender disappears and I get that same indolic quality, which I'm guessing is the jasmine. It's not full barnyard or anything, but it's a noticeable departure from the lavender. As it continues to wear, the lavender slowly creeps back in, but it's still primarily jasmine, with labdanum and slightly powdery mosses and a lavender undertone. Overall impression is that it's a pretty, somber floral; worth considering especially if you're a jasmine fan.

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JASMINE. The day blooming sort. It does calm down after about an hour and boy does this one have some throw! Oof. There's also stuff going on underneath that's very nice but I can't tell what's what under the JASMINE.

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Astronomical Twilight starts off as a melange of plum, narcissus, and moss on me, with touches of jasmine, lemon, and lavender. The sweet labdanum ends up joining in after a bit, but surprisingly, doesn't manage to take over in this one. The sweet, heady florals and plum end up being the dominant notes on me, with the powdery moss too far behind.

 

This one isn't really in my wheelhouse, but it was nice to get a sniffie to try.

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This doesn't smell at all like the other reviewers have described on me. It was one of my first BPAL scents (along with Doomscroll Blocker), and I ADORE it. It's the closest I have to a signature.

 

I find this and the other Twilights really hard to describe because they're so complex but my best shot:

In the bottle, this is murky/musky/dark with something sharp (lemon peel?) on top.

On, it's a gorgeous blend of blue-purple-black florals, heady and aromatic and so strong they're velvety. Astronomical Twilight is the period when the sun has dipped below the horizon but is still casting up enough light to make the sky blue/purple - it's the last stage before the truly black of Night. The twist of citrus dies slowly over the course of wear, letting this twilight settle in deeper and darker. Amazing throw and wear length. I could sniff this and its sister, Nautical Twilight, all day.

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For SCIENCE, I’m going to review this a few times, because this is incredibly unique. Once right outta the mail, and then in a few months.

 

Fresh from the mail (well, I let the swap package sit for a few hours while I lazed around) I grabbed a pipette for a small drop. But first, a deep inhale from the bottle: Something dark, something fruity, and something funky. Oh my.

 

On my skin, I’m getting an aldehyde type note, reminiscent of flat champagne? What? No but hey whoa jasmine, fresh jasmine, stanky jasmine. But not poo jasmine. This is important. Narcissus is there, barely, as is a spit of lavender. But this is jasmine’s frickin party, and you’d better recognize.

 

I had to let my wrist sit and let Miss Jasmine have their party time, and get plumb tuckered out, in order for the other notes to be able to get a word in edgewise. 
 

After about an hour, black plum joins in and brings a welcome mellowing of all this jasmine business. Labdanum also brings a nice backing into the mix. Narcissus is more prominent, lemon is nowhere to be found, and the white moss must have passed out early because I’m not getting any moss, which I usually amp, even if someone had merely suggested to put moss in a perfume but didn’t even include it in the end.

 

At the end of Frog and Toad’s Wild Ride through Astronomical Twilight, I don’t know what to think about this perfume. But there is something that keeps drawing me back to sniffing my wrist. It has an old-fashioned vibe to it, in fact my mom was sitting next to me while I was wearing/reviewing and she said “something smells like an old lady perfume.” But to be fair, every perfume to her is either “old lady,” “men’s cologne,” or “patchouli hippie stink.”

 

TLDR: Astronomical Twilight is a puzzling, jasmine heavy perfume.

 

Edited by gothteacup
Words are hard

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I wish I got more plum and lavender out of this -- on my skin it's largely jasmine with just a touch of lemon and the moss lurking underneath. If I *really* focus with my nose right up on my arm, I think I'm getting a tiiiiiny bit of the purple notes. (My current theory is that the narcissus/moss combo is what's giving some people the oudh reaction, btw!)

 

I'm testing from a decant, and looking at the mixed reviews above am now very curious to know if there was a lot of batch variation on this one!

Edited by Wwindy

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My skin loves narcissus and always catapults that note to the front. I struggle with jasmine sometimes, but the combination of the two works well for me here, and both are prominent when freshly applied.

As the oil dries, the lemon peeks out, and more of the plum, lavender and labdanum are evident, since the narcissus/jasmine combo actually calms down and shares the stage! This blend is a win for me: a dark moody floral with moderate throw.

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