Club de Nuit Man EDT 105ml

Where most of the range leans rich, Armaf Club de Nuit Man Eau de Toilette goes for heat, and it is the spiciest thing wearing this name. The opening is cold for about five minutes. Mandarin orange and grapefruit give it a sweet-then-bitter citrus flash and mint lands on top of them with a sharp, green, almost cooling bite. It is a bracing start and it does not last, which is plainly deliberate, because what follows needs the contrast to land properly. Then the spices arrive in force. Cinnamon brings a dry, bark-like warmth rather than a bakery sweetness, clove adds its medicinal, slightly numbing sharpness, ginger gives the mixture a fizzing heat, and black pepper keeps everything dusty and dry. Four spices together could easily turn into a muddle, but they are stacked in a way that keeps each one legible for a while, and the overall effect is of warmth rather than of a spice rack. The base is where it becomes a grown-up fragrance. Leather gives the finish a dry, slightly smoky firmness, amber warms it from beneath, and patchouli grounds the pair with damp earth. As an eau de toilette it sits lighter on the skin than the eau de parfum concentrations in the same family, so it is easier to wear in company and in daylight, though the spice still makes it an autumn and winter proposition. It is aimed at men, and it suits a cold evening out far better than a warm afternoon in. Armaf is the fragrance label of Sterling Perfumes Industries, founded in Dubai in 1998 under Fakhruddin Holdings and known above all for Club de Nuit, a line it began building after the Armaf name first appeared in 2010.