Azzaro pour Homme Night Time Azzaro 2012

A few weeks ago I was in a department store shopping for shirts when I was accosted by a sales associate brandishing a bottle of Azzaro pour Homme Night Time in a menacing way and entreating me that this was the ultimate in fragrances for the modern, well dressed man. I was in sweats so either he needed glasses or my designer track suit struck some sort of chord in him!

I dutifully applied my nose to the area of my wrist that he had sprayed and before I could utter another word he had plied me with not one, but the ENTIRE range of Azzaro for men samples which he pulled from various pockets and stuffed into my overflowing hands :). Then he skipped away telling me that he was always available for consultation at the fragrance counter downstairs. Such largesse from a sales associate is not to be taken lightly these days ... so here I am ... testing a few of them :).

Pour Homme Night Time opens with a huge blast of Bitter Orange which hangs around for quite a while before being joined by a soapy Lavender accord. Nothing much changes until a rather swift dry down is reached ... at which time a soft woodiness becomes prevalent and sort of just sits there ... dull and uninteresting.
The blurb on the packaging attests that this is a 'green, woody, fougere' and a 'new interpretation of Azzaro Pour Homme', which I never liked anyway. I do, however, very much enjoy Azzaro's Acteur, and if this one was anything like it I would have been suitably impressed. Sadly, PH Night Time seems to be this company's attempt at enticing the 20 something nightclub crowd to buy its wares, where it will no doubt find some modicum of success. I'd have to literally bathe in this fragrance to get any respectable sillage and longevity out of it, but I can see it appealing to its demographic ... until the next fad, of course. It's a great pity that fragrances these days are made to be trendy, and not to stick around for the long haul.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend Azzaro pour Homme Night Time as a fragrance for serious parfumisti ... but then I don't think it was made for that purpose.

I’m not that much of a fan of bitter orange in my fragrances. and am not that enthusiastic about regular orange, most of the time either. However, the bitter orange note that is prominent in Night Time, isn’t bad and I actually kind of like it.

The original Azzaro Pour Homme, is a nice and inexpensive scent, it just never fit my style. I feel the same way about this one, also. Night Time shares some of the DNA with the original but it has much less of that dry wood scent and goes more into the combo of bitter orange and rhubarb.

Night Time has a different sort of spice, than its originator, and it’s quite fresh and warm. Though, you can still tell that this is a relative of Azzaro Pour Homme, which isn’t always the case with these flankers (see: La Nuit De L’Homme L’Intense).

The biter orange adds some zest to the composition and combined with rhubarb, it makes for an interesting aroma. Yet, it never strays into the realm of a pure citrus fragrance, and retains that sharp/dry woody greenery that made the original popular.

Here’s what I experienced with this fragrance, and I think it’s very indicative of Night Time. Attention, this is more of an experience than a fragrance description!

Some time ago, in the morning, I sprayed it on for the first time. My wife wrinkled her nose and hissed: "My God, you might as well slather yourself with half a grapefruit" (direct quote).

Since my better half is usually right about whether a fragrance is appealing or not, I felt a wave of disillusionment wash over me.

But the stuff was already on, so I went to work "defiled by Night Time." It takes me about 45 minutes to get to work. During that time, a miracle must have happened, experts also call it fragrance development ;-), because as soon as I entered the office, it took exactly 5 minutes before a colleague called out to me on her way to the scanner: What an amazing fragrance! Well, I thought to myself, tastes differ.
I became more skeptical, however, when after three more colleagues, even my boss, who is very introverted, asked what that wonderful scent was. Okay, even my wife can be wrong sometimes.........

Back home, I gave my wife the obligatory "how-was-your-day kiss," when she pulled me close again and actually asked what that awesome fragrance was. I replied, well, the half grapefruit!

The fact that a fragrance can change so dramatically from yuck to wow really surprised me. Sure, you know this from other scents, but this is so extreme?! When you engage with it yourself, you realize just how vast the difference is between the top note, heart note, and base note!

I think there are two points you must absolutely consider to warm up to Night Time:
1. Don’t expect an improved Azzaro pH, because then you’ve already lost. Azzaro pH cannot be improved!
2. The closer Night Time gets to the base note, the more masculine, darker, and BETTER it becomes. However, you have to give the fragrance a chance and, above all, time.

For the evening or for the night, that’s up for debate, I think this is also a small trend, the scents for the night, the Night, la nuit, or however you want to call it.

The opening is very strong and dominant, somehow like l'eau d'orange from Hermes x 10. The bitter orange is very noticeable, but where is the rhubarb???

For me, Azzaro is a scent from the very beginning, I was about 7 years old, at a huge birthday party at my uncle's place, and everything masculine smelled of Azzaro, or almost everything, the other faction was sprayed with Denim.
After that, I knew what a fougère should smell like, and that was good.
Many years later, I discovered Azzaro Chrome and was positively surprised, I had it a few times and then moved on to New West and other mainstream fragrances.

Now, after many years, I have rediscovered Azzaro, observed the whole strategy, and I think, for a brand in the mid-price segment, it holds up quite well. I also personally like the always same designs very much. They are trying to follow a line that is not so bad at all.

With this night butterfly, I think one is not poorly served; of course, it’s not a standout like the night from YSL, but it is very respectable.
The bitter orange has something, then the peppery accent follows, not as uninteresting as has been written a lot.

The vetiver is recognized much later, and I also find that the longevity is more than just a few hours; from my perspective, it has been somewhat underrated so far, as the brand Azzaro is not exactly experiencing a stellar moment in the popularity of fragrances. In my view, this is a mistake.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

This rather new offshoot of its successful fragrance Azzaro Pour Homme really drags the good, serious reputation of the brand through the mud - because hardly anything remains of the original PH, and it orients itself towards successful fragrances like Le Male or, even more so, the new, mediocre Versace Eros.

It is sweet, unmasculine, interchangeable. Okay for going out, but absolutely nothing special; it rightly got overshadowed by other new releases last year. It neither follows the typical Azzaro path nor comes close to the youthful role models. You can't even compare the scent with Decibel from the same house, because PH Night is not crazy and totally off the mark either.

PH Night starts with a stale bitter orange, not refreshing but rather bittersweet and an acquired taste. There's also a hint of mint and freshness, or at least it tries to be. Then comes some spicier pepper, and in the end, a rather indifferent vetiver mixed with wood. The dry down is most reminiscent of PH. The most interesting aspect is the bitter note that really pulls the citrus accord into the night, but that's already the only plus point of the fragrance. It hardly convinces me at all!

The bottle is, like almost all Azzaro bottles, quite boring and appeals to the usual fans - this time just in black! The sillage is in the middle range despite the sweetness, as the fragrance simply cannot decide and only awkwardly mimics. I hope Azzaro sticks to its guns in the future! The scent lasted a good 7 hours!

Interchangeable - can be disregarded by all fragrance preferences!