Afnan 9pm Night Out: The 9 PM Family, Its Rivals And The Grooming Under It

On 26 April 1977 a former opera house and CBS studio at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan reopened as a nightclub. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager ran it, the door was the most argued-over door in the city, and for three years going out meant dressing as if the night itself had a theme. It closed in 1980 after both men were convicted of tax evasion. The club is gone, but the idea stayed: the evening is an outfit, and a fragrance is part of it.

That is the logic behind Afnan's 9 AM and 9 PM line. Afnan was founded in the UAE in 2007, Imran Fazlani is its founder and chairman, and the brand says it now sells in more than 120 countries. The numbers in the names are not clock times, they are moods. Afnan 9pm Night Out is the newest of them, and the brand describes it as a bold, confident nighttime fragrance, built from dragon fruit, bergamot, cognac and lavender over cardamom, suede and toffee, then tonka bean and patchouli underneath.

The trick is to read the whole family before you pick. The 9 PM Elixir and the 9 PM Rebel are the other two extraits here, and Rebel is the darker, redder bottle of the pair. The 9 PM Edition for Men is the plain black one, the simplest entry. The 9 AM Dive is the daytime counterweight, worth having if you like the house but not the heat. Supremacy Collector's Edition, Tobacco Rush and Turathi Electric are the wider Afnan shelf, for when the 9 PM bottles feel too familiar to you.

Spray it on your wrist and walk around for an hour before you decide anything. Sweet, warm scents lie to you in the first minute and tell the truth in the third hour.

Lattafa is the obvious neighbour to the 9 PM bottles. Asad is the one I reach for first, dark and dressed up, the bottle with the gold strap. Khamrah Qahwa is made for everyone, and I would try it first on a long dinner night. Fakhar sits in the same family if you like the style but want something else in the cabinet. Montale's Arabians Tonka comes from a Paris house known for oud, and it wears in the same sweet, warm way.

Armaf's Club de Nuit Intense Man is the eau de toilette with the reputation, the one people mention when they talk about Middle Eastern houses. Odyssey Homme is the smoother, more wearable Armaf. Rasasi's Victory and Maison Alhambra's Victorioso Victory sit side by side in this grid, and I like the pair because you can compare them on two wrists on the same evening.

A pairing I like: a single spray of Asad on the chest and a single spray of something lighter on the wrist. The contrast makes it smell like you, not like a bottle.

What I would skip: five sprays of anything sweet in a small bar. Close quarters turn a good scent into a problem for the whole table.

Scent strips lie about amber. Put these on skin, wait for the dry-down, and only then decide whether you want to be smelled from across the room.

The designer end of the night lane is easy to read from the names. Kilian's Angels' Share is built with tonka bean and is the one I would point to for a slow dinner. Rabanne's Million Gold Elixir is the loud, shiny one, good for a birthday. Viktor&Rolf's Spicebomb Extreme comes with bourbon vanilla and tobacco, which tells you most of what you need to know. Givenchy's Gentleman Society Ambrée is the quieter, more tailored amber.

Carolina Herrera's 212 VIP Black Elixir is the sweeter, party-ready bottle. Tom Ford's Noir Extreme is the classic dark one for a wedding guest, and his Tobacco Vanille, with tonka bean and ginger, is the famous tobacco scent that every other bottle on this page is arguing with. Hermès' L'Ambre des Merveilles is the most unusual, an amber with a different personality from the rest.

Wear one of these for the evening and the Afnan for the weekday. You learn what you like about the style without wearing the same thing for a month.

What I would skip: an amber for the gym bag or a hot commute. Heat pushes sweet scents from warm to heavy.

Most fragrance mistakes happen before the bottle comes out. Clean skin, a neutral deodorant and hair that is already done give a scent a fair start.

Jack Black's Turbo Wash cleans hair and body in one go, which is useful when you have forty minutes between the office and dinner. Jack Black's Beard Wash is the gentle half of a beard routine, and Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille Conditioning Beard Oil puts the beard oil and a warm scent in a single bottle. Jack Black's Intense Therapy Lip Balm SPF 25 is the small thing you keep in a jacket pocket.

On deodorant, the choice is about how loud you want the evening to be. Dior's Sauvage Deodorant Spray is the match if you already wear Sauvage. Salt & Stone's Saffron & Cedar is the extra-strength, aluminum-free stick, a calmer one under a stronger fragrance.

For hair, Davines' This Is A Strong Moulding Clay gives texture that holds through the night, while This Is A Medium Hold Pliable Paste is softer and easier to restyle in a bathroom mirror.

What I would skip: a scented deodorant and a heavy cologne in different families. Pick one lane and let the others be plain.

For most people, one bottle of the 9 PM line and one plain deodorant is plenty. My own first pick is the Night Out itself, because I think the brand's notes of toffee, cognac and suede read like an evening before you have left the house. Wear it to dinner first, not to a crowded club, and give it three hours on skin.

After that, branch out. Try Asad if you like the sweetness, try Angels' Share if you want to see where the style goes at the top of the market, and leave the body care in a drawer by the door. Studio 54 had a velvet rope. You have a bathroom shelf and a clean shirt, and that turns out to be enough.

The Afnan line treats the evening as a dress code, and this last set fills in the hours on either side of it. For the evening itself, I would smell Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, Habibi NY Honeyed Tobacco & Oud and Maison Margiela Replica Jazz Club with its tobacco leaf and rum. Kilian Paris Angels' Share is the one to try if you want to know where this style goes. For the daytime before it, Hermès H24 and H24 Herbes Vives, Dior Sauvage and Tom Ford Soleil Blanc are cleaner and lighter. Rabanne 1 Million and 1 Million Lucky sit between the two. Finish with the Dior Sauvage Deodorant Stick and the Jack Black Beard Grooming Kit, and wear the Jazz Club to dinner before anywhere louder.