The Architects Club
Arquiste (2014)

In 1910, the architect Adolf Loos gave a lecture entitled Ornament and Crime.
It wasn't a condemnation of jewel thieves but an attack on the naturalistic flourishes of Art Nouveau buildings.

Loos thought 'the elimination of ornament from useful objects' was the way to go, and this lead to the Form Follows Function school - which praised grain elevators and similar industrial buildings for their straightforward design.

Having lived in New York, Yann Vasnier must have been aware of modern architecture, and was maybe influenced by it, for in The Architects Club - as with the modern tower block - form matches function.

There is no ornamentation, the perfume is a collection of plain surfaces; woody-oily, slightly powdery, bitter-sweet. Not so much glass and steel, or even concrete, but a nuanced woody-plastic that reminds me of Formica - that plasticky laminate of cloth and resin.

It's a minimal, dry-sweet woody scent that doesn't lean on cedar. Instead it uses gaiac & musk, and is all the better for it. It wouldn't surprise me if Richard Rogers wore this.

I love this one. Smoky vanilla and woods, with clove creeping in later. More woody than gourmand and completely unisex to my nose.

I cannot believe that this scent is not getting more love. I purchased it a few months ago from Scentbird and loved it so much I had to buy a full bottle. This is a lovely vanilla scent but not a gourmand warm, cozy vanilla. Instead the vanilla is present but feels fresh. It lasts on me a long time and has become my favorite scent of late. It is one of those scents that I have to stop and smell my wrists every so often. Definitely a keeper for me.

Smells a bit like old paper, not in a good way.

This was bugging me before I figured it out - it smells a lot like a more, I want to say, "chemical" Tocade, a little less floral and with heavier doses of heliotropin and whatever else tends to supplement synthetic vanilla. Overall I find it quite a bit more annoying than real Tocade, vintage bottles of which can be found on Ebay for about a tenth of the price of this one.

The opening is a very nice citrus woodsy combination. This citrus is mainly orange with a good dash if lemon and more on the dark side, not al all refreshing but constituting a good accompaniment to the wood notes. The wood has a dried timer, a somewhat papery characteristic with touches of guaiacum and oak wood, and it all blends in very smoothly with the fruit side in the opening. A slightly boozy juniper accent is noticeable in the background.

In the drydown a medium-dark vanilla emerges, answeet that has definite presence but is not going it solo initially; but with time is moves into the foreground. That would not be bad thing as such, but the other notes are gradually fading away, and the vanilla remains, paired with a rather uninteresting ambroxan impression.

I get moderate sillage, fairly adequate projection and six hours of longevity on my skin.

This creation for cooler spring or warmer autumn days is a divided scent as far as the overall impression is concerned: the first part is nice indeed, a citrus/woodsy combination with a twist. The second part is more linear and far less interesting. Overall this results in a neutral score, unless some extraordinary quality or performance elevates it into the next tier, but I cannot see any such redeeming grace, except for the fanatic vanilla lover who adores everything that includes vanilla. On the whole this just misses the mark. 2.75/5.

inexistent sillage and longevity..radiant opening and woody amber boring drydown!