NUITS DE NOHO SCENTED CANDLE

When darkness falls, Noho lights up. This swath of streets is downtown’s culture magnet. The Public Theatre makes its home here. So do the Astor Place Theatre and the Amato Opera Company. Not to forget the eateries and hot boîtes--Noho Star, Joe’s Pub, Pangaea. And in this enclave where energetic insomnia is a way of life, a couple of Noho institutions stay open for business all night: Tower Records, spread among three warehouse-sized buildings; and Crunch, the fitness club, where gymnasts, acrobats, and jugglers come to train at 3 a.m. It’s theatre. It’s a scene.

While others mellow down after dark, our Nuits de Noho wearer is just waking up. Her style is insolently topical, confident, daring, sensual. Yet she never forgets to be ladylike, too.

Some fragrances are known as skin scents; they're adept at merging with the body's own animal warmth. Nuits de Noho, laced with soft musk and vanilla, is one of them. At the same time, this avant garde indulgence is a contemporary gourmand treat. First, you get a whiff of a mouthwatering bergamot - the quintessence of citrus-ness. Then, rosewood and jasmine are folded in for smoothness. But it's a lingering hit of patchouli, like a jolt of vodka or gin, that gives Nuits de Noho a wry and sexy urbanity.