Go easy on the trigger and be yourself. For me, the deal breaker is the Polo Ralph Lauren t shirt strong element of pine. The pine-green color of the bottle is telling.
We went from masculine 80s frags to sweet feminine fragrances that people call manly, to me, oddly enough, making me thing if cognitive dissonance. Think of it this way, would most people call the smell of a rose, masculine? Any honest person would of course say no. Polo green like old spice, it makes a man smell like a man.
I own two formulas – a bottle from 1997 and a bottle from 2014. The so called “vintage” is heavier on leather and has much darker pine note. The newer one is focused on the cigarette “ash” and has a lighter green pine note . It opens up green but definitely it’s dark green and ashy. Soon the tobacco joins – I’ve heard some saying it smells like a cigarette ash tray – I don’t mind.
This is the most ubiquitous fragrances on older men in America, especially the South. Much like my elders, I respect it, but I’d rather spend my time and money on any other piece of my collection. This is one of the few fragrances that I can smell in public and undoubtedly know exactly what the man is wearing. I prefer this oldie more then the new popular fragrences of today. It’s a classic and it’s for a real man not a teeny weeny. If you want to smell like a real man wear this and if you don’t want to smell like a man wear what’s available today.
Smelling this for the first time was like meeting someone and feeling you had known them your whole life. This resonated with me far more than any other fragrance and I now have almost 50. This is No.1 and only the original Givenchy Gentleman comes remotely close. Givenchy Gentleman got me into fragrance collecting, but Polo has turned me into a fragrance youtuber.
Honestly it reminds me of a smoky single malt scotch with a medicinal aura about it. Use it sparingly and the colder outside the better. Any alternate option for polo green ? I really love this fragrance but performance for me is disappointing, I currently have 2018 batch . Very similar to Paco Rabanne pour homme but it lasts much longer and doesn’t have that gross soapy opening pour homme does. I wear this a few times a month but with the current formulation I can get 12 hours out of this.