There is no more iconic bottle in all of perfumery. 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. This is a scent I’ve been wearing since the early 90s. The original powerhouse formulation would fill the whole room.
This bottle and scent helped shape me as a man. It made me want more out of my life. 30 years later and I’m still chasing that feeling I get when I think of the old Ralph Lauren stores, the ads, Ralph’s homes, etc. A mystical blast of tobacco, peanut and turnip, “Polo for Men” is the ultimate “look inside my pants” fragrance. I moisten squares of toilet paper with it before wiping my bottom, because you never can be too cautious. It is a projection beast that has received celebrity endorsements from the likes of Don Knotts, Burt Ward and Meredith Baxter Birney.
Real man’s scent and defo not like the blue scents. The first time was 16 years old stealing a sniff from dad’s bottle and recalling ralph lauren t shirt it was extremely strong and pungent. 30 years later finally acquired a bottle of my own and it smells different than my memory.
Today it is quite disliked as feminine fragrances like Dior Homme Intense an Parfum rule the day. 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.
the first time I ever smelled this fragrance was when I was a little girl, about 4/5 years old. Fragrances like this are a symbol of maturity and a solid strong personality; just made for men that are not looking for compliments but to wear the fragrance polo dress shirts they only appreciate and love. Some say that it was a fragrance of its time, and is hard to wear nowadays. It is a powerful antidote to watery, fresh scents; wholly masculine with a unique register of notes. This is a milestone in men’s perfumery.
This is the gold standard when it comes to masculine smelling men’s fragrances. What I get initially is pine needles and the general smell of being outdoors in the country. When it dries down I detect notes of ashy-smoke and leather, with the pine needles becoming part of the background. The top and middle have a somewhat dry chypre vibe. It’s a bit dirty at this point but that’s part of its appeal and what gives it character. It’s simultaneously rugged and classy.
Now and long after he passes away I will keep a bottle to remind me of him. That said, I’m in my 30’s and I don’t mind wearing this selectively around the holiday season. It will never be a daily go-to or even one that gets more than 2 or 3 wearings in a year for me, but it has it’s place in my collection. The 2019 bottle I tried yesterday seems to have sorted that out. It was much more of a fresh-pencil-shavings cedar/pine opening and quite pleasant the whole way through. All the nastiness was gone and replaced with a smooth, creamy, earthiness that progressed logically into the drydown that we all know and love.
The dry down, to me, smells like pine and freshly ground pepper, strong, masculine, professional. I just bought a bottle a week ago and it’s now my go-to fragrance every morning. I’ve received so many compliments, I think this would be an office or school safe fragrance.