It bursts my millennial safe space bubble for sure. The strongest note here for me is tobacco, and the performance is decent. I will always have Polo in my collection, even if I decided polo dress shirts to shrink it down to only 10 fragrances. This is my absolute favorite winter fragrance. The dry down, to me, smells like pine and freshly ground pepper, strong, masculine, professional.
This 90’s batch is incredibly powerful, long lasting, and rich. An all time classic, although not one that fits well with many occasions due to it’s strength and complexity. If nothing else, worth having in the collection simply to spray yourself and smell it while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. I love Polo, but I would not consider this a very safe or crowd pleasing scent. This was what my dad wore when I was a kid. I associate it with my dad which is why it feels like an ‘old’ fragrance, but it definitely is dated regardless of that association.
This is a staple fragrance, and I’m happy to own it once again. First thing that hit me was a blast of tobacco; not the fresh kind, but resinous, dried tobacco. Took me right back to my grandmother’s house, ralph lauren t shirt sitting next to her while she smoked. (Though Polo itself is not smoky.) Amazing what scents can do to your memories. Once it dried down, it turned into a mix of black pepper and a freshly mowed lawn.
Today it is tough to find a fragrance today that will actually last the whole day. There’s nothing that compares to this 80s powerhouse. And this will last all day into the next day. The sillage and longevity of this beast are the best that I have. Herbal tobacco with some leather and a some fresh fruitiness. I normally don´t like leather, but it´s not too much in this one.
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. I would take this bottle with me to my grave and bury me with it. 6 out of 5 scent when you remind yourself that this was when things were really good and perfume houses were in their ascendancy. Polo tried hard to add flankers, red, blue, that weird orange one.
The satchel bag I have still has the paper surrounding the shoulder strap tucked under the flap, and it looks brand new. The scent has definitely changed over the years, and I am fortunate to still have a Cosmair 4oz spray and 8oz splash that I will never use up, because I have so many other fragrances in my collection now. However, when I want to go back in time to the greatest green, leathery, mossy performance beast of my young adulthood, I reach for this classic. I haven’t tried the most recent formulation.