I am not sure if it is my imagination but it smells much more pleasant that what it did in December. It could be that the contents had to settle or mature in the bottle as is the case with my Aventus and other fragrances. It is almost like the spicy notes are coming through better now as I could mostly ralph lauren t shirt only smell a wet green grass note before. So I do think it comes across as a lot more balanced and richer now. 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, sitting next to her while she smoked.
Never mind the country club image here folks, Polo, because this isn’t gentlemanly games on the Chelsea commons of West London circa 1910. This fragrance is brutal, earthy, dark and danky pine woods like the ones that used to cover all of Northern Europe before the 12th century. Those woods are wet and mossy from the constant fall rain and drizzle, capturing the misty cool morning and the decaying leaves on the ground. This is leafy and dry tobacco rolled up with a bunch of Asian spices just off the ship from Portuguese and Dutch traders back from Malaysia and Indonesia. Italians, Germans and Brits until Polo unleashed this dirty frontiersman like woody monster on the buying public.
As long as I live the green-bottled Polo will forever be “my father” in my memory. 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. This is miles away from playful and easygoing. It is serious, dark, earthy, a bit rough, but also fresh and clean.
Lately, it seems like every other fragrance either smells too much alike, doesn’t perform or starts out unique and then simmers down to the same old base notes. I find echoes of Polo in Tom Ford’s Patchouli Absolu, but the notes are entirely different. Even so, no surprise that the latter is now my go to scent Polo Ralph Lauren t shirt on the basis that it is redolent of that lush green intoxicating Polo of my youth. I think this fragrance is genius, and, smelled without any period associations, is an amazing, unique smell. Conifers and forests, Scottish heather and golf courses. Pino Silvestre is an ancestor as their both “pine” scents.
It was my only fragrance for 30 years. I have gone through so many bottles, I have lost count. The Warner bottles were the best fragrance ever made.