Somehow it smells substantial and dignified, but not in a lax way. The activity is there, but it is rooted. This is for a man who is clean shaven and dresses smart, but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty — in a word, your archetypal 70’s New York detective.
I just adored it, it made me feel rich and powerful. I liked it so much I even wore it to bed. Mind blowing good, everyone wore it and the ladies liked it too. Besides it still Polo Ralph Lauren t shirt holding my number one spot for classic male frags, this bottle remains undefeated. Simple, dignified, and to the point. This bottle and scent helped shape me as a man.
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.
I love it but you have to be in the right mood and the right state of mind for this, a old school swagger. It defiantly has a wisened gentlemanly feel too it. Like a old library or cigar bar or antique store kind of vibe.
6 out of 5 scent when you remind yourself that this was when things were really good and perfume houses were in their ascendancy. Fragrantica is a complete joke at this point. An Intense flanker of this fragrance has been on sale for at least 2 weeks at this point and was announced more than a month ago, and it STILL does not have a page on Fragrantica. This is a massive fragrance release, but Fragrantica is too busy talking about the “fragrance brands” that are founded from hipsters’ garages in Seattle and Portland every week. I really want to re-experience the vintage version of this that all the boys in school wore the year it came out, but it’s so darn expensive, it’ll have to wait.