Polo Ralph Lauren 1978 Eau de Toilette

The mini review on the vintage juice is dead on. I have a tiny bit of the vintage and it just sings. Beautiful and brilliant stuff. Powerful and masculine but elegant and refined.

My new bottle arrived today. While I still recognize it...time and reformulation have not been kind to my old friend. While the notes are still there, they've become harsh and bitter where they were once so lovely. Most of the staying power is now gone.

This version makes me think of an old high school friend. We were close in our younger days but a lot of hard life and bad decisions have given him a bitter and unpleasant edge. I still see the person he was but his bitterness has caused me to distance myself. I get the feeling this is going to happen with my former signature scent as well. Sad.

I bought this for my grandpa because it's his signature scent. It wasn't BNIB so I tried a spray while it was sitting in my house. I was curious what the "good ol' days" of cologne were.
Holy FUCK this is good.
None of the sweet synthetic nonsense they put in men's stuff lately. Clean, green, smoky like campfire smoke, although that might be the leather note. In the nicest way possible, it smells a little like you threw some very nice cologne on coals and this is what roared up to meet you. VERY masculine in the beginning, becoming less standoffish after an hour on my skin. As a man who likes men, I'd find this incredibly attractive on a put-together man in his 30s, or anyone younger who can emulate that energy.

A lot has already been said over the years, so I’m not going to harp on the notes composition etc.
however every time I wear Polo Green I ask myself, why do you ever wear anything else? I’ve worn vintage when it wasn’t. I don’t care to go to the past. I live in the present and I’m happy with the current formula and stubby sprayer. Absolutely gorgeous.

It is not a surprise when Polo has that much fans. Everyone with least tendency to classics drops in its trap.
Polo is a grassy patchouli and smoky fresh pine. The opening is intense green and sport by all mean. Classic sports and combed hair. Then the greenness goes over-hued and animality appears. The complete fragrance is mossy grassy pine and musky gray leather. A real powerhouse.
Still one of the best to celebrate classics. Or you can go on with more vegetal version by Loewe Esencia pour homme. Great longevity, immensely great projection.
7/10

Every summer, I would look forward to flying down south to Virginia, to spend time with my cousin and his friends. They were a couple of years older, and I loved how they took care of me as if I were their little sister. They taught me how to ride a four-wheeler, they snuck me into clubs (I was barely 18!), they took me to the White House AND the Sick house (I was hospitalized briefly but no harm done). I even attended some of their classes at George Mason University which was quite a treat. Affectionately I refer to them as the boys of summer, and I will always treasure those memories.

Well, these boys of summer were always up to something cool and rebellious. They would constantly crash the lake house that belonged to my cousin’s parents. They were young, loud, and untouchable: shirtless from swimming, dirt on their jeans from riding bikes through the woods, always blasting music too loud and laughing like the world belonged to them. They smelled like water, cut grass, gasoline, and pure freedom. But there was another note in the air, it was darker, mysterious, and magnified since they were all bathing in it. It would hit me the moment the screen door slammed open, a scent that cut through the chaos like a blade. It was the unmistakable classic Polo - the unforgettable liquid inside that iconic, timeless flask-like green bottle. I remember it like it was yesterday; that sharp blast of pine, the leather-tinged greenness, and that subtle undertone of tobacco.

I stayed out on the weathered deck in my thin white sundress; the fabric so light it clung to my skin in the humid air. The hem danced dangerously high whenever the breeze lifted it, and I let it. Barefoot, I leaned against the railing, pretending to watch the lake while my heart already knew he was coming. His name was Steve, and he was the newest addition to the clan. He was tall, with the greenest eyes – dark hair still damp from the water, and a lazy grin that made my knees feel weak. My cousin and the other guys were usually inside fighting over the music, but Steve would sit with me outside, stopping just close enough that the warm, masculine cloud of Polo wrapped around both of us. “Hey, kid,” he’d say, voice low and rough around the edges, trying to keep it casual. But his eyes would drift to the thin strap that had slipped off my shoulder, then quickly look away – like he was reminding himself that I was off-limits. My heart would pound so hard that it felt like it might burst. We talked about nothing important – the crazy heat, how many fireflies were out, did Canadians sleep in igloos, and whether the water was warm enough for night swimming.

Every word uttered felt charged. Raging hormones turned small talk into something overwhelming. Polo amplified each emotion with its rich-green-leather notes that made my head spin and my skin flush hot all over. We were innocent and no one crossed any lines. All the boys treated me like their kid sister, and Steve tried hard to do the same. But the attraction was there. He’d hang around on the deck a little longer than necessary, the tension humming between us like electricity neither of us dared to touch. When he finally went back inside to rejoin the guys, his fragrance would linger in the air. I’d stay out there alone, heart racing, feeling that strange new ache in my belly – equal parts thrill and terror. Every breath of that cologne became a dangerous little rush I could not stop craving.

And today? It is like running through the pine forests instead of strolling casually on the boardwalks, it is what it feels like to be steeped in leather and tobacco instead of layered in coconut sunscreen, and it reeks of deep greens and woods instead of playfully flirting in summer pastels. A timeless fragrance that is masculine, classic and old-school, it is what remains of the boys of summer – still magnetic, still a little wild underneath, but now seasoned with experience. It is a cologne that evokes a bygone ideal of manhood long after the boys of summer have gone.