Polo Blue

My first and still favorite scent. First encountered it in a Sport Illustrated Swimsuit edition. To my pubescent nose it was the greatest smell I had ever experienced. It was the only fragrance I owned for most of my life, and it still holds up. What else can I say about it? It's consistent. It smells fresh, pleasant, masculine, and, as the name suggests, it evokes the color "blue." Even as I've gotten deeper into fragrances, I've still kept coming back to this one whenever I want to smell fresh. Is it the most complex, highbrow fragrance around? No. But it's not trying to be. It's suitable for any situation when the sun is out. It's probably not ideal for winter, or for "cozy date" vibes, or nighttime in general, although really there's no reason you couldn't go out on a date, or to a bar, etc., with this on. It's incredibly versatile for pretty much any daytime situation that you would want to smell good for. In fact, I think there are many guys out there who own this fragrance (or one like it), and then maybe one other one for "going out," and call it a day. And those guys will still smell better than 90% of their peers. For the average guy, this fragrance alone will do 50-100% of everything you need from a cologne. It's hard to imagine anyone actively disliking this smell. I would say it's a masterpiece insofar as its designers accomplished everything that they were setting out to do: make a middle-tier designer fresh blue masculine and aquatic-y scent with broad-spectrum appeal. As far as performance goes, what they made was honestly better quality than needed for the concept, with really respectable projection and longevity for a freshie with its price-point.

One of the few vintage fragrances that even after decades & several reformulations keeps its original essence; Polo Blue EDT is one of the blue prints, no pun intended, for fresh fragrances that are entering their 3rd decade of dominating the fragrance world! While its not unique by today's standards since this DNA exist everywhere now its still lovely. What I like is its gentle, many fresh or "blue" fragrances fall into three categories in my opinion, either a harsh citrus edge (think Versace Pour Homme), akin to rubbing alcohol, a musky base (think Dylan Blue) or an aquatic base. . . Polo Blue EDT is very aquatic & the cucumber is very realistic & why I think its still selling today. Its refined, simple & masculine. Cucumber is still greatly underutilized in mens perfumery 23 years after this fragrances creation & its sad! After the cucumber i get a honey dew melon scent, melon is listed so its definitely that generic melon vibe but nice. Orange, woods & musk grow stronger as the dry down develops! For such a light fragrance it still has decent performance capping at around 6 hours. It opens unisex leaning masculine then becomes more traditionally masculine as it goes. Very good simple & timeless fragrance!

IGNORE THIS REVIEW. IT WAS BASED ON A BOTTLE THAT I NOW KNOW HAD GONE BAD AND SO HAS BEEN TRASHED. ------- Thought I lucked out upon finding a half-full bottle dated September '23. Perhaps it had been stored in a hot car because there are zero lighter notes or florals left -- it goes straight into a weak, flat mix of basil/sage/suede/wood. There's no way it came from the manufacturer like this...is there? As is, mine most closely resembles classic Right Guard (copper can) only much weaker. It would be more appropriate in a brown glass bottle reserved for fall but, even there, it doesn't have much character to recommend it. It's thoroughly insipid, doing nothing that several brownish-green frags already do very well. So for the heat of summer (90° all week) I'll just stick with Polo's Deep Blue, Aqua Quorum, Dunhill Desire Blue, etc. [ I know this is an unfair review since it's based on what has to be an abnormal bottle, but I'm just going by what I smell]

To start off, Polo Blue deserves much more attention. This fragrance is so easy to wear for the office, school, and warm settings.. The ozonic note gives it the vibe that you're sitting in the ocean on a sailboat. This fragrance also pulls an impressive amount of compliments. The aquatic and unique melon note make it an easy to like scent. Once it gets to it's base notes, it gives a manly vibe due to the musk and leather that is blended beautifully. Even though it isn't the most complex scent, it does wonders and smells beautiful. The only points I could take off is performance and how it can smell like strong alcohol right when you spray it. But 30 seconds after, the smell is amazing. Performance: 7/10 Longevity: 7.5/10 Compliments: 8.5/10 Smell: 9/10 Overall: 8/10

My 2002 bottle was almost gone, so I purchased another slightly newer, but still vintage bottle, ultimately settling for a 2007 bottle. After a lot of digging to no avail before purchasing however, I could not find a definitive answer as to when Polo Blue received its first reformulation. I can 100% unequivocally tell you that by at least 2007, this release had already received its first reformulation. My 2007 bottle isn’t quite as spicy, soapy, and overall layered as well as my 2002 bottle. I most certainly didn’t get ripped off for what I paid, but I was expecting to go for the gold medal. Instead I unknowingly settled for the silver. Oh well, I guess I should be lucky to have even gotten that, considering today’s lame, modern releases.