Polo Red Parfum

Personal: 9/10 – It’s an amazing designer fragrance that’s on the border of a masterpiece just due to how fun and wearable it is. It’s chic but masculine, and very pleasant. Mass appeal: 8.5/10 – Nobody’s gonna hate it. The bright citruses might cut a bit too much for some, but just don’t go crazy with the sprays. Overspraying this one is a concern. Performance: 7/10 – Doesn’t last as long as a parfum concentration usually would, but not disappointing. Just a bit sub-par. Value: 7/10 – Would be higher if it dropped below $80 on discounters. Still expensive as far as Polo fragrances go, unfortunately. Uniqueness: 6.5/10 – Not groundbreaking, but a fresh, fruity-woody take that feels modern compared to other Polo flankers. SCORE: 76/100 Full bottle buy? YES, it’s one of my most used fragrances. Blind buy? YES, it’s approachable, mass appealing, and easy to wear. Dissimilar from other Red flankers (except the EDP), so DNA is hard to predict. Recommend? YES, it’s a great option for anyone wanting something a bit citrusy and fruity but still masculine and professional. Date night? YES, playful enough for casual dates, classy enough for evenings out. Office safe? YES, fresh and professional, just watch the trigger finger. Pros: Unique, fun, and very wearable. Good for all 4 seasons and both day and night. Office and date friendly. A great GADA (go anywhere, do anything) fragrance. Cons: More expensive than other Polo fragrances on discounters, doesn’t last as long as a parfum should, surprisingly linear. For my twelfth review, I’m going back to Ralph Lauren, but visiting one of their most recent fragrances. Polo Red Parfum is my favorite in the line, and my favorite Polo fragrance currently in production (yes, even more than Green). It opens with a bright burst of aromatic, citrusy, fruity freshness that I really enjoy, and to my nose, it has a very strong misc. red berry note. It’s got great citrus and woods to keep it fresh, even through the dry down, and it stays smelling great. Though it’s linear, not complicated, and somewhat generic, it’s a very pleasant designer fragrance. It lends itself well to both day and evening wear and is absolutely office appropriate. It’s a bit more adventurous than other Polo fragrances, and other Red flankers. It’s not the most groundbreaking fragrance, at all, but it’s very pleasant and easy to wear, and I don’t actually miss the coffee note from the other Red flankers. An amazing twist on a classic, minus the polarizing coffee note! Review #12 in my fragrance journey

This is my first review on this website or for any fragrance in general, this is the frag that got me into the scene; After smelling hundreds of different ones I still come back to this one, and it is a sleeper for sure. My only gripe is the price, and the longevity for a designer fragrance is mid. Everything else is perfect, and it flies under the radar being from Polo, their red line up isn't the best and this unfortunately gets mixed up with their EDT which smells disgusting. The opening is a very sharp bergamot and chemical red pepper scent, it makes you want to give it up after spraying it as a tester. It is head-ache inducing the first few times, but once you get used to it or let it sit for around 5 minutes it progresses and still keeps a lit profile of the top notes. The middle notes project well once the scent develops, I like to spray it on the back of the neck to leave trails but it does not have immense sillage. It is a masculine-leaning confident and attractive scent with a bit of fresh spice to it (which I hated until I smelled it here). The skin scent is sexy... Musky, woody, and slightly powdery but not too much. It leans to be a winter scent but can be worn year-round, performance is on par with a summer EDP. This is a decent date-night scent if you don't want something overly seductive or loud. Safe blind buy if you like the notes, I would say it is borderline Niche but not in an offensive-way. I would say the average buyer would rate this well, but not amazing for the price. There is a small chance it may become a good daily/year-round frag if you do love it; Mileage may vary. TLDR; Fall smelling borderline-niche frag, that is a perfect example of a winter fragrance that can be worn almost year round; Day or night because of the citrus top notes and mid performance/sillage.

I'd be lying if I said I was surprised that this doesn't perform well. I had read some reviews here beforehand. I got my nose on this in-store a while back, and liked it. But I was there for another purpose, so I back-burnered it with the intent to order a decant and do some testing with a few wears. I have to say, it smells really, really good. Very nice scent profile, with a great opening. As it dries down, it transitions rather quickly into a skin scent, and then just...disappears. I mean, literally in less than an hour, I found myself sniffing at my arm. Concentrations aside, we buy fragrances to smell good. This smells good. But, this will be a pass for me. I want something that can be SMELLED, for at least a little while, by people in close proximity to me, without being overwhelming. No one will smell this on you, so there is no risk of being overwhelming for sure. It is a shame, seems to be the trend. More and more of these underperformers, costing more and more money. Not buying a bottle, although it does smell good while it is in the air... Update: I might have to retract some of my negativity. I really, really like this. So much so, that I might pony up for a bottle and just overspray it. It's a shame that the ones we really like don't perform as well as the ones we don't. Update #2: Bought a big bottle. I had to. I really like this. Update #3: Don't know if this is a thing with mass-market designers, but my bottles performance has actually improved slightly in about two months of occasional use (macerated?). I'm getting noticeably more longevity and what seems to be a more outward projection as well. Had a positive reaction from a passerby recently whilst out running errands, a few hours after applying around 4-5 sprays.

Well well well, Ralph has come back with a new parfum. Now with the absence of cranberry and coffee I can see the anger. However, this is definitely Polo Red. The smell in the opening is still that fruity sweetness with a nice amount of citrus. But the reason I bought it is because the note of absinthe intrigued me. And indeed it still does. It doesn’t come through until the mid though. In the opening i definitely get the blood orange and pink pepper, but not much else. Maybe a little bit of lavender in the late opening. But the mid is where the absinthe comes through and oh boy, it’s good, like very good. It’s relatively unique but it’s also familiar. But along with the absinthe I get a slight cedar and a little bit of musk. And then once the dry down starts I do pick up on the orris. It starts to make it a little powdery, but also a little more mature because it’s not a full blown iris, but a mellow and faint floral powdery nature. But as with almost all Polo fragrances, performance varies. This is my first day of wearing it for an actual day, and the silage isn’t there. I get maybe 2 feet worth, where only people standing next to me can smell it. Performance so far is good, it’s been about 4 hours and I can smell it relatively clearly. So overall I give it an 8.5/10 Scent:10/10- amazing absinthe note and citrus Performance:6/10- could push out a little more Wearability: 10/10- can wear wherever, whenever Compliments: N/A- haven’t gotten one

I smiled when I first sprayed my bottle of Polo Red Parfum. The opening is fantastic. It smells like how you'd expect a great designer fragrance to smell. Not crazy unique, but so incredibly pleasant. I honestly don't have the words to describe it's notes, but it smells super elegant, yet playful. The opening has a perfect level of spices; it's baffling. Genuine 9.5/10 just off of the first couple of hours. However; what I found disappointing about this fragrance was the drydown. No, it didn't smell bad, but it smelled SUPER similar to JPG Ultramale. I'm actually very surprised that I haven't seen anyone say that yet; it was nearly 90% similar. I was really hoping this could've been a more linear scent because I loved the opening so much. If you don't have Ultramale or a dupe of Ultramale in your collection, then I think that this wouldn't be a redundant purchase. But if you do, just know that the first couple hours is what your really paying for. Because again, the drydown is pretty much just Ultramale. The longevity on this is also pretty unremarkable. A good 1-2 hours of projection, and 4-5 hours as a skin scent. That's gonna slightly negatively affect my rating as well. Overall rating: 8.5/10 Loved it. Was just disappointed by the performance and its similarity to Ultramale in the drydown. But no regrets with this purchase.