Nautica Competition (original)
Nautica (1997)

I used to love this smell. Reminded me of a sweet baby powder that wasn't all that powdery. I recently smelled Polo Red and found it to be remarkably similar to what I remember this smelling like.

Creative and lasting wellThe apple and mint combine nicely with the bergamot, and vetiver later on, but in the drydown this is on my skin an amber-oakmoss scent, with some a touch of saltiness and some residual freshness remaining. This is a creative and quite unusual fragrance. The whole thing is done very well and beautifully blended. Very good silage and projection, with an excellent longevity of nearly seven hours.

My wife gave me a bottle when we were dating in 1998. I liked it. She loved it. That made me love it. Fresh, sporty, and decent staying power. Why did Nautica change the formula? The new Competition is a poor replacement.

This seems to fall into the Eternity / Adidas Moves family, but it has qualities that make me understand why my freshman year roommate swore by the stuff in 1999. It's fresh and soapy, with apple but not nearly as much as the others above, and somehow manages to maintain a very "broad" freshness, rather than sharp. It has some anise, but not too much so I'll forgive it. This helps it to have an unexpected spicy depth underneath the dark grey fruity soapiness, and I agree that the spiced apple here simulates raisin. I'd qualify it as a "black" scent more than a lot of others with "black" in their names, albeit a freshened-up version. Ultimately, I'm impressed how leathery and resinous it ends up being, while still maintaining freshness, almost like Geir minus some of the sweet fruit and with added leather...in fact surprisingly unsweet for such a low price range. Or you might even compare to Bulgari Pour Homme Soir, where instead of beefing up the citrus they've beefed up the sweet musk. Thumbs up for unexpected uniqueness.

I think dear Sir Slarty's impression of a dirty, rancid oriental amber is apt. To me, this is a syrupy almost raisiney verging on gourmand territory kind of scent, and I love it! It is fairly linear, and is just a fragrance that I don't get sick of smelling. Nothing challenging or evolutionary, just pleasnt smelling goodness. I hope to always have some of this around. It is one of my favorite accessible linear fragrances. It is not that hard to find on the internet, and I am stocking up on all my fav discontinued frags. Long live the vault!

I use to own this cologne in high school and it smelled great. I recently purchased the same thing on ebay and i can see where all the bad reviews are coming from. I assure you that you are not smelling the 'real' scent of the original nautica competition. The one i bought off of ebay smelled very rancid at first spray. I believe this is because it is just past its shelf life. But how this stuff is suppose to smell is if you rub the rancid stuff on your arms and rub them together its that scent times 10. Rubing it together for me seems to get rid of the rancid smell.