Romance for Men
Ralph Lauren (1999)

Ralph Lauren Romance for Men (1999) was a fragrance that had the standard ad campaign across printed and televised formats to accompany it in those days before widespread social media and online habitation, but once the "fragcomm" as we call it now really began to emerge into the mid 2000's, most opinions on the fragrance among men were mixed. Looking back on it now, the composition and overall treatment of Romance for Men by perfumer Antoine Lie was perhaps a bit too ahead of the curve in regards to it being an "everything to everyone" type of people-pleaser scent for all occasions, since the fragrance buying market (at least for men) hadn't yet become quite so consolidated into "artistic-minded" niche perfume bloggers, "results-minded" cologne bros that live on social media, and the "luxury prestige" twits that confuse the amount of money they drop on perfume with the size of their inseam. No, things were quite different on the eve of the new millennium, and the niche market was just starting to explode out of it's obscure place in the world, while the average Joe without access to much fragrance advice beyond coworkers, GQ Magazine, and his mom, was buying what he was told smelled nice, and what he could reasonably afford without having to sacrifice much of his beer money. That's the world Romance for Men was thrust into, and the one that later rejected it.

To put it quite simply, this stuff is built like a modern-day non-blue freshie, a la Creed Aventus (2010) and Montblanc Explorer (2019), minus the big ambroxan push those scents have. Ralph Lauren did a similar trick with the more-exclusive Purple Label (2003), which very well might have been an evolution on the DNA here in Romance for Men. Both of these fragrance feel like they have some distant blood relations to the aforementioned Creed, making me think that if the social norms we have today with the obsession for compliments and obsequious fragrance accords existed then, Romance for Men might have gotten a lot of hype from influencers, YouTube reviewers, and among "FragBros" in general. The opening is full of soft fruity sweetness and subtle spice, with bergamot and blackcurrant, a tart orange and some pops of ginger mixed with lavender touches for comfort. The big let down is what happens after this opening, as things quickly slide down hill into a white floral mess with a bit of something metallic and rosy, likely geraniol, with some green elements of basil and vetiver. The base is nondescript clean white musk with some oakmoss before IFRA got its hands on things, a bit of pine that vaguely recalls Polo (1977), and patchouli. Wear time is just about average at 7 hours with middling performance that poofs projection-wise at hour two. Good for year-round signature use but a bit boring after the fantastic handshake of an opening.

If anything, what held this fragrance back from greatness then is ironically what would sell Ralph Lauren Romance for Men now: a fantastic opening that knocks you back with just how good it smells, then quickly fades into something inoffensive, pleasantly in the background, with a bit of something woody, mossy, and lined on a bed of clean musk. Today, all of that last bit would be cut out, and a huge slug of ambroxan would replace everything but the patchouli in the base, giving the juicy top notes the transparent warmth they need to last far past the initial two hours they exist in the way Romance for Men was built back then, and we'd have the next great hype beast on our hands. As it is, Romance for Men isn't like that, but it definitely foreshadows fragrances to come which would most certainly be built like that, and part of this realization both makes me laugh when smelling it and also a bit uncomfortable, as if Romance for Men was the signaling of the Four Horsemen of the Scentpocalypse or something. In any case, the marginally more-interesting Romance Silver for Men (2003) would do a bit better job being a whole fragrance when it released four years later, and Ralph Lauren Polo Blue (2002) would carry the brand. People nowadays also try to call this everything from a "gem" to a "masterpiece", using the same fear of missing out scarcity hype buzzwords because it's discontinued and costs a fortune on eBay. Don't be duped. Neutral

Nothing stands out from the 90's, "let's copy Aqua Di Gio" club.

Better scent than most of the 90's copy cats, but nothing distinct either.

Foetidus nailed it by describing this as uninspired and pedestrian. I would also add boring and highly unoriginal. I was working for Armani in the late 90's and they were both distributed by Cosmair, so I was invited to the Romance launch party. They were spraying the cologne everywhere at the party and all I could think was how boring this stuff was - like a dressed up version of Tommy Hilfiger. It's like they really just wanted to play it super safe and not make a statement - such a shame! I ended up trading my gratis bottle for Santos de Cartier and I even traded the women's Romance bottle for Samsara so my girlfriend would smell sexy and sophisticated - the exact opposite of Romance for women. I'm a huge fan of Ralph Lauren Monogram and have a few bottles left, but his 90's scents like Polo Sport and Romance really made a poor impression on me as they are the epitome of mediocrity - something in life I always try to avoid.

Nice classic scent with limited projection but decent longevity. Nice for formal situations. Slight citrus start with a woody / musky drydown with undertones of vetiver. You won't be disappointed with the overall smell of this juice. Enjoy!

Citrusy and Woody, great summer nights out!

I catch the citrus-lavender accord and several aromatic herbs at the beginning, before the aroma slides towards something sharply synthetic, vaguely fruity, floral and mild by woods. An indefinite fruity note, on the side of sweet woods and muguet, gives out the romantic intense effect of this fluidy-musky intimate masculine scent vaguely melancholic and solitary. I don't dislike the Romance For Men's perfume itself but unfortunately I catch a sort of chemical contrast between cool-green herbs and resins on one side and some warm woody and fruity notes on the other side and this alternance turns the aroma out a bit too much headache inducing and chemical in perception.