I have to quote this review, which was written on basenotes. It's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. It's a bit juvenile, but so is being a fragrance reviewer:
"Pros: Smells amazing.Cons: It is not a sillage monster. Oh I don't care, really.What? 'You need 6 sprays for it to last, oohh'.... 'It smells American.' 'It reminds me of a laundry gel (????)' What the F&%* is wrong with (some) reviewers here? Are you this kind of snobbish DOUCHEBAGS that you complain about the AMOUNT of sprays? Is SIX sprays too much? You sirs, are complete morons and losers. This fragrance is great. I wasn't actually gonna rate it, but hey, 5 stars, take that and suck it up."
This guy really likes Polo Black, and can't understand why others do not. I agree that the number of sprays needed to get good longevity from a fragrance should never be a factor in recognizing greatness, but I have a theory on what drives the naysayers.
Polo Black is not a darker version of the original Polo. People who approach it with that expectation might be better served to skip it altogether. If anything, it's closer to Polo Sport. Counter-intuitively, Polo Black is actually a bright, fruity fougère with a mellow, tropical acidity in lieu of lavender and pineapple. Its top accord is fresh and spicy, with what is ostensibly mango (super synthetic) and mandarin (even more outrageously synthetic) lending greenness to its dusky patchouli/coumarin heart. There's a synthetic analog of woods and musk in the base, which compliment each other in one of those polite department store drydowns we've all encountered a gazillion times.
Despite its banality, Polo Black is svelte and charming, qualities fragrance enthusiasts can get at better value from the original Polo (minus all the happy-happy, joy-joy fruitiness). The original is smoother, better rounded, and well, original. People who like perfume enough to read about it aren't going to spend all that much time on Polo Black, an outlier in the weird crossover trick that RL attempted to pull off here. Going from earthy chypre to fresh fougère isn't worth revisiting when you've already reinterpreted the main theme that way once before, and with success.