Lacoste Booster (Vintage Bottle)

Jean Kerleo composed this immediately after finishing his final fragrance for Jean Patou, which is a strange piece of provenance for what was marketed as a sports scent aimed at teenagers. Lacoste released Booster in 1996 as an eau de toilette, and this listing is the original vintage bottle rather than the 2022 reissue, which is a genuinely different and much simpler fragrance. Aromatica carries the Booster decant in Bangladesh in all four sizes.

Fragrance Notes

Top: Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Orange

Heart: Basil, Lavender, Galbanum, Chili Pepper, Nutmeg

Base: Vetiver, Sandalwood, Cedar

Full note breakdown on Fragrantica.

The Scent

The first thirty seconds are a shock and they are meant to be. Peppermint and eucalyptus arrive together with a menthol coldness that reviewers describe as physically cooling on skin, and grapefruit and orange sit behind them adding brightness without much sweetness. It is closer to a cold compress than a cologne. Those volatile notes are short-lived by design, and most people report them gone within ten minutes. What emerges underneath is the more interesting half. Basil takes a leading role and pushes the composition green and herbal, galbanum adds a bitter sap-like edge, and there is a faint warm prickle from the chili pepper that reads more like paprika than heat. Nutmeg and lavender round the middle into something closer to a proper aromatic fougere than the sports positioning suggested. The base is dry, woody and grassy, with vetiver dominant and the sandalwood and cedar sitting quietly behind it. Reviewers are unusually consistent about two things. The first is that Booster has genuine recognisability, and several people who owned it in the late nineties say they could identify it blind decades later, which is rare for a designer release of that era. The second is that it disappears quickly, and this complaint appears in almost every review from every source. Opinions on whether it has aged well split cleanly: some hear a well-made, unusual green freshie, others hear a dated drugstore deodorant. Both readings are defensible. The 2022 reissue is the reason the vintage distinction matters.

That version reduces the composition to grapefruit, mint, vetiver and white musk, losing the basil, galbanum and chili that gave the original its personality, and people who grew up with the old bottle are near-unanimous that the newer one is a different and lesser fragrance. If you are buying this to revisit a memory, the vintage formulation is the one that holds it.

When to Wear

Heat and activity. Summer mornings, the gym and outdoor days where the menthol opening does actual work. It has no business in cold weather. The Fresh and Clean collection has more of this type.

Who Is It For

Someone who wants a mint-and-herb freshie with real character rather than another blue aquatic, and who is happy to respray.

If you like the Lacoste house style, Lacoste Essential is the modern counterpart and shows how much the brand's direction changed. Browse the full Lacoste collection at Aromatica.

Available as an authentic decant in Bangladesh at Aromatica in 3ml, 5ml, 9ml, and 15ml.