“Big Pony 2”, one part of a four-scent collection by Ralph Lauren, is a reminder of the tantalising possibilities for provocative, beautiful masculines amid the current sea of Cool Water knockoffs. It’s also evidence of the reluctance of L’Oreal, owner of Ralph Lauren’s perfume licence, to give perfumers serious budgets so they can put quality materials into the juices.

Without money for formula, perhaps Germaine Cellier would have come up not with the inimitable “Fracas” in 1948, but with a pale, synthetic-smelling tuberose — pretty enough, and based on a great concept, but lacking the engineering needed to make the machine go. And concept alone is never sufficient. Architect Richard Meier’s gorgeous, soaring Jubilee Church in Rome is a contemporary wonder, but it would have been a disaster if developer Lamaro Appalti S.p.A. had not been allocated the budget for the right quality of concrete and steel.

“Big Pony 2”, created by Antoine Lie, one of the most inventive and technically expert perfumers around, and Ellen Molner, who has an excellent commercial touch, is an achievement of concept and development. The commercial aspect of the collection is crucial; Ralph Lauren’s creative team primarily aims to sell well-made, solid, accessible-luxury units, so ‘avant garde’ is not in the brand’s vocabulary. Ralph Lauren is not out to revolutionise the masculine scent; yet they’ve taken a step in that direction.

Within the art-house collection of the brand Bond No. 9, “New Haarlem” a 2004 fragrance made by superlative perfumer Maurice Roucel, is the best — a work of olfactory art, with overt scents of chocolate, lush fruit and flapper lipstick. Potent and mesmerising, it testifies to Roucel’s control of his medium. Moreover, “Haarlem” is a masterpiece, not only in construction, technical performance and aesthetic innovation, but also in its powerful olfactory invocation of an entire historical era — jazz and Prohibition-era Harlem, and the thrill and decadence that characterised it.

Lie and Molner have, too, have created a masculine that constitutes an authentic step into avant-garde territory. “Big Pony 2” has a terrific opening, revealing a concept of chocolate — both sweet and bitter — and an angle of the spiced silk of “Opium” with a gourmand aspect virtually nonexistent in masculine perfumery. They have done this to make this scent acceptable at a university club, and they’ve mated it to a traditionalist Ralph Lauren masculine chassis — a “fresh, clean” just-showered guy exiting the gym. Still, it is a new and interesting concept.

But the creators of “Big Pony 2” were not given the money to build a solid scent. It’s known in the industry that L’Oreal wants quality, but gives perfumers little money with which to build quality. In the case of “2”, the chocolate-light spice tease remains just a great idea that soon burns off, leaving behind a competent but ordinary masculine.

In this collection of four scents, could they not have gone further with just one? A guy could always simply reapply relatively frequently — the scent is light enough that it is impossible to overdose. But the promise of this marvellous, darkly sweet kiss is merely a promise. Perhaps the next Ralph Lauren masculine will follow through.