Top Notes
Bergamot
Mandarin orange
Heart Notes
Myrrh
Jasmine
Base Notes
Amber
Opoponax
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Notes09/06/2020
Pinkdawn
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Pinkdawn
Top Review
16
A short visit of the old lady
Just to get it out of the way: I love oriental perfumes - many of them, at least. Not all of them, of course. I'm afraid they'll have to suit me. That means being soft and cuddly, sweet of jasmine, roses and vanilla, mysteriously balsamic, perhaps nuanced with noble wood notes from the eaglewood tree.
In this sense I like Casmir by Chopard, Obsession by Calvin Klein and especially Shalimar. When I received Opium from Yves Saint Laurent as a gift, I was very happy at first because I suspected a similar oriental scent. And then - I was disappointed. I'm sure opium is an oriental scent. But not to my taste. Right from the first spraying I felt it like a perfume from former times, a legendary vintage scent, heavy, loud, intense, one to intrusive.
I refer here to the allegedly "defused" version of the old 1977 fragrance, which was released in 2009.
Opium is surprisingly opulent from the very beginning. At the beginning a citric nuance delights. But unfortunately only briefly and in no way refreshing or sparkling. It's just a delicate touch of bergamot and tangerine - I can't really tell the two apart here - that immediately sinks into a densely woven carpet of lush, intoxicating fragrances, where I can't tell whether this warm sweetness comes from noble woods or exotic flowers.
A dry myrrh, which is a bit scratchy for me, immediately takes the lead and makes the fragrance intense, spicy and dark. The sweetness gets something smoky, tart, resinous. I think of incense, which contributes a lot of sublimity.
I think I feel a confusingly large bouquet of scents. Time to take a closer look at the pyramid of scents. It surprises me. This enormous fragrance is said to consist of only eight notes: Bergamot, tangerine, myrrh, jasmine, clove, amber, opoponax and vanilla. Other descriptions also mention lily of the valley and patchouli as ingredients. I can't sniff both.
I might have gone with sandalwood and incense. Also cinnamon and cardamom would be possible ingredients for me
In my opinion, the scent does not undergo a strong transformation. From the start, it is expansive, beguiling, hypnotic, yet elegant, respectful and dignified. This is how I feel it. I cannot believe it and look again: Yes, it's "only" the eau de toilette ... If it's so intense, how does the more concentrated eau de parfum have to be? I remember those who know the vintage fragrance from the seventies and see the reformulation as a shadow of its former greatness.
The fragrance is strong enough for me even in its current form with its, as they say, above-average sillage and durability. I feel it almost overwhelming on me. It does not underline my personality, but overlays it with something foreign that does not harmonize with me. For me it is a big old lady with a strong presence, elegant and dominant, who meets her jeweled friends for bridge. Already in the afternoon she is wrapped in a cloud of opium. A frigate, I think, is what one calls such self-confident older ladies who do not tolerate contradiction and do not come in, but always appear billowing as if on a stage. With perfectly styled hairstyle, clear make-up, expensive clothes, flowing scarves ... Probably a wealthy widow, probably a smoker. She obviously doesn't think much of understatement
Oriental fragrances usually have something soft, ingratiating, sensual. I miss that here. Unless you find mulled wine spices erotic
I hope that Amber and Opoponax in the base will make everything softer and more balsamic. But opium remains fiery, present and loud. Opoponax, the resin of sweet myrrh, which often smells mild and soothing like fine acacia honey, at best adds a certain animal note here, which certainly goes with this perfume - but not with me.
I must confess that I find little to nothing that I like about this striking fragrance. The name sounds interesting, yes. It deliberately plays on the wickedness of 19th and early 20th century Chinese opium dens. I know the smell of opium from incense sticks and aromatic oils. There's something mystical and mysterious about him that I don't detect in opium from YSL.
Opium has countless flankers, which speaks for the popularity of this perfume. But not every fragrance suits everyone. Opium and I - it doesn't work. I'm just not the type for this - as it seems to me - dominant fragrance, which, as I said, seems like a big old lady to whom I can't develop much sympathy because we have hardly anything in common.
I'm a little surprised that a perfume that seems old-fashioned to me despite reformulation still has so many followers. But that is just my personal opinion.
In this sense I like Casmir by Chopard, Obsession by Calvin Klein and especially Shalimar. When I received Opium from Yves Saint Laurent as a gift, I was very happy at first because I suspected a similar oriental scent. And then - I was disappointed. I'm sure opium is an oriental scent. But not to my taste. Right from the first spraying I felt it like a perfume from former times, a legendary vintage scent, heavy, loud, intense, one to intrusive.
I refer here to the allegedly "defused" version of the old 1977 fragrance, which was released in 2009.
Opium is surprisingly opulent from the very beginning. At the beginning a citric nuance delights. But unfortunately only briefly and in no way refreshing or sparkling. It's just a delicate touch of bergamot and tangerine - I can't really tell the two apart here - that immediately sinks into a densely woven carpet of lush, intoxicating fragrances, where I can't tell whether this warm sweetness comes from noble woods or exotic flowers.
A dry myrrh, which is a bit scratchy for me, immediately takes the lead and makes the fragrance intense, spicy and dark. The sweetness gets something smoky, tart, resinous. I think of incense, which contributes a lot of sublimity.
I think I feel a confusingly large bouquet of scents. Time to take a closer look at the pyramid of scents. It surprises me. This enormous fragrance is said to consist of only eight notes: Bergamot, tangerine, myrrh, jasmine, clove, amber, opoponax and vanilla. Other descriptions also mention lily of the valley and patchouli as ingredients. I can't sniff both.
I might have gone with sandalwood and incense. Also cinnamon and cardamom would be possible ingredients for me
In my opinion, the scent does not undergo a strong transformation. From the start, it is expansive, beguiling, hypnotic, yet elegant, respectful and dignified. This is how I feel it. I cannot believe it and look again: Yes, it's "only" the eau de toilette ... If it's so intense, how does the more concentrated eau de parfum have to be? I remember those who know the vintage fragrance from the seventies and see the reformulation as a shadow of its former greatness.
The fragrance is strong enough for me even in its current form with its, as they say, above-average sillage and durability. I feel it almost overwhelming on me. It does not underline my personality, but overlays it with something foreign that does not harmonize with me. For me it is a big old lady with a strong presence, elegant and dominant, who meets her jeweled friends for bridge. Already in the afternoon she is wrapped in a cloud of opium. A frigate, I think, is what one calls such self-confident older ladies who do not tolerate contradiction and do not come in, but always appear billowing as if on a stage. With perfectly styled hairstyle, clear make-up, expensive clothes, flowing scarves ... Probably a wealthy widow, probably a smoker. She obviously doesn't think much of understatement
Oriental fragrances usually have something soft, ingratiating, sensual. I miss that here. Unless you find mulled wine spices erotic
I hope that Amber and Opoponax in the base will make everything softer and more balsamic. But opium remains fiery, present and loud. Opoponax, the resin of sweet myrrh, which often smells mild and soothing like fine acacia honey, at best adds a certain animal note here, which certainly goes with this perfume - but not with me.
I must confess that I find little to nothing that I like about this striking fragrance. The name sounds interesting, yes. It deliberately plays on the wickedness of 19th and early 20th century Chinese opium dens. I know the smell of opium from incense sticks and aromatic oils. There's something mystical and mysterious about him that I don't detect in opium from YSL.
Opium has countless flankers, which speaks for the popularity of this perfume. But not every fragrance suits everyone. Opium and I - it doesn't work. I'm just not the type for this - as it seems to me - dominant fragrance, which, as I said, seems like a big old lady to whom I can't develop much sympathy because we have hardly anything in common.
I'm a little surprised that a perfume that seems old-fashioned to me despite reformulation still has so many followers. But that is just my personal opinion.
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