Black Opium
Eau de Parfum, Yves Saint Laurent (2014)

I can't shake the feeling that this smells like a whole lot of unrelated smells happening at the same time, as opposed to something thoughtfully orchestrated. In fact, this smells to me like the jumbled smell overload of walking into a Sephora.

So what does it actually smell like? At first it's clever, like a caramel latte spritzed with floral perfume. Unfortunately, it quickly breaks down as something minty comes in a complicates things. I'd call it a chemical blob, but I think it's actually a couple of different blobs juxtaposed. To be fair, this is a problem I have with many floral gourmands - the attempt to please two camps can often end up pleasing neither. I can tell this wants to be spicy and mysterious, but is really just bland over bland. That being said, it avoids the most hateful cliches of mass market pefumery (there's no strawberry, peach, or cheap candy here), so it deserves a neutral as opposed to a thumbs down...

This isn't my style of scent, but I get the appeal. Sugary orange blossom, jasmine that isn't too heavy, wrapped up in a sheer, gourmand coat. I wish the coffee was stronger (and yes, I've tried Extreme flanker - it's somehow worse for me), but it stays so... safe. It doesn't disgust me like some other fragrances with similar compositions, but it's rarely what I grab. I'll use up my little sample spray and move on.

I normally wouldn't bother even logging this because it's not a genre I enjoy in general, but as this is perhaps my least favourite scent out of everything I've tried, I wanted to write something.
Nauseatingly sweet, in that cheap shrill way that ethyl maltol bombs tend to be. I could just barely detect a coffee note when I went looking for it, but there's absolutely nothing dark about it and I think if it weren't for the marketing no one would see it that way either. This smells just like every other tooth rot designer gourmand on the market just more unpleasant somehow.
Cheap, generic and awful. Absolutely nothing going for it.

This is a pretty fragrance but has a little too much sweet orange blossom for me to really enjoy. It does start to mellow a little after a while to a smoother scent. I just happen to not like orange blossoms

Oh, Black Opium, love of my life, fire in my nose, the scent that sparked so much joy and started my perfume obsession. If I was writing this review back in 2018 or 2019, I would have written an ode for this fragrance (or you can check my review for Black Opium Nuit Blanche to get the idea of the kinds of flowery prose I am able to write).

Alas, the love that lasted for long years has faded and I have sobered from this intoxicating vanilla coffee with flowers, booze and a hint of pepper. Black Opium is half a rocker chic girl, half a teenage coffeemaniac with its bittersweet coffee that darkens it, balances the fruity-vanillic sweetness somewhat and has a tiny hint of spicy edge, too - like that cool girl you'd meet at the bar and talk and dance with through the night. It might also feel a bit synthetic at times - this is the quality that turned me off it when I started getting it too much - but honestly, the synthetic vibes might as well be intentional, mimicking the loud and brash electronic music in the clubs. It is a perfume to go dancing with after all.

The scent is very likeable and is still my most complimented perfume - someone will hug me and say, oh, you smell so nice (and I very rarely get any compliments, we don't compliment people here often).

Will YOU like Black Opium? Well, it depends. If you are not a complete snob and the idea of one of the most popular perfumes of the decade doesn't scare you, if you love vanilla gourmands, loud, sweet and brash fragrances and the smell of coffee, and the idea of something slightly dark but still very likeable and approachable seems cool to you, then yes, you will probably like it. Maybe even a lot.
If you're a seasoned perfumista with love for very nuanced, subtle, multilayered and classic fragrances, you might already despise Black Opium, as it embodies many things you probably hate in perfume industry, including taking an old classic Opium and turning it into something unrecognizable, but very likeable for younger and more modern noses. Black Opium is Opium for the masses indeed, therefore it's not for you - nor it aspires to be. Give it to your niece instead.

My love story with Black Opium might have ended with a happily finished bottle, but it was - and still is - a happy story. It brought me to the world of perfumes, and I'll forever be thankful for it. I might rebuy it some day or might never do it, but still I saved a small decant so that I could always sniff it and remind myself of me, you and the things we did together. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my dear Black Opium.

Very well done. Didn't think the Jasmine note would work well the other notes. I stand corrected. The coffee note in this is a plus. 7.5/10