Negative Reviews of Opium by Yves Saint Laurent

Strong, mature, powdery, feminine scent. Smells very familiar which speaks to its popularity over the years. You definitely know someone or knew someone who wore this.

The drydown gets more unisex, so while I wouldn't wear it myself, it wouldn't be shocking to smell this on an older guy.

Performance lives up to its reputation with room-clearing projection and all-day longevity. Showers don't even get all of this off.

Overwhelmingly hot, spicy & powerful to my nose. l don't get any of the floral notes in this. Suitable only for very cold weather, & even then only with a light hand, & as far away from me as possible please.

Parfum.

Eugh, good lord, this is chemical warfare of the highest concentration! Between this and the men's version, it escapes me how people enjoy this stuff, but to each their own.

As with the men's version I previously reviewed, this is gnawing and cloying with a headache-inducing curry/cilantro note. Only, this is more feminine.

I don't quite recall Poppy seeds smelling like this.....

When this first went on it smelled spicy, sultry, & sexy but alas, that element took a backseat to the powder that blankets it :(Strong and long lasting, just wish they could do away with the powder element.

My very first reaction to this fragrance was, "It smells like old perfume from the 50's." It smelled years dated then, and it smells doubly years dated now.

Would anyone put this in the same category as Tabu? They remind me of each other, and not in a good way. It is either too strong, or people used to use too much of it, I could smell it across the room, like I could Youth Dew. It has an aggressive pseudo femininity about it and I find it an oppressive scent. Weird, because I like Mandarin, jasmine, vanilla and bergamot, maybe the patchouli thrown it makes it just "too much".

This perfume is the single cause of my patchouli-phobia. Seriously. It gives me nightmares.As a pre-teen, I went on a rare jaunt to the movies with friends one night, and had the terrible misfortune to sit behind a woman who seemed to have bathed in this stuff. I had to excuse myself to the theater lobby in order to keep my stomach contents where they ought to be. Even now, years later, a whiff of this turns my stomach.Odd: when I smell this, I barely notice the spices and florals. They're there, but they are so overshadowed by the patchouli that they are merely the lovely background against which the patchouli screams at the top of its voice. I adore spices, even clove, and I absolutely adore carnations, so it's a shame I hardly smell them at all in this skanky patchouli-fest.

Yeucchh. I cannot abide anything that smells of cloves being anywhere near me. I don't know if this actually has clove in it or if it is the clove-like carnation that I am picking up but to me it just smells like one big clove. So if, like me, you are a strange cat-human who finds the smell of cloves the most dirty, repulsive smell on earth, steer well clear of this perfume!

A bit too overwhelming for my taste. I live in a cold, wintry climate. Opium reminds me of grand old ladies with powdered faces and lace shawls - I'm just not there yet.

I normally like fresh fruity florals so this one is a nightmare to me, but on a much higher scale than the typical heedy scents. It smells very 'old lady' in a sinister, unkempt/decomposing sort of way. If one could imagine what an unshowered Joan Crawford and Night of the Living Dead would smell like together or maybe Norman Bates mother - this is it.

Indeed, a thoroughly late 1970s-1980s fragrance (as a previous reviewer noticed). I found it way too harsh, and still do. I used to wear it in winter, because it felt too heady for summer. It didn't help. It always struck me as a "unisex" fragrance, and I simply don't like those.

Dear God!!!What on earth is this??? My aunt Helen used to wear this in the early 80's and I didn't like it then. I still don't. This is simply horrid. One of my work colleagues came into work with this on a test strip and I couldn't help but notice the faint smell of unwashed dirty body, not in the sexy MKK way, but a filthy unhygenic way. She told me that the YSL counter had a special offer on with an Opium scented candle. Why bother? I'm sure you could get the same effect by leaving a pair of dirty knickers on a hot light bulb.

wowim not going to write as much as markjust it stinks!only for the over 50's

Many moons ago, before Noah came out of the ark, I used to bathe myself in this before going on a girls night out. You might guess, in those days, I used to drink a bottle of martini before jumping in the cab with my girlfriends. Remember this is before ‘ladettes' were invented. Now I am totally embarrassed, because I can't think what I liked about it. I remember complaining my mum's Estee Lauder smelled like cats urine, but this is much worse. Now when I see it or even get a tiny niff of it I cringe. It's a bit of a creepy feeling, like meeting one of your old boyfriends, or someone's walking over your grave…