Sin
Ava Luxe (2007)

Dry and too vintage-chypreish on my skin. I mostly get a vintage perfume feel from this, and none of the 'opium' vibes.

Decades ago I had a fun but dissolute "friend" who liked to smoke opium. It had the most amazing smell, one I've never forgotten though I experienced it only a few times. It was resinous, vibrant, medicinal, vegetal, sobering and bordering on tannic. A powerful odor a spoon could stand up in. You could see how that smell snaking out of doorways would operate on addicts as a kind of deadly flytrap. Needless to say, when I noticed Ava Luxe's claim that its "Sin" smelled like opium, I couldn't resist a sample. Does it? No relation. I can't say exactly what it does smell like -- sort of green-y, dirty-fresh (musk). To me it's uninteresting. I have really enjoyed other Avas, however. Maybe this one was destined to disappoint.