Black Opium Yves Saint Laurent 2018 Eau de Toilette

At the first sight this perfume seems meant for "dark souls": the black glittered bottle promises a strong and heavy scent. Not at all. This fragrance is quite gentle and the touch of "darkness" is given only by the coffee note,fragrant and very noticeable, which hits immediately your nose at the first smell. But after the fresher fruity-flowery notes arrive giving a gentler character to this scent: mainly the pear, less the orange blossom, very light and not so vibrant (at least on my skin) .The cedarwood and patchouli base is only suggested and this is a problem for the longevity and the sillage of this scent. On my skin I don't perceive them!
So, this scent could be compared to a girl in black with a very sweet and romantic heart. The darkness is only appearance, but there is many freshness inside.
In comparison to the quite weak sillage, the price is high. Forget the classic Opium, people. this one is another story!

Hello and good evening, you sniffers :D
Welcome to my comment on Yves Saint Laurent’s newer fragrance “Black Opium.” Yes, I know, the scent is actually not new at all, as Black Opium has been around for several years now (since 2014, if I’m not mistaken? And the original Opium came out in the 70s!), but since well-known fragrances are often re-released time and again, there’s once again a new version of the Eau de Toilette of this scent, namely the 2018 edition.

If you’re lucky, there’s basically little change, so you either don’t notice the differences at all or they aren’t too bothersome. Sometimes, however, a new version can ruin the scent for some perfumes (or parfumos), leaving you heartbroken as you search for the original fragrance to enjoy it for a while longer and to store some in your scent treasure chest before they become unavailable. I think some of you have had such experiences with various fragrances already.

In any case, I don’t know any EDT of Black Opium, only the EDP from 2014 and Nuit Blanche. So I’ll jump straight to the scent description and can’t really write a comparison comment, but hopefully that’s okay…

At the beginning, I smell a bit of blackcurrant and some coffee, which I actually find quite nice, albeit unspectacular. A little lemon adds a touch of freshness, but that quickly fades away. Then the pear appears, adding another fruity note. However, the fruity notes soon lose their strength and quickly blend with other scent notes, making it a bit difficult to distinguish or filter these notes.
You can still smell the coffee, along with now sweet notes (I assume these come from the jasmine, even if it’s not specified here), which come across pleasantly, even if they have the well-known “mainstream synthetic” quality of large and very popular mainstream fragrances.
A little later, you can also distinctly smell neroli, which fits well with the sweet scents. The coffee is still somewhat present and smells especially nice with the cedarwood, while the sweetness is complemented by musk and patchouli adds its earthy note. Even though patchouli is only present in small amounts, I could have done without it here.
In the end, the scent still smells of orange blossoms, light coffee, and sweet notes like musk. Then it becomes a bit more humid, as it suddenly gains intensity and somehow smells floral-sweet-humid, which lasts for about 1-2 hours, after which the scent suddenly fades away and comes to an end.

The sillage is good; you’ll be noticeable with the scent for a while without other sniffers having to get too close! The longevity is about seven to eight hours.

The bottle is rectangular when viewed from the front but has an oval base. It is reddish-pink and has a glitter effect. In the middle, you can see the famous “porthole,” as known from some YSL fragrances. The black cap is cylindrical at the bottom, where the brand name is visible, and ends in a hemisphere at the top. A very beautiful bottle, although I preferred the black version.

So, first of all: The scent is not as bad as most have rated it here, but of course, that’s a matter of taste. I can well imagine that most people might not really connect with this scent, as the synthetic note might bother them, which isn’t terrible, but is quite noticeable here.

Moreover, the scent has a bit of an aura like those types of fragrances that are mainly preferred by 16 to 18-year-old teens who are starting to use fragrances more, as at this age, boys are no longer “yuck” but appear more interesting (or other girls, depending). The girls themselves seem to be becoming physically more mature (hm, I hope that doesn’t sound wrong...), but mentally they still remain a bit brainless (the boys too,... and I must mention that boys are even dumber and stay that way longer than girls...) and become primarily one thing they can never shake off: catty! You can see that here with you ladies... uh... isn’t that so? Mu ha ha ha :DD

In any case, the scent seems like a going-out fragrance, but those girls probably use such a scent at any time, which is okay, but unfortunately, these girls often have no idea about dosage, so you can smell them, for example, from the other end of the subway :D
But as I said, boys do the same, I’ve seen that often enough in the men’s fragrance department (yes damn it, I don’t ONLY test women’s fragrances, argh!!!).

In my opinion, a test isn’t really worth it now, but you can still take a look if you’re interested. Because I really don’t find the scent that bad, but there are many, many, really a whole lot of more interesting and also prettier fragrances, even among the regular mainstream ones. While this one smells about as good to me as the EDP from 2014, I find Nuit Blanche much more successful and would recommend that one more.

Well, that was my opinion on the scent. I wish everyone a nice evening and see you soon :)

Why is that? Why do major brand leaders have to endlessly flank and reinterpret classic fragrances? It truly puzzles me. Bestsellers are made universally appealing down to the smallest detail, so that in a few years, every household has acquired this scent. Of course, one doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, but more independence and courage to explore new, unknown fragrances that are extravagant and spectacular - that would be something!

As you can tell from my reading, I am definitely not a fan of thousands of flankers. Especially since the resemblance between the fragrances is undeniable due to the entire presentation and advertising of the scents. Live and let live, they say.

So, my expectations were not high, and then during the first sniff, I was surprised by what my nose detected.
The fragrance starts with fruity pear and slightly citrus notes. Very pleasant and different. Nice, I think to myself, and keep sniffing my wrist. Then a light, very mild coffee note spreads. It is by no means as dominant as in the Eau de Parfum. Surprisingly, I can also detect the orange blossom, subtle and fine, not too much and not too loud. So far, I really like the scent. Now patchouli and cedarwood join in. This gives the fragrance a slight depth, and the woody heart of the scent begins.
I really like the progression of the fragrance. To my surprise, I really enjoy this scent. It is different, so contrasting, and yet so complementary to each other. Citrus and coffee? Sounds like a pick-me-up, like a wicked night. I find this combination very interesting. Admittedly, the regular Eau de Parfum has always been too loud, too dominant, and too smoky for me. Here, I have found a really nice alternative. I can imagine this scent on a lovely girls' night out, in a cocktail bar, and during other leisure activities. I can also envision it on a beautiful summer evening.

I believe one should simply try the fragrance. For some, the composition of lemon and coffee may seem bizarre, but it is definitely worth giving the scent a chance.