Black Opium Floral Shock Yves Saint Laurent 2017

Since I quite liked Nuit Blanche, I requested a sample of Floral Shock. Before I comment on the fragrance, I must point out that I had quite high expectations, as I really like some scents from YSL and the bottle appealed to me. I can usually get very excited about extremely floral-sweet fragrances, so I became curious.

Scent:
At the beginning, I clearly perceive a very sweet milk coffee. Whether cold, iced, or warm: it doesn’t matter, this note stands out prominently for me. Along with a hint of cotton candy, popcorn, milk chocolate, and vanillin.
The pear comes across as overripe and sweet; more like from a can than fresh and crisp.
Lemon??? No, I don’t notice any of that, no matter how hard I try. I am usually very sensitive to lemon notes, but no, that’s not where the fragrance fails - it’s the flowers.
Floral notes can be smelled, but they are very subtle and restrained. This is not how I imagine a Floral Shock!!! The freesia and orange blossom are drowned in the overly sweet milk coffee, which simply dominates everything.
Here, the fragrance disappoints me enormously; I would have wished for much more pronounced flowers and expected the scent to be much fresher.

On the test strip, the flowers develop much more clearly than on my skin, but ultimately, what matters is how the scent smells on a person.

The fragrance is sweet and pleasant, but it does not meet my expectations at all, which the name Floral Shock suggests, and in my opinion, it is a victim of poor marketing. Sweet Sugar Latte would have been more fitting.

When I smell it, I constantly feel reminded of La Rive dupes, which often come across as overly sweet and slightly synthetic. In comparison, the fragrance still holds up quite well, but it’s not quite enough to make the scent interesting enough for me to want to wear it as a perfume. It’s not a brutal flop, but I’m not exactly thrilled either.