Opium 1977 Eau de Toilette

Version from 1977
Opium (1977) (Eau de Toilette) by Yves Saint Laurent
Bottle Design Pierre Dinand
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Top 93 in Women's Perfume
8.9 / 10 144 Ratings
Opium (1977) (Eau de Toilette) is a popular perfume by Yves Saint Laurent for women and was released in 1977. The scent is oriental-spicy. Projection and longevity are above-average. It was last marketed by L'Oréal. Pronunciation
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Main accords

Oriental
Spicy
Resinous
Animal
Floral

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
CloveClove BergamotBergamot CorianderCoriander LaurelLaurel PepperPepper PlumPlum Citrus fruitsCitrus fruits JasmineJasmine Mandarin orangeMandarin orange
Heart Notes Heart Notes
CarnationCarnation CinnamonCinnamon Orris rootOrris root PatchouliPatchouli PeachPeach RoseRose SandalwoodSandalwood Lily of the valleyLily of the valley
Base Notes Base Notes
MyrrhMyrrh OpoponaxOpoponax FrankincenseFrankincense Tolu balmTolu balm AmberAmber BenzoinBenzoin CedarCedar CistusCistus MuskMusk SandalwoodSandalwood VanillaVanilla VetiverVetiver CoconutCoconut

Perfumers

Ratings
Scent
8.9144 Ratings
Longevity
9.0124 Ratings
Sillage
8.8122 Ratings
Bottle
7.9124 Ratings
Value for money
7.738 Ratings
Submitted by Sniffer, last update on 10.05.2023.
Variant of the fragrance concentration
This is a variant of the perfume Opium (1977) (Parfum) by Yves Saint Laurent, which differs in concentration.
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Reviews

7 in-depth fragrance descriptions
FloraSvecica
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FloraSvecica
FloraSvecica
Top Review 37  
Dare I wear it?!
I have a distant aunt in Berlin who is now over 80. Incredibly educated, properly dressed, no polyester has ever touched her skin. Custom-made by a tailor she trusts. An old-school teacher. If anyone still remembers the film by Loriot Oedipussi- the protagonist's mother hits it spot on, though my aunt has 30 kg less on her hips.
As a young student, she always took me to the theater and the opera, because she assumed that I grew up in northern Germany, unfortunately, among completely cultureless peasants with pitchforks- her words!
When it went to the opera was always generously sprayed on the occasion opium, with an absolute matter of course and without batting an eyelid. That always totally blew my mind and I still have incredible respect for this woman. An absolute diva. The thing that has always been confusing for me is that this perfume has somehow suggested lived sexuality to me. There is nothing chaste, but rather lustful. And that didn't really fit my aunt at all, which brings us back to Oedipussi. My aunt has exactly one son and has been divorced for 40 years and her only roommate is a female! Cockatiel.
I have since tried to interpret this perfume differently, for the reason that this perfume is just incredibly well suited to my precocious aunt. It is an absolutely loud, complex, mysterious and despite the warm spiciness a in some stretches scary, aloof fragrance.
He has the last word and just always right. Now I am a woman, just over 40, who has decided at 40 that no one can unsettle me anymore and I also no longer comply with every wish. This started, by the way, with my sudden need for reading glasses. And yet I wonder if I have matured enough inside to have the courage to wear this fragrance.
My aunt says yes, and sent me an unopened vintage version, of which she says she has as many bottles as Chanel costumes- and there are quite a few!
16 Replies
7
Pricing
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
9
Longevity
9
Scent
Guerlinchen
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Guerlinchen
Guerlinchen
Top Review 20  
Dance of sensuality
All the spectators are silent almost speechless. Expectations are in the air and mix there with tension. The lights dim, adding a little more crackle to the atmosphere. Then the music starts. An oriental full-figured woman enters the room and spreads pure magic. Her outfit and her presence resemble an adventure from the Thousand and One Nights. Her movements leave even the last spectator breathless. Her aura is enveloped in the most sensual way - opium fills the now with pure enthusiasm drenched room.

These memories come up in me when I smell opium today. It was a belly dance performance whose very special and magical atmosphere has anchored itself deeply in my thoughts. This interplay of scent, dance and music left a deep impression on me and has remained absolutely present for years. Although I have owned the fragrance myself for many years before, I always associate it only first with this scenario. It just overrode all previous memories. I'm not sad about it because that very dance, that passion and sensuality- coupled with pure femininity, is found in this fragrance. It is almost impossible for me and I forbid myself at this point to pick apart the fragrance pyramid here now. It is a total work of art and it should sweep everyone away in its own way. This creation has depth and most importantly consistency. Something I find sorely lacking at a great many points today. It delivers and delivers and delivers...also what it promises! Definitely not's for the faint hearted or even the faint hearted. I would say it needs character to be able to fully unfold its own essence on the skin - yes to be able to perform its very special, magical dance with all facets on it. One spray and you are abducted - now, if you manage to let go completely, you will lose yourself in it. But, you are lost and yet feel very much alive and absolutely richly endowed...

For sure, it is a fragrance that writes history and stories.

The question remains - are YOU ready for this?!
Scent: Oriental, powerful, enveloping, erotic, spicy, deep, warm, sensual, sometimes mind-blowing
Sillage: not only dance room filling...

Longevity: Bombastic and merciless.

Flacon: It hides much more than it lets on.

Price: Was once reasonable.

P.S. I unfortunately never had the pleasure to perceive this fragrance on the appropriate men's skin but I think there goes a lot...
10 Replies
8
Bottle
9
Sillage
9
Longevity
10
Scent
Adhira
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Adhira
Adhira
Top Review 17  
Dance the Mussolini - Opium between cigarette smoke and ice fog
Opium was my first real perfume. I wished for it in 1983 for Christmas and promptly the EdT lay under the - artificial - Christmas tree of my parents.

What an oriental spice and spice - lush, sensual, beguiling, room-filling, stunning. These intense spice notes, this density of fragrances and this shelf life - absolutely unique. Just right for this time, a statement in the 80s.

I was 17 years old and was regularly in the Frankfurt area in the hottest shed on the road. And opium was my scent - so I sprayed it generously. What is unacceptable today and causes a series of fainting spells was completely normal back then. Today I already wonder how my fellow passengers survived the drive in the car to the discos when one or in the worst case all the girls who went with them had dieselled themselves with opium. Apart from the breather between the parking lot and the front door, things didn't get any better later. Hardly arrived in the dance shed one expected beside New Wave and the creepy 80's fashion a smell overload at cigarette smoke, sweetish ice mist and perfume tumblers, which looked for their equals, above all opium. The scent clouds were literally wafting across the dance floors, exactly in this mixture, and in such a high concentration that one could literally cut the air. I'm surprised that we all survived this unscathed, without collapsing under anaesthetic.

But still, it was a great time, sometimes I wish it back. Only to wear the original scent again and to be able to correct my silly dance style - I dance the Mussolini ..
7 Replies
5
Bottle
10
Sillage
10
Longevity
10
Scent
Anettmarian
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Anettmarian
Anettmarian
Top Review 15  
Love... forever and ever and ever.....
Opium was my first great perfume love and for many years my signature fragrance My scent lingered in place for a long time, even though I had long since disappeared.
During my studies opium improved the air in the chemistry lab and everyone knew at all times where I was or had been in the lab.
This oriental "scent bomb" surrounded me like a warm, dense cloak of spices such as cinnamon and clove, as well as tangerines and citrus fruits paired with vanilla, myrrh, frankincense and many other notes, which together create this totally unique perfume.
Already after the first spray this insane scent potpourri put me into a dream from Thousand and One Nights.
A big market in Marrakech, a huge swarm of people and fragrances and in between me: fascinated, enchanted and forever decaying.
6 Replies
8
Bottle
9
Sillage
9
Longevity
10
Scent
Rosaviola
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Rosaviola
Rosaviola
Top Review 17  
Opium EdT-my first great love
Finally I dare to write a comment about my first favorite fragrance: Opium.

I got to know opium at the tender age of sixteen in the summer holidays of the early nineties. The summer was sunny and beautiful and I had a lot of free time, was still without worries. At some point my father brought a little suitcase with him from a colleague at work, full of perfume samples, it was probably about twenty. And I was allowed to test them all to my heart's content! It was like paradise, wonderful! I can still remember some of the scents that were there: Eternity, Narcisse, Loulou, Poison, Samsara (the first Guerlain I got to know), Maroussia and some other "bombs" of his time. I don't remember any of them. And opium was there too! This immediately captured me, love at first sight so to speak.

This opulent, warm and secure spiciness was unique to me at the time, except for Ispahan, where I had never smelled anything like it before. And I didn't know Youth Dew at that time Opium is a dense round of spices in which it is almost impossible to smell all the components individually. This fragrance also works as a whole and lives from its density. Something that was pretty much taken away from the 2009 version.

Mandarins with cloves and all the spices make me think briefly of rice spiced with onion and cloves (but the smell does not smell of rice and onions). The spices are slightly steamed by delicate jasmine blossoms.
More carnations follow, this time the flowers, lots of patchouli and warm cinnamon. Soft sandalwood joins it.
The base is also opulent, warm and oriental with discreetly sweet amber, animal musk, a hint of vanilla is gently spun in and some incense, but so dosed that it does not get too smoky (I get a headache from it), is still in play.
The Sillage is bombastic, the durability as well. When I went out in the morning I still smelled like it.

By the time I finally got my first bottle of Opium EdT, I was twenty-one and I loved my opium. For years it was my night scent, but I always dosed it discreetly with about two sprayers and it lasted until the next day. For a change I sometimes wore Chloe's Narcisse, also a Wummser, and during the day various Yves Rocher scents. I still have the empty bottle at home.
Today I don't wear it so often anymore, but still regularly for twenty years.
When it was replaced by the current version in 2009, I started to bunker what I could. So my supply will last for the next forty years...

The new version has been castrated especially with spices and carnations. But the mandarins and jasmine come out more. This version is still portable, but who knows the old one will almost always prefer it.
I would describe Youth Dew by Estee Lauder as a slightly similar fragrance.

In the course of time I could still find two really very old flacons from the eighties in the rather simple glass. I find here the clove is even more present. The bottle can be seen on my perfume photos Opium 1977 with the woody background on the far left. There were also several special summer editions of opium, of which I have some, as well as a body cream, the EdP and the Extrait were added to my collection.

I find oriental fragrances like opium wearable in summer as well, as long as they are carefully dosed. The spices and patchouli can really unfold in the warm temperatures, really come alive and appear in their most beautiful splendour. But please only one or two delicate splashes!

Opium will be one of my favorites forever.

5 Replies
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Statements

2 short views on the fragrance
Charilaos77Charilaos77 2 months ago
9
Sillage
9
Longevity
9.5
Scent
Vintage splash edition: What a frag! Oriental animalic wonder. Speechless!!!
0 Replies
Alex1984Alex1984 6 years ago
10
Bottle
10
Sillage
10
Longevity
10
Scent
Original edt; the oriental to end all orientals. Mysterious, hallucinogenic, erotic; resinous spices, carnations, lust. Flowers of fire.
0 Replies

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