138 Opiem For Her

Blossom Perfumery's No. 138 works from the same spicy-oriental blueprint as Yves Saint Laurent's 1977 Opium: bergamot, mandarin and lily of the valley at the top, a carnation-jasmine-myrrh heart, and a patchouli-opoponax-amber-vanilla base. The clove-and-spice character comes through clearly and the overall oriental warmth is a genuine echo of the classic. It doesn't reach the original's dense, resinous complexity, though - Opium is famous for a smouldering, almost incense-like richness that this version simplifies into a softer amber-vanilla sweetness, fading sooner and with less of that dramatic edge. A lighter-weight introduction to the Opium mood at a fraction of the cost.