Opium pour Homme (1995)
by Yves Saint Laurent

I love Orientals. Not this one.
It’s nauseating, choking, cloying and very disturbing on my skin. I’ve only sampled the EDT version, but considering the effect it had on me, I will not be posting a review of the EDP version.
Usually I give fragrances a second chance. This one-no way.
The scent is so irritating, after few hours I couldn’t wait to get it off my skin. I never thought I can possibly be disgusted by vanilla. They must have mixed the concoction in a bucket, added vanilla, balm and then an old dog took a crap in it. Even after 20 min in the shower, was still there/dog and all/.
From the reviews below I can tell longevity must be pretty good. For me it’s just another horrifying fact.
OPH is one of the worst scents I have ever applied on my skin.

For forty-five minutes it’s a compelling and fun woody oriental with good spice and some of the ripe, plummy bubblegum note from the women’s counterpart, but it’s all down hill as the cheap, loud vanilla blows up becoming an intolerable burden for what can seem like an endless duration (especially true of the EDP). I always think of it as a fragrance for children. Indeed, I smelled it on a high school kid (I asked him what he was wearing), and damn near gagged. Other than a guy wearing too much Drakkar Noir and a few women in their loud, cheap fruity-floral orientals with nuclear radiance, this was one of the worst fragrances I’ve smelled on another person. They had the right idea, and weren’t terribly far from something decent, but small details make or break any fragrance. If you must have something similar, look into Opium pour Homme Eau d’Orient. Its structure is poverty stricken, and it’s fairly banal, but it’s a hell of a lot better then either concentrations of the original. I still find it hard to believe it was even released, but as the great Edmond Roudnitska famously said, “Most perfumes today are bonbons”. Either way, there are a lot better bonbons than this.

Although the original Opium for women is one of my most hated fragrances, I have to respect Opium PH for the mere fact that it stays true to the spirit of the original, which is a rarity in fragrances released under the same name for both women and men. It doesn't smell exactly like the original, but it does capture the blazing, spicy feel of the original Opium for women.

Therefore it almost goes without saying that Opium PH is an intense fragrance. To my nose or my skin, OPH smells almost like two different fragrances, depending on whether you're wearing it in hot or cold weather. In hot weather, it's simply overbearing; I bought my first bottle of this just recently, in the heat of summer, and wearing it felt like I was being shot in the eyeballs. It's just too heady for me to wear in hot weather. Now that the weather has cooled down significantly however, especially in the evening, I am finding OPH to be a lot more agreeable, and quite good.

I'm not particularly good in picking out individual notes in fragrances, and Opium PH presents an especially difficult challenge for me. Part of the reason I find OPH so intense is because there seems to be so much going on in this scent, so many spicy notes flying around in all directions. I really can't tell what's in this, except lots and lots of SPICY THINGS, to state it academically. This isn't to say that it's not a well-crafted scent, but rather that it's a challenging scent. It's exotic and extremely bold, never really evolving over time but rather simply calming down over time. I respect fragrances like this.

What I like most about Opium PH is that it truly embodies what I think of when I hear the words "exotic oriental fragrance". I don't think it's a great fragrance, but it's certainly a good one. It's not a scent I'll be wearing often, but during the right time of year and in the right situations, I'll put this on to make a bold impression.

Nice, different fragrance...restricted to evening wear though as it is too heavy to wear during the day.
Very very sweet and oriental, I like it but I only wear it once in a blue moon...

Love this in the EDT (I understand the EDP is very different, but have not smelled it). It's amazing on my boyfriend, drying down to a masculine woody scent with just enough vanilla to round it out without sending it into the candy zone. He wore it tonight while we were out to dinner, and it was just right--I'd catch a slight whiff of it now and then--perfect sillage. Wonderful masculine evening scent.

Like the EdP's opening salvo, the EdT has a dark fruit hue too but it's sharpened up with star anise bringing out the blackcurrant more so. There's a dish that I like at the local Tapas joint that serves a stuffed prune with mint cream filling that reminds me of the EdT. In it's next phase, the black pepper and ginger bring the orientalness to the foreground. Each is excellently blended never tilting the balance too much over the edge. Finally, the vanilla/amber accord finishes off much like the EdP but with a lighter and slightly woody finale. Lighter and spicier than the EdP and more versatile for wearing too though I have trouble with this one in the heat.