Woo hoo! It's good to be back!
I tried the Opium Fleur de Shanghaï yesterday, and it's great stuff, so great I went straight to the YSL boutique on Rodeo Drive after smelling it at Saks Fifth Avenue and bought a bottle at full retail. (Okay, keep in mind full retail's just $50 for 100 mL, not at all bad - not much more than what I'd pay for the eau de toilette in the Garment District.) From what I posted on that other site: Opium Fleur de Shanghaï is what the Opium eau de toilette always should've been in my opinion. I've always found the eau de toilette to be a bit too severe - all hard spices and shrieking citrus over a big powder puff to the face. Don't get me wrong, I like Opium eau de toilette, but it's a bit of an extreme scent, a bit like the olfactory equivalent of a wild mouse-style roller coaster. I think the Fleur de Shanghaï - which is listed as an "Eau d'Orient" as opposed to the previous years' "Eaux d'Été" - is what most people EXPECT Opium to smell like: warmer, richer, sweeter. It's all-around, well, nicer and friendlier. Now there will probably be those who like the leering, austere, catty quality of the original Opium better than the more mellow Fleur de Shanghaï; it's all a matter of taste. I imagine the "Eau d'Orient" tag came about as it's not really lighter for the summertime. The previous Eaux d'Été were noticeably lighter, with heavy doses of citrus to them, but not so for Fleur de Shanghaï. With the added sweetness, autumn might do better as the season for this particular formulation.
It's great, great stuff. I love the painted Chinese magnolias on the bottle, too, though I'm not wild about the cheapy-looking ivory plastic sprayer. All told, of all the new products I tried yesterday - Comme des Garçons Series 7, the Dior Homme colognes, Daim Blond, Flowerbomb, Un Jardin sur le Nil - Opium Fleur de Shanghaï was far and away the best thing I encountered.
