Opium pour Homme 
Yves Saint Laurent (1995)

Opium Pour Homme opens with blackcurrant and anise notes and there is some sweetness from the vanilla but the cedar keeps it anchored and more masculine. The fragrance dries down to a powdery floral and vanilla scent with the fruitiness of the blackcurrant still in the background. This fragrance is a strong performer, it projects very well leaving a good sillage trail so this is not one to overspray. It lasts all day on my skin. Opium Pour Homme by Yves Saint Laurent smells sexy and slightly old school. This is a strong, bold fragrance that would be suitable for more dressed up occasions. I think it would work for formal occasions as well as a date night. The opening is the best part for me, that blackcurrant and anise blend well and create a nice sexy, sort of oriental accord. It's a very nice fragrance by YSL and I hope that they keep it around. 4.5/5.

A gorgeous black currant heavy fragrance. Has a lot of spices, and a barbershop feel. Pretty unique, and a bit dated, but a classic at this point. Very heavy men's fragrance, so be careful on the trigger. One of the last survivors of the old school YSL men's line up, I'd say to give this a try before it gets discontinued.

I really like this. Spicy oriental notes, really noticeable pepper. Letdown by poor longevity at least on my skin, I tried this years version and I'm pretty sure it was incredibly potent in the past, perhaps reformulation. Also overpriced for what it is.

Yves Saint Laurent has had a weird penchant for making men's iterations of their famous feminine perfumes of ages past for quite some time, and all that arguably started right here with Opium Pour Homme (1995). YSL at this time was still independent and contracted out to Sanolfi for their perfumes, after a disastrous experience developing, marketing, and releasing Jazz (1988) entirely on their own once they were freed from their contract with Charles of the Ritz, who had become so reliant on the YSL brand that they were practically owned by the house anyway. Sanolfi reached out to Firmenich, who employed the immense talents of Jacques Cavallier at the time, and did the composing of Opium Pour Homme. A full-tilt oriental like its older sister would have never flown in the 1990's, so Cavallier cleverly incorporated spiced elements into a fougère base, but kept the balance favorably towards the oriental side to maintain the theme. As a result, Opium Pour Homme feels like a slightly richer and more sensual take on the theme of Jazz Prestige (1993), itself somewhat of an expansion of the ideas present in YSL's own Jazz, with Opium Pour Homme feeling like the more complete fragrance of the two and a bridge of sorts between Jazz and Rive Gauche Pour Homme (2003) also composed by Cavallier.

The scent opens with sweet lavender and a star anise note which is particularly indicative of this bridge, moving through with a juicy blackcurrant and boozy note not present in the later Rive Gauche Pour Homme. Opium Pour Homme bears little resemblance to the original femme fatale outside it's use of patchouli and tolu balsam, but that's okay, because the smoother and slightly sweeter bourbon vanilla vibe this has was more in line with the soft-spoken discretion masculine semi-orientals from the decade favored, and I doubt Opium Pour Homme would have survived had it been a more-masculine take of an already notoriously sweaty perfume. The smooth galanga/Chinese ginger note heading into the heart is particularly inviting, especially when coupled with an early use of pink pepper. The spiced semi-oriental fougère base of oakmoss, tonka, the aforementioned vanilla, patchouli, and cedar are the final payoff of Opium Pour Homme, presenting a romantic, confident, and elegant glow for evening use. Jazz Prestige goes in a fruitier direction with additional apple and mandarin notes that didn't make it into Opium Pour Homme, while Rive Gauche Pour Homme went for a shaving cream vibe with a stronger fougère base with clove and additional spices. I wouldn't consider this stuff for wearing outside the romantic or formal setting because it's just too "come hither" with its combination of notes, but where you use it is up to you.

It's hard to believe that something like this was the main money maker over the fresher and more broad-appeal Live Jazz (1988), but Opium Pour Homme was successful enough to carry things along until Tom Ford took over operations in 1999 and tapped Cavallier again to make Rive Gauche Pour Homme, in addition to releasing two limited flankers of this in the 2000's. Performance-wise, the standard eau de toilette has rather mild "typical 90's" rounded sillage, with good all day close-to-skin longevity, while the limited and sadly discontinued eau de parfum variant offered a more-intense and pronounced presence that better competes with modern aromachemical sillage monsters. Opium Pour Homme undoubtedly inspired a good number of clones, from Fragonard's Siecle (1996), to Michael for Men by Michael Kors (2000) and Penhaligon's Endymion (2003), each which added something "extra" or tinkered with the formula just a bit to stand out. Opium Pour Homme was definitely better late than never, and worth trying for anyone who loves a good, sleek, rounded masculine perfume that simply reeks of class and allure. It gets pretty hard to find something this robust without paying an arm and a leg for a luxury house brand trying to repackage the same idea as something only the socioeconomic elite deserve, so cut the crap and put down that Parfums de Marly bottle so you can try this instead. Thank me later. Thumbs up!

A sublime smooth spicy perfume. One of the best a man can get (where have I heard that before?)