+-+new+fragrance+review.jpg)
Is Firmenich loosing its top perfumers? Is there an unusual influenza affecting the most famous noses in the world? The new perfume from Yves Saint Laurent qualifies for the worst perfume since 1895 when the Swiss company Chuit Naef was founded. The problem with this "non -perfume" is that it has little volume and even less tenacity. It doesn't qualify under any basic technical requirements for fine fragrances. It barely smells on the skin even with a generous splash, after 30 minutes is almost gone. It doesn't bloom, doesn't diffuse and doesn't perfume you at all. Its power, when it still smells on the skin cannot be compared with regular body sprays. It's weaker. But after all, is l'Oréal cheating the foolish client with an EDP concentrated at 1% instead of at least 10%? This wouldn't be a surprise after all because the current owner of YSL is well known for its unethical practices. If Belle d'Opium can be considered either a technically very bad fine fragrance or a decent body lotion composition bottled in an extremely beautiful bottle, something even more alarming can be said about the scent itself. This composition is the perfect expression of plagiarism in fragrance, the tough word for the contemporary marketing brief. Take Allure Sensuelle EDP (Chanel) with less vanilla and mix it with a touch of the patchouli spicy sweet note from Si Lolita (Lolita Lempicka) or take a very recent Guerlain and simplify it reducing its rich baroque notes and you will get this modern chypre oriental. Of course, it's not a copy of those perfumes because they smell and have very good tenacity. Belle d'Opium is what the worst fake No5 is to Chanel - it smells very close but it doesn't last at all. The scent is very obvious and you have smelled it many times before because this is an over-used and abused accord, but this copy-cat approach is not unusual for the big cosmetic group. Again, there is a mass market perfume in France, from another Yves that shares too many similarities with Belle d'Opium, but …. was launched almost a year before and has a great tenacity on skin.
Belle d'Opium bears no relation to the original Opium (YSL), a perfume that was already mutilated by l'Oréal through a merciless reformulation when they have recently changed the packaging, as they started to do with other YSL perfumes. Now, when the great French couturier has passed away, the same can be said about the perfume company. There is no hope for YSL perfumes, for the quality, richness and strong personality of one of the most important fragrance company of the past century. "Smelling" what happens now to YSL and the new creations they put on the market, I firmly believe that under these circumstances the company will simply disappear in several years as happened before with so many other brands sold to the wrong group.
If there is little hope from l'Oréal, what shocks me here is Firmenich. How is it possible to sign a perfume that is so bad, like an unfinished dress? The simplest explanation is that nobody does tests the perfume on skin anymore and very few care about the quality when the marketing is able to find enough foolish women.
Sometime I can understand perfume that are too inspired by I cannot stand bad formulation.
French actress Mélanie Thierry is dancing on a choreography created by Akram Khan in the commercial directed by Romain Gavras. This is in vain because Belle d'Opium fails to be an YSL perfume. L'Oréal is a successful image maker but to this day the company fails to create true fragrances. You buy a desirable image, a dream, a makeup, a photo, a beautiful packaging, but certainly not a real perfume and sadly this is true in 2010 for all their brands (from Lancôme to Armani).
French actress Mélanie Thierry is dancing on a choreography created by Akram Khan in the commercial directed by Romain Gavras. This is in vain because Belle d'Opium fails to be an YSL perfume. L'Oréal is a successful image maker but to this day the company fails to create true fragrances. You buy a desirable image, a dream, a makeup, a photo, a beautiful packaging, but certainly not a real perfume and sadly this is true in 2010 for all their brands (from Lancôme to Armani).
Perfumer Honorine Blanc from Firmenich speaks about Belle d'Opium
Did you enjoy my article? Sign up for updates about new fragrances, reviews of artistic perfumes and exceptional vintage masterpieces. I would be very happy if you would consider joining 1000 Fragrances, throughRSS feed,GoogleFriend connect, Facebook (more personal), or any other way that appeals to you.
Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
