YSL Opium changes my mindset

My mom used Opium for years. It has always smelled great on her, and other middle aged women. Because that's how I saw it, and that's how it was marketed according to me. Due to a new marketing campaign, I am now for the first time seeing things differently - I'm seeing Opium as a sexy fragrance, not an 'older' one. And for the first time ever, I'm giving it a try myself. I assure you this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm nearing 30 and thus approaching the category that used to be 'older' when I was 17.

Their new ambassador Emily Blunt has a lot to do with it - she's fresh-faced but sexy, young-ish but sophisticated. She also seems oddly normal - making me feel like I'll be able to pull it off too. Have a look and listed to this video below. The first 30 seconds are a little blah, but I can relate to the rest of it.

The bottle also looks quite different to how I remember it (but we're talking almost a decade since I last paid any attention to it), and both the print and TV ads are super sexy.

Emily Blunt YSL Opium Print Ad

Don't know Opium? It's an oriental fragrance, and opening notes of both the EDT and EDP are Mandarin, Bergamot, Jasmine and Carnation, which warms to notes of Vanilla, Amber and Patchouli. The EDP has some extra sultry Lily of the Valley, Jasmine Absolute and Myrrh added.

Lesson of the day? Don't be a knob and write something off just because of your own perceptions. And good marketing definitely is worth the money spent on it.

Opium prices vary between R630 for 30ml EDT to R1200 for 90ml EDP.

C xx

PS - I NEVER buy 30ml perfumes. If you do the math, you'll see that you're just about always paying only about 100 bucks less than that price of the 50ml, which contains two-thirds more volume. The 90/100ml sizes are obvs the best value, but I often develop anxious tendencies as soon as my perfume price tag has three figures in front of the comma...