Black Opium: Between sophistication and originality. A fragrance in the image of Yves Saint-Laurent. Like the seductive couturier and perfumer Yves Saint-Laurent, Black Opium, released in 2014, offers a blend of sophistication and raw materials, of elegance and soft brutality, of golden lights of jasmine and orange blossom and dark olfactory paths of coffee.
Black Opium came into being in 2014. However, it is not the first fragrance in the Yves Saint-Laurent collection to reference an illicit substance. Indeed, in 1977, Yves Saint-Laurent crafted a first fragrance called Opium. He said that if he chose Opium as a name, it was because he intensely hoped that, through all its incandescent power, it could release the divine fluids, the magnetic waves, the heartstrings and the charms of seduction that give birth to mad love. Naturally, between these two essences, Yves Saint-Laurent sought to preserve a certain continuity, both olfactively and in terms of design. The two bottles of these fragrances therefore share numerous similarities.
The Inrō as a source of inspiration for the Black Opium bottle
Black Opium has a square shape, with edges that have been slightly rounded. In fact, this silhouette was already more or less present for the previous Opium. At the time of its release, Yves Saint-Laurent revealed that he had drawn his inspiration from an Inrō, a small precious case worn by warriors of the Far East. However, keen to modernize this traditional object, he reinvented it in a nylon plastic shell, something truly innovative at the time of its release. Indeed, plastic was then very fashionable in the world of haute couture. Similarly, a transparent window already ran through its walls. It was slightly off-center and revealed the amber color of its juice. It then appeared as a window open onto a more exotic and oriental world. The whole was crafted in an orange-red hue.
The new color of the Black Opium bottle
This time, the red has completely disappeared, in favor of a sparkling opaque black. The Black Opium bottle seems to have donned its evening attire. Its sparkling finish resembles a shower of stars. Matte, it remains particularly trendy and gives off something very urban. Undeniably, Black Opium speaks to an urban and contemporary woman, who loves living the night, and who shows off her beauty in her finest dress adorned with stardust. Thus, thanks to this specific lacquer, Black Opium shines brightly, like a rough diamond.
The Yves Saint-Laurent bottle offers many visual contrasts
While the entirety of the Yves Saint-Laurent bottle is covered in black, a window opens at its center, in a much lighter, more feminine and sparkling pink hue. It is like a window open onto a wonderful world. Although these two shades are radically opposed, they come together here in perfect harmony. The words Black Opium appear at the center of this infinite circle, burning like a luminous planet emerging from a starry sky. As a reminder, the name Yves Saint-Laurent is inscribed on its neck, also in this hue. It sits just beneath a half-moon-shaped spray nozzle. Thanks to this particular shade, the Black Opium bottle catches fire and seems to hold within it all the energy of the rising sun.