My favorite fragrance of the season is without a doubt Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium. After being spammed with countless ads on television, I tried it out and fell in love with it. I got my bottle as a gift in a limited edition box for Christmas, which is awesome. But I can imagine not everyone wanting to spend that kind of money on a bottle of perfume. Fortunately, I accidentally bumped into a cheaper version of this fragrance. Want to know more about this affordable product? Then keep on reading!
The perfect dupe
For those of you who don’t know this perfume, it’s YSL’s newest fragrance. Describing scents is quite hard, but it’s clear that Black Opium mainly contains vanilla notes. The fragrance is very sweet, but not too sweet. There’s coffee extract in there as well, which is nice for people who have a tiny coffee addiction (like me!). The smallest bottle (30 ml) sells for €54,80. The middle bottle (50ml) as you can see on the pictures, sells for €75,60 and the most expensive one (100ml) sells for €104,00. Not the cheapest perfume out there.
Fortunately I found this really awesome dupe. I saw the packaging and my first thoughts were: “Wow, I’ve seen this before!” And yes, Zara’s Black Sapphire (what’s in a name?) packaging looks a lot like YSL Black Opium. The exact same color, the exact same glitter… They didn’t even bother to hide it.
Then, the bottle itself looks a lot like another one of my favorite perfumes: Tom Ford’s Black Orchid (again with the black!). I must say, they weren’t really being original with the names there. Even though the bottles look alike, the fragrances are completely different. Tom Ford’s perfume is way stronger and muskier. This perfume stays all day and does not fade, in comparison to Black Opium which disappears after a few hours. (You’ll notice this difference in the price as well… Tom Ford’s Black Orchid (50ml) sells for €102,40, which is way more expensive)
YSL’s perfume looks like it came straight out of the Zara packaging. Funny.
They both smell pretty similar. I tested this out on my mom: on one wrist I had sprayed Zara’s Black Sapphire, on my other wrist I had sprayed some Black Opium. I told her to guess which wrist contained which. She actually told me that Zara was YSL. That’s how much they are alike. Crazy huh? Knowing that Zara’s perfume (75ml) only costs €17,95…
What about wear time? I feel like Opium fades quite fast. Of course this is hard to tell yourself as you’re the first person who can’t smell the fragrance anymore. After a few hours the fragrance seems to have disappeared from my wrist. I would even go that far to say that Zara lasts longer, if you spray a little more.
I would recommend buying Zara’s Black Sapphire if you’re not really bothered with brandnames and you really like the Black Opium scent itself. If you’re like me and you just love the pretty packaging (because I must admit, I prefer YSL’s bottle to Zara’s bottle) and the good service I would go for Black Opium.
In short:
- Zara Black Sapphire – €17,95 (75 ml)
- YSL Black Opium – €75,60 (50 ml)
- Tom Ford Black Orchid: €102,40 (50 ml)
Would you prefer Zara’s perfume now? Or will you still keep on buying YSL?
I’m still happy with my own YSL bottle, but the next one will be one from Zara, for sure.Have a lovely day!
I’m still happy with my own YSL bottle, but the next one will be one from Zara, for sure.Have a lovely day!
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