#if this flops this is the last you’ll see of hwa in my reviews

[librarisxng]

ATEEZ SMALL PERFUME REVIEW: YSL — BLACK OPIUM GLITTER

disclaimer: this is not meant to be a serious perfume review, this is something fun for me to do as I love perfume. each and every one of us have different tastes and preferences when it comes to fragrances. what works for me might not work for you, vice versa. I’ll try my best to describe the scents but I will always suggest for you to go and smell them yourself before purchase. if you want to try these perfumes, please test or get a sample before committing to the bottle. picture credits to all owners.

ateez member: seonghwa

fragrance family: gourmand floral

notes:

top — pear accord, green mandarine super essence, lemon essence

heart — orange flower accord, orange flower absolute

base — marshmallow musk accord, coffee accord, vanilla burbon absolu, patchouli heart (indonesia)

my scent experience:

the fragrance starts off very sweet from the marshmallow musk but it's also a bit light from the florals, so it's a light sweet marshmallow opening. as it settles, it's definitely more floral from the orange flower and it has a citrus element to it which makes sense as it is an orange flower. once the fragrance dries down, it's basically the coffee and vanilla scent that we're all familiar with - the warm and sweet concoction that Black Opium is known for. it's by far the most similar variant to the original Black Opium but just with a sweeter opening. I was a little surprised to smell the marshmallow musk in the opening as opposed to the dry down as listed in the notes.

the projection on me is weaker than the original version, but it still has that intensity to it that you can definitely smell it from afar. this perfume lasted around 5 hours on me which is fine by me, but that is a shorter performance time than the original. I wish the marshmallow note was a little stronger in this fragrance and it only added a slightly sweeter element in the opening. this does end up smelling pretty close, if not, just like Black Opium itself. I like this but I don't find it necessary to own both so if you own a bottle of the original, you don't really need the glitter.

additional notes from me:

before anyone gets confused and thought I already reviewed this fragrance, this is a flanker. a flanker is basically a different version of an existing fragrance with a slight change in the notes and it's very common for designer houses to extend their well-known perfume lines with these. this version of Black Opium includes marshmallow musk accord which adds an even sweeter element to an already sweet fragrance and they probably wanted to join the marshmallow train as it was a popular note last year. this isn't the first flanker for Black Opium, so I wonder if Seonghwa owns the other ones.

who would I recommend this to?

anyone who likes the original Black Opium,

those who want an intense coffee and vanilla perfume.

anyone who wants to try out YSL fragrances.

if you’ve made it to the end, thank you for reading this review! this is the first flanker I've reviewed in this series and maybe Seonghwa has a bottle of Illicit Green or Over Red somewhere but who knows? I wonder what other fragrances he uses. I hope you enjoyed this review and let me know what your favorite fragrances are!

review written by librarisxng 2025