Opium is an Oriental-spicy perfume for women, created for the French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent by perfumers Jean Amic and Jean-Louis Sieuzac. Introduced to the market in 1977, Opium quickly generated publicity with its controversial name and the ensuing press coverage helped to increase its sales. In late 2000, an advertising campaign for the product featured English model Sophie Dahl, whose nudity and bodily expressions in the advertisement were met with mixed reactions internationally.
The top notes of Opium are a mixture of fruits and spices, with mandarin orange, plum, clove, coriander and pepper,[2] as well as bay leaf. Its floral middle notes consist predominantly jasmine, rose and lily of the valley,[2] in addition to carnation, cinnamon, peach and orris root. It is underlined by the sweet woody base note containing sandalwood, cedarwood, myrrh, opopanax, labdanum, benzoin resin and castoreum,[2] in addition to amber, musk, patchouli, tolu balsam and vetiver.