In these politically correct days, perfume is expected to be non-invasive, non-offensive, non-in-your-face, etc. In short, non-perfume. Also, there are women who seem to be absolutely TERRIFIED of looking, dressing, sounding, and even smelling older than 20. Hence, the worst, most damning criticism you can make of a scent is to say "Smells like a little old lady." Sends the Young-at-Any-Cost Crowd scrambling for cover, like cockroaches when the light is turned on. And then there are the terminally sensitive ... let's not even go there.

In other words, gone are the days when perfume the result of creativeness, imagination, daring, even love. When it brought to mind mystery, allure, romance, sensuality. The Forbidden Fruit. Oh, there's is a lot of fruit in scents these days. But rather than conjuring images of precious ingredients and of Mata Hari, they remind you of candies and Minute Maid.

Which brings me to Belle d'Opium. I'm afraid I have to disagree with the OzMoz description and say yes, Belle d'Opium is nothing BUT a fresh flanker of the majestic original. I'm not going to go into the fantastic - almost hallucinatory - descriptions some people are able to make of scents. That's not my thing. All I'm going to say is that I was bitterly disappointed when I tried the sample I was given of Belle d'Opium. It's not bad. But neither are thousands of other mass-market scents. Like them, Belle d'Opium is nice, fresh. But it's generic. It lacks the character, the personality, the uniqueness of the original. This one is indistinguishable from so many other scents. And that is a shame. In spite of it's name, Belle d'Opium is Opium's plain, unattractive little sister.

Personally, I hate flankers. The manufacturers found a clever way to overcharge clients with a minimum of work and a total lack of imagination. Just dilute the original, add/remove a couple of ingredients, make some basic changes to the package, et voilà! A "new" fragrance. There ought to be a law against such rip-offs. Then again, there seems to be enough demand for them. I guess as long as they are marketed "for the young ..."