* Intriguing and unusual blend of sweet, fruit, coffee, vanilla, spice and powder aromas
* Straddles line between sweet and fresh and gourmand style fragrances well
* A good step up from modern sweet and fresh style fragrances (Ex: Invictus, 1 Million) to ease into and explore more sophisticated fragrance styles
* Nice date night fragrance
* Unisex

* Coffee and fruit notes dissipate rather quickly
* Vanilla is lacking compared to the original
* Average performance
* Bottle is not up to Lattafa/Maison Alhambra's usual high presentation standards

Opera Noir is a good clone of Yves Saint Laurent's Black Opium. It's a very unusual mix of sweet, coffee, fruit, vanilla, spice and powder aromas. It's a very good step up from modern sweet and fresh style colognes like the Paco Rabanne Invictus line and their clones. Then again, so is Invictus Victory and Lattafa's clone of it Victorioso Victory which are both available here on the site. it's a great way to introduce people into gourmand and spicy style fragrances without giving up the sweetness and freshness they already enjoy.

Opera Noir does distinguish itself with its coffee and fruit notes from Victory, but after a strong opening they dissipate rather quickly on the drydown. Performance is rather average and I'd advise respraying throughout the day. Overspraying won't do much due to how quickly some of the notes dissipate, so just respray especially if you go out for the evening.

This is a particularly good date night fragrance but is also a surprisingly good choice for the day and at the office. It's unisex and can be easily used by both sexes. Recommended if you like the Black Opium DNA, and if you do I recommend looking into other Lattafa gourmand and spicy fragrances as well.