Cafe (1978) by Cafe Parfums: Opium dupe?

I found this perfume while searching online for perfumes that had something to do with coffee. The name intrigued me, and reading the profile, so heavy on insence, I was intrigued even more. The online reviews mentioned how similar it is to the original Opium of 1977 and suggested it may have been intended as a dupe of it. After looking into the brand a bit, and seduced by the price, I ended up buying it. 

The 100ml bottle is simple glass, nothing fancy, but sturdy enough and comfortable to the hand, with raised designs of a rose and coffee grounds on it. The plastic neck and cap feel very cheap, and very dated, both due to the light, flimsy feeling plastic and because of the cappuccino brown shade with gold lettering. The neck feels slightly wobbly, and the cap is comically tiny, but the sprayer feels as secured in its place as it feels cheap, and sprays perfectly well without so far causing any issues. This please me, as I have a couple of other perfume bottles, namely a Salvador Dali and a Guerlain, which heavyweight, metallic sprayer nozzles, which have come askew a little and make spraying a slightly stressful experience, since they don't aim properly, some of the pricy juice is wasted it on my finger, and especially in the case of Guerlain, I worry it will break any moment now. But not here. The nozzle sits in its place and does the job perfectly. It also disperses the product in a very satisfying cloud, which is neither too widespread, nor a stream, so everything ends up on the area of the skin you wanted. 

The perfume itself is very long lasting, and intense. It lasts over eight hours on my skin, and even though the intensity and projection do start to diminish after some time, it doesn't really become a skinscent. During the first hour or two, i can smell it wafting up from my elbows as i move my arms, and when i wear it on my neck and chest, i am wrapped in a fragrant cloud. It's very intense but somehow it's not very loud, and by this i mean that even though it makes its presence known very assertively, it somehow doesn't feel like "too much". Of course someone who hates this kind of scent won't be happy to smell it so strongly, but for the average person, it will be a pleasant smell that fills the air around them but doesn't bring them a headache. However as I said, as the hours pass it starts to slowly fade, so after four hours, it will not as intense as it used to be and it won't be felt from as far away from you as at first. 

Now, off to the scent: is it really a dupe for the original Opium? 

Yes and no. Let me explain.

When i first wore it, i was adamant it is not a dupe for Opium. I thought that it's a perfume that is similar to it and does belong in the same line of perfumes, but that it has some differences that set it apart from being a dupe. 

First of all, it opens very sweet. It reminded me of a children's analgesic that was supposedly cherry flavoured. I don't get a distinct cherry flavour from it, but other than that it is so very similar. This sweet opening fades away after a few minutes, and does does come up again about ten to fifteen minutes later, in a more tones down version, which starts to fade slowly until it's gone again. 

After this initial opening, two distinct scents start to come out: and spiceadden, incensy perfume, rich, mystical, ancient, and a fluffy, clean scent of freshly washed bed linens. This confused me, since there is no cotton flower or white musc or even anything powdery to be found in the notes of the composition. I found a review that mentioned this exact "clean laundry" smell, only for that woman, that scent was present when she sprayed it on her clothes, not on the skin. Cafe is also less rich in incense compared to Opium, giving it less of a churchy, ancient temple feel. 

For these reasons I felt that Cafe is not a perfect dupe of Opium, like those knock off house brands who mimic famous scents or in the way Rouge by Verset is a perfect dupe to Dior's Hypnotic Poison. BUT. 

But. 

Wearing it, I found myself being tea sported back to my childhood, to the house of my favourite aunt, who has long died now. Even though her house always smelled of delicious, heavily spiced food, the scent I have most associated with her is that of her always fragrant, clean textiles, and Opium on her warm skin. 

Indeed, there was my first contact with Opium 1977. Its bottle always sat on her dresser, one of a couple of perfumes, and i remember lying on her tall bed, on top of soft, but crispy clean and fragrant bedsheets, and opening the cap of the bottles of perfumes to smell their inside and be amazed by the beautiful mystical scents. 

The memories evoked by scents are subjective, but this one does not lie. No matter how much I want to nitpick at slight differences, the memories this evoked in me is of someone who wore the original Opium. There's no mistake here: this perfume does the job well as an Opium copy, and it's the closest we can get to it in today's market.  

To summarize: 

-Slightly sweeter than Opium 1977 

-Less incense

-Clean laundry scent present (on my skin only and one person's clothes)

-Very long lasting

-Intense, and projects a lot

For people who miss the original Opium, and those who like oriental, aromatic scents, vintage and full of spices and incense, this is a good buy, especially because it is so cheap (12€ for 100ml around where I'm at), so even if it doesn't work out too much, it won't be a huge waste of money.