Today I am once again describing a fragrance from a brand that seems to be named after one of Shakespeare's more famous works, namely "The Merchant of Venice." It's about a successful merchant, Antonio, who cannot repay a loan he took out for a good friend, Bassanio, so that he can marry. And because Antonio cannot repay the money, as his richly laden trading ships do not arrive in Venice in time before the loan deadline, he is to die. Well, that's roughly the beginning of the story... You wonder how I know what the play is about, even though I babble so much nonsense here and always seem so silly? Well folks, I am also educated and well-read, and I know exactly how to search Google for short and generally understandable summaries without ever having touched the work, he he he :D
In stark contrast to this fragrance, I do not know how it smells, but I will test it myself. According to descriptions, it is supposed to have a seductive and oriental character and be as complex as an opera (hence the actual name of the fragrance is "Gran Teatro La Fenice," named after the famous opera house in Venice). Well, whatever one might imagine from that, it sounds nice anyway :D
The Fragrance:
Oooh, the opening is truly heavenly! You can smell sweet, powdery vanilla combined with juicy mandarins, which here smell more sweet than citrusy. This combination reminds me of a damn delicious, airy mandarin cake. You know, the fluffy little cakes with a cream filling (or whatever you call that :D), a thicker and tasty orange layer on top, and a mandarin right on top :) Absolutely delicious, very sweet, and wonderful!
Then comes an almond scent, surely from the almond blossoms, which for me also smell like heliotrope, as they also smell of almonds (I hope that's true, because that would mean I finally know a little about flowers!! Say that it's true, folks!! :D). This note also smells wonderful and fits well with the previous scent progression. I don't really detect the tuberoses, but I think they contribute to the sweetness of the fragrance, as there is an intense sweetness perceived that does not come from the vanilla, since you can clearly recognize the differently scented sweetness of the vanilla here.
Later, the mandarin fades more and more until it unfortunately only smells very faintly. But that doesn't really matter, as the fragrance continues to smell of powdery vanilla with great almond notes and sweet, floral scents. It may be very sweet, but I don't find the fragrance "sticky."
In the base, cedar is added. In the actual scent cloud, you can almost only smell the notes described above and perceive the cedar as a "light, woody note" (if at all), but closer to the sprayed area, I believe you can already recognize that it is cedarwood. A very beautiful fragrance that smells incredibly great and delicious.
The Sillage and Longevity:
The sillage is good, so you can perceive the fragrance well from a distance, not necessarily up close. Great for anyone who likes to leave a lasting scent trail!
The fragrance lasts, well, you can probably guess, seemingly forever. More than fourteen hours are definitely possible (because I could still faintly smell the fragrance the next morning!).
The Bottle:
The bottle is, as always, very beautiful. It has a cylindrical and vase-like shape, which also looks like an artistic lamp due to the half-round cap. The bottle is metallic this time (or at least looks that way), is seemingly not transparent, and has a wonderful color gradient from turquoise to gold. The neck is also gilded, with the brand name engraved on it. Around the neck, it "wears" a golden chain, to which a golden plaque with the name of the opera house is attached. All in all, as mentioned, a very, very beautiful bottle!
Hmm… I somehow already had a pretty good feeling about this fragrance here. The presentation (which is actually wonderful for all Merchant fragrances) and the great scent notes listed here promised me an absolutely fantastic fragrance, and yes, fortunately, that is exactly how it turned out. Well, I wouldn't necessarily label it as "complex" as described, and it doesn't smell very oriental to me, as it lacks notes like spices or such. Instead, it is one of those deliciously sweet-powdery fragrances that you might have already smelled in many other fragrances, but which almost always smell very, very great and are for me, especially in autumn and winter, so-called all-time favorites!
Yep, it fits just about anywhere. Whether as a (somewhat lower dosed) daytime fragrance on cooler days, or especially in the evening for going out, it works, as I said, always. And it smells soooo delicious! Especially at the beginning, it reminded me, as mentioned, of those great mandarin cakes, which of course leads me to conclude that I would find the fragrance on a lady very tempting. Okay, only the top note smells like that delicious cake, but even later it is great. That means I would love to bite into it anyway, and I don't care if certain self-proclaimed clowns... oh I meant "gods" find such sentences embarrassing; I sometimes humorously express how great the fragrance works on women, and most know such phrases from me :DD
Yes, I would really recommend this fragrance to you ladies, at least to test it once. My only criticism, as always, is that after the top note, the fragrance resembles other fragrances with vanilla and almonds quite a bit. However, this one comes in a very nice bottle, I just mention that in case some of you, like me, might tend to be so-called bottle victims :D
Top Notes 
Hawthorn
Mandarin orange
Heart Notes 
Almond blossom
Tuberose
Heliotrope
Base Notes 
Vanilla
Tonka bean
Cedarwood
Hermesh
Ninamariah
Frnzwo
MiniGBIC
Liberrita
Tivellon
Maren11
Yatagan
Salander
Smoetn
