Flamant Rose The Merchant Of Venice 2021

I like the flamingo theme and bottle color, so I was very curious about this, but sadly, it doesn't quite work for me. This is a very creamy floral, dense and opulent, with orange blossom being the main note to my nose. Apricot, tonka and musk warm up the scent and give it a sweet base. I get a little rosy geranium and barely any hints of the greener notes.
So far, so good - these are all notes I usually enjoy. But there is something about this that feels extremely oily to me. It reminds me of sunscreen or suntan oil, but in a very sharp, almost soapy way. I'm talking about the old-fashioned, floral kind of sun products, not the more modern, tropical kind. If scents had colors, this wouldn't be flamingo pink, but white, cream or very light yellow.

This is not bad, but there are many other fragrances that do the sunscreen theme better. In theory I should love this, but the oiliness feels smothering at times and the sharpness isn't making it easier.
I think I expected something warmer and maybe fruitier.
There are many other TMOV perfumes that I like or even love, but this is just okay to me. I'm sure Flamant Rose will find other fans.

Oh, what a beautiful November day it was when I stumbled into a wonderful perfumery stocked with very exclusive niche fragrances during a weekend trip to Schwerin. The owner of the shop was a unique character, and his sales assistant was a charmingly beautiful and kind person. And the best part? I could test in peace. They let me do my thing, didn’t hover around me, and assured me they would always be there to help if needed.
Normally, I always look for scents in unfamiliar places that I can’t test anywhere in my hemisphere. I never thought that in the end, it would be a Merchant of Venice that caught my attention, of which I had already bought 4 or 5 pieces at my local Breuninger.

Flamant Rose is actually a Flamant Orange Blossom for me. I know the "Rose" in the name doesn’t refer to the flower, but I wanted to clarify that briefly. It’s an incredibly feminine, sensual, and yet somehow innocent orange blossom dream. With a delicate apricot. Not overwhelmingly sweet and mushy, but finely balanced. With a warm and subtle tonka bean in the base and petitgrain, which holds the orange blossom's hand and never lets go.
For me, the fragrance doesn’t have a progression, but it doesn’t need to. It is immediately present. Just like a pink flamingo. Always nice to look at or to sniff.

Flamant Rose accompanies me with just a few sprays all day long, and yet I am well perceived. Those who know my reviews also know that I am a big fan of the packaging, especially the bottles from MoV. Especially with the flamingo, the packaging was a true feast for the eyes.

So how did it end up coming home with me? Well, it wasn’t actually available at my local Breuninger. And then came the magic words that made the purchase decision immediate: "It’s being discontinued." And as if that alone wasn’t enough, there followed a "It’s reduced by 50%." Persuaded, and so the little flamingo was allowed to come along.

My first contact was this summer, we had visitors and us girls decided to sniff around at Luwig Beck. I really wanted to test Red Potion and Imperial Emerald. However, both were not that interesting at first sniff. Flamant Rose had not been on my radar until then, as the individual fragrance notes are not really my type. But the packaging was so beautiful that I just had to try it on a test strip. And WOW! What a scent. A massive fragrance cloud enveloped me. Dense, sweet, strong, floral, and above all with a sugary sweet apricot. I could have bathed in it. I inhaled the scent so deeply that my head almost exploded. I didn't take it home back then, but I knew I wanted it.
Recently, I received a gift voucher that I wanted to turn into a fragrance, so I looked at offers and compared prices. Unfortunately, Flamant Rose was not available in the shop of the voucher provider, but it kept popping up in my online searches. The longing for it was rekindled, especially since this strong, sweet scent might suit cold weather even better? I then simply bought it as well and felt like a little child when my package arrived.

The packaging is beautiful. The golden box is adorned with flamingos, orchids, and palm leaves, reminiscent of an expensive wallpaper in a villa in the south. The box opens by pulling or sliding the sides, revealing the flacon in the middle.
This is, like most flacons from The Merchant of Venice, solidly and heavily crafted in a vase shape with a golden knob lid. The glass is in a deep, dark but bright rose-red, with a small apricot-colored feather dangling from the neck. A combination I have always liked.

Filled with anticipation, I used the fragrance right away and was initially startled. It smelled beautifully sweet like in summer for a brief moment, but then changed quickly. I smell cool neroli and zesty mandarin. The geranium stings a bit in the nose. It keeps changing the notes, often reminding me of the room scent in the toilet at the Italian restaurant. But then it gets tonka in the base and invites you to dream. It becomes incredibly beautiful and soft-creamy, then again clean like eau de Charlotte, only to scratch again with mandarin and neroli. It is zesty, fresh, and clean, so lovely to wear, and then suddenly it smells like glass cleaner. Shortly after, it also reminds me of Vincenzo Barony - Caribbean Coconut. No, I am not a fan of citrus and flowers; I steer clear of clean scents, and fresh is something I generally avoid.
Inhaling this substance deeply gives me a headache, yet I can't stop. It's like a drug; I want to smell more and more of it. I already have the scented tissue stuck to my nose and breathe deeply. The scent is simply wonderful. It is also one of the few fragrances that develops even more beautifully on my skin than on a cloth.
If I have a picture in my head of this scent, it reminds me of a hot day at the swimming pool, in the areas where parts made of cold stone provide shelter from the heat, where showers, shops, and changing rooms are, and cool air follows hot air. It smells like freshly showered, clean skin, sunscreen, cold water, hot air, and dry ground. Maybe occasionally also like a glucose-apricot in a flower bed. Yet it is as light as a chiffon scarf. It smells so delicate that I want to spray it again and again and miss it even though it is actually still there. I want to hold onto it, but it drifts away from my skin after a short rest.

Unfortunately, the longevity is under 8 hours. For an EdP from The Merchant of Venice, that is really subpar. Nevertheless, I am excited to enjoy it now and also look forward to next summer. I am curious what the flamingo has in store for me then.