Arabesque The Merchant Of Venice 2015

Where to buy

Search on

Where to buy

Top 12 in Unisex Perfume

8.6 / 10 369 Ratings

Arabesque is a popular perfume by The Merchant Of Venice for women and men and was released in 2015. The scent is sweet-oriental. The longevity is above-average. It is being marketed by Mavive.

Search on

Top Notes	Ginger, Tobacco leaf, Plum
Heart Notes	Cinnamon, Tonka bean, Cedarwood
Base Notes	Benzoin, Vetiver, Musk

Ratings

Scent

8.6 | 369 Ratings

Longevity

8.5 | 334 Ratings

Sillage

8.0 | 334 Ratings

Bottle

9.2 | 328 Ratings

Value for money

7.5 | 12 Ratings

Submitted by Labormaus, last update on 17.01.2021.

Rate
Collection
Classify
Notes

Reviews

01/01/2021

10
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 10
Bottle

Tatjana0305

Translated Show original

Tatjana0305

Helpful Review 11

I must have him

This is the most beautiful fragrance for me that I personally tried in 2020. And the list of wonderful fragrances is long... but one had too much oud, the other too little, too woody, too sweet
But Arabesque has everything in perfect harmony. It's oriental , but not too loud, it's woody but not too scratchy, it's fruity but not too citridch. The opening is a sweet, ripe plum, later joined by cinnamon and tonka, which also remain until the end. A "must have" for me

5 Replies

01/08/2020

8.5
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 10
Bottle

Bsg1983

Translated Show original

Bsg1983

Top Review 21

Diet inhibitor

Strange title, isn't it? Well, I'll be happy to explain that further down. But first I want to tell you briefly how I came to this olfactory treasure.

Around Arabesque I was already sneaking around virtually a short time after I registered here. The whole package sounded too tempting. Tobacco, plum, cinnamon and other nasal treats that support this trio. Tonkabohne is right at the forefront, and despite its felt omnipresence in winter and unfortunately also summer pedestrian zones, it is really great here. And then, of course, there's this very stylish bottle. Based on the classic Venetian vase shape; with Arabic pattern and the colours of Venice: blue and gold. I don't know if this is off-the-shelf glass after all, but I like to imagine that it was probably hand-blown and hand-painted somewhere in a factory by the water. The price would certainly justify it.

So where does the title come from? Well, the first thing you can sniff, especially if you press your nose against your wrist, is the impression of some dry tobacco and tasty plums and delicious sweetness. But Arabesque really puts you in a good mood in the air around you. In projection and sillage. Have you ever walked past your mom's kitchen when she was preparing some candy and the smell was already in the air? That's how I feel about arabesque. All day long I take a gentle whiff of pudding with fruit. Okay, a pudding that accidentally had tobacco instead of chocolate sprinkles. Only it doesn't hurt the whole thing. It prevents, I think, Arabesque from degenerating into a simple treat. You can smell all this for a long time, by the way. Really very long. Sprayed yesterday at noon during the break, the scent was still there this morning. That's a nice way to wake up.

9 Replies

09/08/2019

8.5
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 9
Bottle

Melisse2

Translated Show original

Melisse2

Top Review 23

Minty Tobacco Plum - Big Cinema on Sunday Afternoon

I had already written off this scent for myself. "Cute" is in the description, cinnamon in the pyramid. I shouldn't like that one.

Nevertheless, I had taken part in a sharing. After the sprayer had run out during shipping and the envelope smelled only disgustingly sweet and vanilla, I was sure: God hadn't intended this scent for me.

Now I could test him. Jakobolino, thank you for this wonderful Sunday surprise.
For months I haven't had such a direct hit under my nose.

I smell Tonka and Benzoe of the most pleasant kind. The Tonkanote does not go in the direction of bitter almond (and has also nothing of the antibiotic juice to the self-stirring, which I perceive otherwise with Tonka sometimes). Instead, the notes underline the fullness, spiciness and astringency of the tobacco and take everything herbaceous away from it. Like Sweetsmell I smell mint, probably this is the delicate spiciness of ginger.

The perfect player of tobacco in this fragrance is a fruity plum. Not a plum in a cake, but a plum on a tree. Cinnamon is capitalized in the pyramid. As a cinnamon fugitive, this spice should bother me. But it doesn't. Instead, I only suspect a hint of cinnamon that accentuates the plum
Unexpectedly, I found my tobacco scent this afternoon, which goes in a completely different direction than I thought up before

13 Replies

02/23/2019

Hendrikmainz

Translated Show original

Hendrikmainz

Arabesque vs. Oajan vs. Dates Delight

I'm a self-confessed gourmand fan!
I like all three of them! A certain resemblance is definitely there. But the winner at the moment is Arabesque! In terms of Sillage, durability and craftsmanship! Simply delicious, full of gourmand, beautifully balanced, definitely a feast for the soul for winter days!:)
To all sweet beaks, clear recommendation to buy!

1 Replies

01/16/2019

9
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 10
Bottle

DonJuanDeCat

Translated Show original

DonJuanDeCat

Top Review 22

Musical fragrance cloud, decorated with tendril ornaments

Hey hey, you guys okay? :)
Today I come to Arabesque, a fragrance from "The Merchant of Venice".

So, what's an arabesque anyway? Well... we Turks understand by it a music style (mostly a mix of folk music and pop music), which is especially popular in Turkey and deals with things like (unfulfilled) love, everyday worries, suffering, pain and tears and such things. So actually somehow topics that appear in almost every piece of music or music genre, even in such directions as Death Metal or similar genres, where you either because of the louder music or the smoky-scratchy voices hardly understand the lyrics anymore, especially if you either don't know the genre or listen to these songs for the first time :DD

Soo, then an arabesque is the artistic decoration in the form of tendril ornaments of houses, picture frames, porcelain and many other objects. Especially in the Renaissance the style was used, you know, around the years between the 15th and the beginning of the 17th century, if your knowledge in art history should be rusty, he he.

The fragrance here seems to be more devoted to the form of decoration, as can easily be seen from the plant tendrils on the bottle, but more on this later in the bottle description.
However, he should also spray an oriental scent, but we can see that right now!

The fragrance:

The fragrance begins quite well with a sweet cinnamon note, which also reminds a little of amber. The beginning has something of Burberry's London for Men, which is also a really nice fragrance. Anyway, then a clear tobacco note is added, which also smells quite nice, there is a little bit of ginger in addition. I also smell the plum, but probably less intensely than it appears here in the fragrance pyramid (but it's only my perception anyway, and you know that everyone smells different).
Later cedar wood is added, which you can smell out well. Although the fragrance was a little spicy a short time ago, the fragrance is now softer and softer, I think this is due to the benzoin, which is a beautiful resin and slightly vanilla sweetish fragrance. And maybe it's also because of the softness of the fragrance that I can smell the plums much better now than before. The sweetness still seems a little bit like amber to me by the way, that's probably the impression from the mix of all the sweet notes like cinnamon and musk here.
Later the tobacco looks a little more intensive again or can be smelled better again, which makes the scent more bitter, but the scent remains soft because of its soft notes. Generally a very nice fragrance!

The Sillage and the shelf life:

The Sillage is quite good, because you quickly dive into a larger scent cloud, which can then also smell others very well on you, without having to get too close.
Also the durability is top, since the fragrance loosely lasts more than twelve hours.

The bottle:

As always, the bottle has the shape of a vase or (old-fashioned) retro lamp and looks very beautiful. This one is blue and has golden tendril ornaments, just like the definition of an arabesque. The brand name was engraved in the golden neck of the bottle, the fragrance name stands on a gold-plated plaque, which hangs like a chain on the neck of the bottle. The lid is a semicircular structure and is also gold-plated. Looks very nice all in all!

Soo, so, I've been told that I definitely need to test this scent. So he was forced upon me, if you want to put it that way, he he. No, but seriously, the recommendation of this fragrance was really great, because the fragrance really, really smells good. I also like the tobacco note, which makes the fragrance unisex rather than feminine.

Due to its intense charisma and good durability, and the already very great scent, Arabesque has become for me a night scent or a fragrance for the evening, you know, just to smell tasty, but also elegant. It's a fragrance that doesn't get on your nerves, that doesn't have anything synthetic on it and that you like to smell, no matter if you smell it yourself or others, in my opinion it should always go down well! Well, at least in autumn and winter, as it might seem a bit too heavy for warm days.

In any case a very testable scent, so it was good that the perfuma, which kindly sent me a sample, annoyed me so long that I should finally test the scent! :DD

Well then, have a nice evening and see you next time! :)

2 Replies

11/17/2018

DeepRiver

Translated Show original

DeepRiver

Top Review 106

I'll treat myself to it today ..

My mother has been ill for years and is therefore very reluctant to leave the house. It's a real art to persuade her to leave her familiar surroundings. But a week ago I got a call and she asked me if I would like to accompany her to help her with her Christmas shopping. So we drove to Düsseldorf and had a look at all kinds of shops, but we were seldom so enthusiastic about anything. She's a very modest woman, which I can't understand. My father has a very good job in a big company and they don't have to worry about anything financially, but she only wishes the best to all people, but never actually treats herself to anything.

Well, on that day we also visited a big department store and hoped to find a great coat for my father. On the way there we strolled through the perfume department and stopped there so that I could test some new fragrances. Meanwhile my mother talked to a saleswoman, told her that she has only been using Chanel No 5 and Coco for twenty years and doesn't necessarily want to test something new, but she liked a bottle very much. After pointing to The Merchant Of Venice flacons, the lady encouraged you to spray on some fragrances without obligation. She doesn't have to buy anything, but she would just smell something new. She didn't like the first two tested very much, but when they handed her the test strip with Arabesque I saw her smile for the first time that day.

Mothers really do everything for you, if you have problems you usually go to the mother, they stand for us no matter what you do and they would kill for us. There are 2xx euros but really not much. I was just about to tell her to wrap the fragrance up, so she said, "YOU GOY ME TODAY," which is just so beautiful.

We didn't really find much nice in Düsseldorf, but she found a short time of light-heartedness, and we two had a really great day for a long time.

I know this comment doesn't say anything about the scent, but somehow I wanted to share the story. Fragrances can do so much, it surprises me again and again

33 Replies

10/15/2018

8.5
Scent 10
Longevity 10
Sillage 10
Bottle

MiriamHa

Translated Show original

MiriamHa

Top Review 45

The world hasn't seen that yet

17.12.16, 19:34, 4°C, Hansastraße 24. Dark blue coat, black pantyhose, night blue bag, brown boots, sweaty mind, showered skin, steaming breath. No sex of the genitals, but sex of the bodies, dancing body. A parallel universe in this temporary studio, amateurs on top of their feet and emotional performance. Fighting with balance and against gravity, for aesthetics and against exhaustion. I've been dancing for three years, I've been going through hell for one. I liked him from the beginning, I obviously liked him later, but then with double intensity. He wanted me, perhaps more passionate than this other woman, but probably not as consistent as he wanted her to be. I accepted it, cried a lot, ate little, slept moderately. I felt so strange, decoupled from myself, like a robot that works because it has to for the sake of other people, not for itself. L'amour pour l'amour, moi-même pour le toi. I only had one wish at the time, and that wish wasn't even you. I wanted to finally see again, a perspective that wasn't named after you.
Only when I had left my ways could I also leave you and with you this abyss. You put all that away like an old 5 euro bill, I like a heavy defeat.
Almost two years later I sit here, your letter in front of me asking to see you again. I have nothing left of you, not even the ancient passport photo I stole from you. Still, I don't have to think long to remember all that we (weren't). And what were we? Well, we were a lot of ballet, common evenings in your kitchen, abstinence, infatuation, hope, despair, bubble baths and burning hair, tears, ignorance, passion, Arabic restaurants and Spanish music, and far too much fear.
You were a storm cloud, and I was a perfume. You were Égoïste and I was Arabesque. Not that it was important to you; you didn't even know what scent I was wearing. But I knew it. I stood in your bathroom and dusted myself with your perfume, got myself a bottle to spray away the many uncertainties. And whenever I wanted to stop wanting you, I'd go for arabesque. Because I felt beautiful with it, because I was more confident, and above all because it comforted me to have a little warmth in my hair in our cooled romance. I felt cold evening air and warm cinnamon, clear senses in a tipsy plum, bland loneliness with spicy tobacco. It made my nights a little more tender, my days a little more comfortable. Yes, that scent distracted me from yours. I could relax better, even meditate, and once again be self-centered. Many bathtub fillings and good books later I started to stop waiting for you. At some point the scent was empty and with it my feelings for you. I never reordered it, even though I liked it a lot.
Now I hold your letter in my hands, clearly, this is Égoïste. I'll answer you for old time's sake. But first I'll have a bottle of arabesque - for my sake.

15 Replies

09/11/2018

8
Scent 9
Longevity 7
Sillage 10
Bottle

Serenissima

Translated Show original

Serenissima

Top Review 21

golden embroidery on dark purple velvet

Also in Venice it happens again and again that time to bridge or however the weather is too bad to wander around outside and again not bad enough for the stay in the hotel room.
Then I withdraw to museums and galleries; not even obsessed by the delusion that something is happening outside and I'm not there again!
(For this reason I regularly have to change the beautiful hotel roof terrace with the seat in front of the house at the basin of San Marco; above it is wonderful - but far away from the shot! And that's not possible!)

So one morning I strolled through the Museo Correr, directly in Piazza San Marco, where an exhibition on the history of the material took place.
Great language skills were not necessary, because old looms, embroidery and pattern patterns together with fashion dolls for the already put or finished clothes do not need a great explanation: they speak for themselves.
Of course, there was also the finest that the big ladies used to adorn themselves with: valuable brocade fabrics, where it was impossible to count even an approximate number of threads and velvet in strips.
Velvet, which almost invited to painting over; only of course the guards were standing there!
A loosely draped strip of dark purple velvet embroidered with golden arabesques remained particularly in my memory. The ratio fabric:embroidery was very successful here - the deep purple of the velvet predominated and the gold embroidery was exactly the "icing on the cake". Nothing was overloaded, everything was finely balanced.

The transition to "Arabesque" from "The Merchant of Venice" couldn't have been better!
I'm almost a little proud of myself!
It's been several months since our dear Sweetsmell sent me a bottle of it and I'm sure that my girlfriend's little nebulizer has already been emptied.
For "Arabesque", although a beauty in the fragrance, was allowed to travel on. A little too much sweetness didn't make the goodbye too hard.

Ripe, deep blue plums are cut with ginger sticks and wrapped in a dried tobacco leaf.
After some time of storage, the fragrance that is to be found in the opening of "Arabesque" will surely emerge - sweet, a little spicy with a hint of tobacco!
Where there's plum, there's cinnamon. Just imagine: Plum puree without cinnamon!
To round off the sweetness, the tonka bean visits the previous melange.
Sweet mouths will now already push the tip of their tongue between their lips with enthusiasm: when is it finally time to reach for the spoon?
But the perfumers have also learned their craft at The Merchant of Venice: only such a spicy-sweet magic scent, no matter how tasty, they do not accept it.
Thus the scent magic wand is faded once more, perhaps also a mysterious formula is whispered!
A nice dose of cedar wood is stirred in and forms together with the previous scent course the receiving committee for benzoes resinous spice, Veiver's sensual earth connection and much, much musk!

"Arabesque" smells very full-bodied, almost creamy! And that probably explains the above-average durability.
Arabesque" always left me with the impression that the scent sticks to me!
As beautiful as this oriental fragrance creation is: for me it is much too sweet, too heavy - just too high in calories!

In contrast, I remember the lightness of a very early painting by Pablo Picasso. It once hung at an exhibition about French artists, on loan from a private collection, in our New National Gallery.
At first it seemed to be just a collection of dots in different shades of grey and rosé.
This colouring alone was unusual for Picasso, fragile and filigree!
Only on closer inspection did the seemingly randomly distributed dots develop into the figure of a girl - a ballet dancer in slight movement!
This painting was called "Arabasque"!
As impressive as it is unusual: who would have guessed Pablo Picasso as a painter?

The bottle from the well-known Murano collection is once again a gem: deep blue, sometimes also with a slight violet shimmer, forms the basis for generous golden arabesques!
Also the flacons for this fragrance are simply beautiful again!

Conclusion: "Arabesque" is an enchanting scent work of art for women who are perhaps a little fuller than I am. Even the penchant for opulent wardrobe would fit into my scent of this beauty.
"Arabesque" conjures for me pictures of the magical Orient of bygone times from its scent.
Or from a divan overcrowded with thick soft cushions that invites to linger: in such a collection I would surely get lost little guy.
This is also the case with the opulence of "Arabesque": I feel crushed by so much fragrant beauty!

But of the velvet, then admired in the Museo Correr, I would have liked to take a section for a blanket. That only marginally!

9 Replies

07/31/2018

9
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 10
Bottle

Jas0N

Translated Show original

Jas0N

Top Review 27

When perfume art becomes a problem

It starts with the bottle. This is art. You were creative and you wanted to stage something. I'd have waved 80% off by now. If more time is invested in the creative design of the vessel, the content is usually grotesque and absolutely incongruent with the content.

But here far missed. The content is beautiful. I'm crystallizing a problem, though. But this one is not alone with the problem: "perfume art".

As a reference I like to use the series of Mr. Tauer. Lonestar, L'Oudh, LDDM. They all smell great if not beautiful. But they are also all in the cupboard and are used once a year if at all. I need an occasion. And that's not given here. As much as I want the decorative lamp - aptly written by FabianO - there are few moments when I can use it.

The cinnamon-plum combination is nevertheless very unusual and convinces. The first moments are pervaded by a really sweet snapshot, but it is by no means sticky or overdone.
Asbald blends in something bitter-fruity and the fragrance moves away from its initial line. Very much designed for harmony, the fragrance gets a more tart touch that ends orientally on tobacco. Round and harmonious. Present but not on riot off.

But the initial discourse has remained:
I can't find a reason. Maybe for a feel-good scent. At home. Then one filling is sufficient.
He's too feminine for a date. For the hot summer days he is out of the question anyway and at work I rather wear classic scents.

All this is my subjective opinion and everyone who finds the right moment, be it absolutely granted.
The fact that perfume art becomes the only criticism here, however, does not result in a loss of points.
The scent is still beautiful!

11 Replies

07/14/2018

10
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 10
Bottle

Maryam1410

Translated Show original

Maryam1410

Top Review 23

Arabesque .... You took me by storm

Oh arabesque - what a fragrance. Never in my life have I smelt anything like it. Instead of my usual sweet mainstream fragrances (which I really like, yeswoll!) here is the perfect combination of astringency and sweetness - a rush of the senses.

I smell something sweet, in perfect symbiosis with tobacco and wood. I'm standing in the souk in Essaouira in Morocco, in the narrow alleys there are the smells of the pastry shops and the carvings in the air, a light breeze carries this scent through the alleys.......... ahhhhhhhh.......................................................... Arabesque. How unique and special, how beautiful !!!

10 Replies

Show all reviews (12)