The Merchant of Venice — Dulcis Nectar
Essence
Dulcis Nectar is a 2024 oil-based parfum from The Merchant of Venice’s exclusive Nectars Collection - a small trio reimagining Pliny the Elder’s ancient Roman “Regale Unguentum.” It is an iris-forward spicy-resinous oriental: powdery orris recast through green, spicy cardamom and warmed by labdanum, opoponax, myrrh and incense. The hook is the unusual angle on iris - not cosmetic and cold, but spiced, resinous and “convivial.” Coverage is thin given its recency and its rarefied, oil-only format.
Scent Profile
With essentially no wearers wear-reviews yet on the major platforms, the scent picture leans on the perfumer’s/brand’s stated composition and the note structure, so treat staging as a practical reading rather than documented consensus. The brand and creative author Nicola Pozzani’s listing frame it as iris reframed by “the unique green freshness of spicy cardamom” - so expect a powdery orris core lit from the top by cardamom and cinnamon (with broom/genet adding a honeyed-green floral facet). The heart pairs that iris with labdanum and opoponax (opopanax bringing a soft, sweet, balsamic-vanillic, faintly truffled warmth), and the base is resinous and ecclesiastical: myrrh (specified as Namibian) and frankincense/incense, with Orcanox (an Ambroxan-type woody-amber molecule) extending and smoothing the drydown. Net effect as described: a spiced, powdery-resinous iris that moves from a bright-green spicy top into a warm, incense-and-myrrh resinous base. As an oil parfum it should wear close and rich rather than radiant. One of the very few early wearers impressions logged for the Nectars trio described “floral, rose, fruity, lychee, creamy, woody, some spice on top, leathery or animal in the base” - but that comment appears to conflate the collection’s three scents and should be treated cautiously.
Performance
No reliable performance data exists yet in the available/wearers sources - wearer longevity and sillage meters sit at zero votes. As a highly concentrated oil, the reasonable expectation (not a sourced claim) is intimate, skin-close wear with strong tenacity and modest projection, which is typical of the oil-parfum format and of resin/iris/incense materials. Flagging this explicitly: performance is unverified.
Wearing Context
With no wearers context reports, this is an inference from the composition, labeled as such: a spiced-iris incense-resin oil reads as cool-weather, evening, contemplative/“temple” wear, and as genuinely unisex (iris-incense-myrrh sits comfortably across genders). The oil format and the €180 price point make it a deliberate, low-projection personal fragrance rather than a crowd-projecting statement - more “worn for oneself and close company” than a room-filler. The brand’s own framing leans ceremonial and Roman-opulent (“approach the deities with charm and mystery”), reinforcing the evening/special-occasion read.
Comparisons & DNA
No wearers comparison fragrances have emerged yet, so concrete dupe/rival naming would be invention - avoided here. In DNA terms it belongs to the spicy-resinous iris-incense family: the conceptual neighbors are powdery-iris-meets-incense compositions and warm myrrh/opoponax orientals, but no specific named analog is supported by the sources. Within its own house it is the spicy-resinous member of the Nectars trio, contrasted with the fruity-floral blue-lotus Inebrians Nectar (Marion Costero) and the citrus-resin ambery Regale Nectar; the three share the Regale Unguentum concept and the oil format. Worth noting the brand’s own broader line includes Arabesque, often wearers-compared to Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, but that is a different scent, not a comparator for Dulcis Nectar.
Reception
Effectively unreviewed at the critical and wearers level as of mid-2026. wearer shows the entry with no rating votes; wearer and the specialist blogs (Cafleurebon, Persolaise, Colognoisseur) had not published dedicated Dulcis Nectar reviews in the sources surveyed, though wearer Sandrina covered the collection’s launch at TFWA Cannes 2024. There is therefore no consensus, no polarization axis, and no blind-buy verdict to report - the honest status is “too new and too niche for a wearers read.” Anyone considering it is effectively an early adopter relative to the enthusiast crowd.
Versions & Reformulation
Single composition; no flankers or reformulations. Dulcis Nectar is one of three fragrances in the Nectars Collection (with Inebrians Nectar and Regale Nectar), all launched 2024 as 12ml oil flacons designed to pair with a collectible Murano-glass “Pinnacolo” bottle by glass artist Michela Cattai.
Acquisition Notes
Exclusive/luxury positioning. Per wearer launch report, the Nectars retail around €180 each for the 12ml oil, while the separately-sold artistic Murano glass art flacons were quoted at about €2,100 each. Distribution is limited to The Merchant of Venice’s own boutiques/site and a handful of niche retailers; there is no decant/counterfeit ecosystem of note given how new and rarefied it is. Buy direct from the house or established niche stockists. No batch-code or authentication lore exists yet.
Notable Facts & Lore
- “ The Murano-glass vessel ties it to Venice’s glassmaking heritage; the house belongs to the Vidal family / Mavive group.
- Perfumer credit is attributed to Veronique Nyberg (of MANE) on wearer, while the brand-aligned Nectars listing appears under Nicola Pozzani as creative author - a discrepancy worth noting, as no documented statement from either perfumer specifically about composing Dulcis Nectar was found.