rubj – rich and complex and carnal

Zurich is known for many things: chocolate, banking and cuckoo clocks but around here it’s known as home to two of favourite perfumers: Andy Tauer and Vero Kern. Besides living and working in Zurich, Mr. Tauer and Ms. Kern have much in common – both came to perfumery from other careers (he worked in IT, she worked at Swiss International Airlines for many years), they’re both indie perfumers with their own lines and they both share a commitment to quality ingredients. Oh, and they are good friends.

Andy Tauer is no stranger to perfumeniche, but you might not be familiar with Vero Kern's line, Vero Profumo. Every fragrance in the line is a stunner but it was her rubj that turned me into a Kernophile. The minute that eau de parfum settled on my skin, my doors of perception flew off their hinges.

Rubj means ‘ruby’ and according to the Vero Profumo website, it was designed for the ‘eccentric and flamboyant’ and inspired by the book ‘The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight’ an Arabic sex manual written by 15th century Arab scholar Sheikh Nefzaoui.

Rubj opens big and bright with bergamot and fragrant, succulent mandarin. Mandarin has a honey facet and a light floral quality that makes the opening sensual and accessible. Aromatic neroli adds a tart, citrus dimension along with a fresh greenness. As it settles, the intense, exotic tropical scent of passion fruit blooms, and coaxes out the fruity, floral aspects of heady orange blossom and fleshy, creamy tuberose that lay at the heart of rubj. There is something about the way this scent entraps me here, and I consent because I sense there is something more to come. And there it is: a note of dirty cumin, smelling like sweaty skin, that brings out the animalic, carnal nature of the white florals. A hint of anise from basil keeps it fresh and lively, while oakmoss and cedar give it a woodiness at the base, all of it warmed by musk.

The white florals last all the way down to the rich, complex, carnal drydown.

Rubj is as much an experience as it is a fragrance. It is your perfumed garden, floral, lush, green and animalic, exposed. It is sexual desire bared and waiting to be explored.

In an interview on Sorcery of Scent, Kern said, “I love fragrance compositions that touch me in some way. Fragrances that bare a secret and affect me erotically. I also like scents with animal notes like honey, castoreum, civet, ambergris, opulent floral scents, rose, tuberose and jasmine.” Me too, Vero, me too….

Check out rubj in our Shop.