rubj is from indie Swiss line Vero Profumo; the line started in 2007 by perfumer Vero Kern when she was 67 years old – talk about a late bloomer!

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 16th-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 dirty 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….

Notes: bergamot, mandarin, neroli, passion fruit, cumin, orange flower absolute, tuberose, basil, cedar, oakmoss, musk.