A Tale of Two Rubj

Desirability: Full bottle

Recently I stumbled upon my latest fixation perfume-wise, the house of Vero Profumo, established by Vero Kern (who I've added to the list of interesting people I hope to have tea with before I die) in 2007, with the scents Kiki, Onda and Rubj in Extrait de Parfum being the first releases, followed by the trio being released in the Eau de Parfum form in 2012. Mito followed by Rozy were introduced in the following years. The perfumes also come in a Voile d'Extrait version with the first four mentioned scents released in 2013. 

What's in a name? I'm definitely not an expert on this and what follows from here is garnered from my research. 

Extrait de Parfum is also parfum and pure perfume. It's the highest concentration of scent, roughly 20-40% but most are around the 20% mark. The hallmark of extrait de parfum is its longevity, it is meant to be the longest-lasting concentration of the scent. However, extrait de parfum does not necessarily have a big projection to match its longevity. An Eau de Parfum is meant to represent a concentration of between 10-20% and Eau de Toilette between 5-15% concentration. The Voile d'Extrait reigns between the Extrait and the EDP. 

I literally exhausted Google search to find out the difference between Rubj EDP and Rubj Vd'E. I came away still relatively clueless and decided to do my own investigation. If you suffer perfume OCD like me, you might want to know. Just in case. 

Rubj EDP is a cumin BOMB. CUMIN BOMB. If Bush/Blair are still looking for the weapons of mass destruction, they could be found hiding behind Rubj EDP. I like stinky things including cumin (think BO, sweat and curry). However in Rubj, the cumin doesn't play nice with the other notes and does a world domination. So on me it smells like Dictator Cumin trampling on the white flower masses. The rampage calms down and the cumin although becoming more mellow with time, remains as the major player.

Rubj Vd'E on the other hand celebrates the white florals. I distinctly smell jasmine, tuberose and orange blossom. The cumin and musk notes keep this from being just another bombastic white floral hot mess and instead Rubj Vd'E smells like a white floral come-hither siren, sexy and kinky(thanks Cumin).

Micheline Pitt. Source: hausofdeath.com

Verdict? I find Rubj Vd'E to be more wearable overall. It's more polished and smooth on me whereas the EDP is raw and aggressive. Think Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday) vs. Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story). Both attractive but in different ways and therefore I advise to try all versions before deciding.