Diamonds and Rubies

My immediate first spray was one of distaste. And that distaste lasted all of three seconds. It immediately morphed into a delightful love of this fragrance. Diamonds and Rubies is a woman's scent, a fragrance of responsibility, a scent of headiness that tells the wearer and the person that gets a whiff that this is a woman who knows exactly who she is-a confident individual who is aware of her self and not afraid to take the World on around her. I have become a true fan of Sophia Grojsman's fragrances. At this point, I haven't found one that hasn't matched me. I am now searching for her scents deliberately. The initial spray hit me with peach and lilac and was surprisingly creamy and rich. The middle florals intertwined with a mix of spices and lingered for a good 30 minutes before the final drydown to the base which I find absolutely delightful. On me, it's a mix of musk, benzoin and vanilla. It does turn powdery at the end of its run on me, which is fine, many frags do. Every now and then, a hint of a floral seeps through and reminds me of the flowers in the mix. Diamonds and Rubies is more of a complex perfume than I ever imagined it could be. I believe it can be used year-round, anywhere, although it's not a go-to-bed snuggly perfume. It reminds me of a woman who enjoys her femininity, her makeup, her sensuality, using her wiles, using her choices. It embodies the essence of a woman. When I think of Diamonds and Rubies, I think of old-time Hollywood stars like Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe, women who knew who they were and what they did and how they did it. They were comfortable in their own skin. They dressed for themselves because they were comfortable in themselves, and that's what this perfume is about. Being comfortable in yourself. I just wish the bottle was more reflective of the name. There should be faux Rubies added to the bottle, I think. If you can, spray some on to try. It's not a fragrance to try on a test strip. You cannot get the full effect on a piece of paper. Once you wear this for a few hours, you'll see how complex and delightful it really can be on your skin. Diamonds and Rubies might just release your inner beauty waiting to come out and shine.

I LOVE this fragrance! Oh Dear Liz, what have you done? You make a fool of everyone without being here or trying... and your fragrances are as your finest gemstones. It's called Rubies but if red velvet had a scent this would be it; just like soft, deep red velvet. Diamonds and Rubies is not a sparkly, bubbly champagne. It is a fine, red wine and by that I do not mean aged as for overall scent. I detect mostly cinnamon and clove rounded out and subdued by a beautiful powdery and elegant rose. There are good roses and bad roses in perfume. Diamonds and Rubies is a fine rose; the perfect rose subdued by rich, warm spices and premium silky powder. Rich, soft, classy, divine. I have no idea why some people connect powdery with being old. It makes no sense powdery perfume should be equated with "women over 40". What? Shall we add mothballs, musty 'ol attics and Depends Undergarments with that also? That entire concept is just silly and absurd. A beautiful smell has no age. Besides, babies wear powder but this is no scent for a baby, child or girl/woman. It is refined and sophisticated, incredibly soft and intensely gorgeous. D&R has a high quality essence to it which does not surprise me. So far, I have sampled five of Liz's fragrances and have been disappointed in none of them. There were two that did not make my favorites list but I would still wear. I cannot say they were bad. Liz knew what genuine glamour and quality was about and her fragrances attest to that. Her scents are almost as fine as the jewels she loved and as the first celebrity perfume "designer" she definitely knew what she was doing. I find it sad many younger noses of our current society are trained by current trends to think women should smell like Fruit Loops and Jolly Ranchers and if not the smell is "old" because it is not "now". It would be unfair and not nice to say fragrances which use candy and fruit as primary notes should be called "Love Tinkerbell" and recommended for those under forty. There is a term called "classic". Diamonds and Rubies is a gorgeous, delightful, sexy fragrance and it is a classic. Love it or hate it, it does fall into that rare, coveted category. (Based on a blind buy) Thank you, Elizabeth. :)

Ok I got diamonds and emeralds and sent it back immediately it was so green and gross. This was the follow up to that purchase, but I didn’t like this either, so I said it in my back room and was prepared to sell it. Fast forward two months later, and it has matured into this beautiful, juicy peach perfume. Undertones of almond, vanilla, and powder are very very light and very very much in the background but it’s mostly peaches and light light florals that I can’t discern. Spray and set and forget for awhile, then revisit. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. It does have a lot of alcohol so if you empty the sprayer and set it on its side in a cool dark place it really grows up. Upon spraying on skin, Let that alcohol burn off for a sec before you take a whiff. Lasts days on a sweater. Projection is great for the first six hours, rolls off the skin and clothes. Then becomes a skin scent but does not disappear. My fave this spring with Shalimar edt. Edit and a story: I wasn’t specific what kind of peach. This is a syrupy carmelized peach, no green notes, no freshness. Smells very warm, the carnation is not too dusty like Guerlain LeHuere Bleu it just adds a smidge of power to the powder. The almond comes across as marzipan. This I think is gourmand but not too much, sweet and gets sweeter with time but not juvenile sweet. Story- seems to be loved by young and old alike, 17 and 70 year olds have been giving me compliments. Emptied the bottle, repurchased and She sprayed her wrists in the afternoon at work, then she told me it smelled up her shower in the evening and the next morning she simply must have a bottle. So I gave her my backup I was about to open, and she informed me she hadn’t purchased perfume in yeeeears because it had become too expensive. This would be her first in a long time. I told her this was $15 on jomashop or if you’re lucky, $15 at Ross. So it was no problem at all. I must say, this smells amazing on her, she does not layer perfumes so you know it is just Diamonds and Rubies. This projects in the most ladylike way. I know this was a yarn 🧶.

So soft, flowery, and powdery. I adore almond, heliotrope, rose, peach, sandalwood, and musk. I don’t get the spices others do, but this is so pretty that I don’t mind, much as I love spices. The opening is a lot to deal with, but 20 minutes later, it’s worth the wait. It just gets better the longer it’s on. It is definitely affected by weather. It’s rainy and cold today, and the rose is prominent as a clear, fresh, dewy rose, along with sweetness, which is very lovely. Now that I’m getting familiar with this, I find the longevity to be better than I thought. It is around 8-10 hours - I am admittedly an oversprayer. It lasts even longer on clothes. When I wear it to bed, I smell it on my bedclothes in the morning. It’s very different - for that reason I don’t think it’s dated, just unique. I can’t wait to see how this develops in warm weather. This is a very beautiful scent. Update - I absolutely love Diamonds and Rubies. Roses are blooming in my garden and in this perfume. The spices come into play almost immediately in warm weather and that fresh peach blast on apllication is now something I anticipate with pleasure. I know people think of this as a winter/Christmas beauty, and it is. But weather GREATLY affects what steps forward in this scent. I’m finding that I love it even more in warm weather. Heat does not subdue or consume it - this gorgeous girl thrives, dances and turns even more into what it can become. I hydrate my skin really well with an unscented product before spraying perfumes as it has become drier, and doing so really gives perfumes something to hold onto. It greatly extends longevity and strength in many cases, which is true for D&R. The more I wear this, the more I am compelled to wear it. Simply one of the most beautiful, different and expertly conceived perfumes I’ve ever met. Backup is ordered!

Upgraded from a like to a love--it's getting better as it matures. I think it's a bit unfair to compare D&R to the sublime Nahéma, which costs about eight times as much, but it's a respectful salute to the Guerlain classic. D&R reminds me of a cross between Nahéma and Trésor--call it Sophia Grojsman's tribute to Arabian rose attars. D&R is soapy and a little spiky-sweet from the cinnamon, with a big juicy, almost boozy-ripe peach up front that is soon suffused by a rosewater-vanilla accord. Despite these gourmand attributes, D&R is clean and powdery, and I find the sillage and longevity superior for an EDT, especially one that cost, what, $15? I can only speculate, having never smelled the first formulation to my knowledge, but I do think D&R is probably better as a vintage but only because of the sandalwood note, which is vanishingly slight in this iteration. But who knows? There are so many notes in the mix that it's hard to say. I mostly get rose-lilac peach with cinnamon, a sharp and soapy musk, almond-ish notes with the heliotrope and almond wood, but less like the nut or the blossom and more like the original fragrance in Jergens soap--sweet almond extract, but just a kiss of it, like you might discern in biscotti, not full-on marzipan. It throws pretty hard for the first hour or so, and then it calms down and becomes more of a skin scent. The cinnamon seems to stick around throughout the drydown, and it reminds me ever so slightly of Big Red chewing gum, but then I notice the rose and the soapy musk, and the cinnamon seems to recede a bit. I know this is not for everyone, and it's probably not a great blind buy, but it's so inexpensive that I hope people give away their unwanted bottles instead of simply trashing them. Someone in your social circle will appreciate this spicy vintage beauty.