One Man Show Ruby Edition
Jacques Bogart (2013)

Overall, this fragrance is a good value for its price point. It reminds me of the cherry-based fragrances released by Tom Ford, but with a designer twist. Although the listed notes include honey and oud, I mainly detect saffron, amber, and hints of green apple tartness. While it doesn't have the projected sillage and longevity some have reported, it lasts a workday and could have been reformulated. The scent is smooth and decently blended, although it does have a slightly synthetic feel. Despite this, it doesn't come across as harsh or screechy. If you're looking for a budget-friendly option, this fragrance is worth considering.

One Man Show Ruby Edition by Jacques Bogart (2013) is an interesting proposition on paper, and I think in execution it works pretty well too, although it won't be for the usual Bogart fan used to stiff green aromatics or skanky floral musks this brand tends to pump out. I say that because from the top on down to about the heart, this is the usual Bogart proud and loud olfactive journey, not terribly well-blended or seamless with the best materials, but volume and a 1980's nightclub level of sweetness like you'd expect from the brand responsible for sister label star Lapidus pour Homme by Ted Lapidus (1987). However, once you start getting into the serious dry down of the scent, One Man Show Ruby Edition brings up some late-stage Middle Eastern facets that make it feel like a dry run for the following year's One Man Show Oud Edition (2014), which would initially be exclusive to that market until all the world got to taste its unbridled synthetic oud glory. Here in Ruby Edition, bits of that rubbery ashen oud accord anchor what is otherwise a Lapidus-adjacent scent on top, and easily this could have been a B-side to One Man Show Gold Edition (2011) released two years beforehand. That the whole world got this release from the onset tells me that this one is the "Goldilocks" choice Bogart must have thought would have been the one its established market in the West would like, although it smells little like the original One Man Show by Jacques Bogart (1980), so I don't know how true that is.

The opening of this is sweet, but not like Paco Rabanne 1 Million (2008) sweet. You get apple and orange plus something else that swirls together and makes a sort of ghost cherry candy note that I somehow actually enjoy here, against my better sensibilities. The lavender helps dull what would have been a tooth ache in the sweetness department, then you go right into the Middle Eastern stuff like saffron, labdanum, and incense in the heart. One Man Show Ruby Edition wastes no time becoming an absolute monster of a fragrance at this point, and the synthetic incense the brand normally uses is leagues beyond the norlimbanol they decided to go with here, but there is less scratch here from tthat than there is the synth oud. This scratch is supplied mostly by a bit of a medicinal oud like Yves Saint Laurent M7 (2002) or a Tom Ford sort of Comet Cleanser scouring powder note, but it's tolerable. In the later One Man Show Oud Edition, they would build up enough barnyard and 80's patchouli goodness to hide this from more sensible noses, while here it isn't. Honeyed benzoin and amber do what they can, with Iso E Super making an appearance as cedar, while the whole thing ends up smelling to me like a Lattafa or Rasasi product that blends West and Middle East for the urban clubber in cities where enough of the population isn't rich enough to be exclusively strutting around in Amouage or Spirit of Dubai. Wear time is pretty much eight hours more or less, and projection is crazy. Best use for those in more temperate climates is at night, or winter otherwise.

By far the sweetest and most modern-smelling One Man Show flanker on virtue of the designer-style woody-amber melange in the base, One Man Show Ruby Edition takes a similar old-meets-new combination that One Man Show Gold Edition used, but uses the wrong parts of the old and new, and tried to hide it behind some oud that really only exacerbates the facets it seeks to hide. I like Ruby Edition because I wear plenty of modern norlimbanol-heavy scents from the mid-2000's on up to the 2010's "blue" stuff, so dare I say I've developed a taste - or at least a tolerance - towards them in modern fragrances, and they could have been done far worse here than they actually are. Bottom line here folks, is this take a modern woody-amber and crosses it up with a sweet late 80's/early 90's clubber normally based out with patchouli and oakmoss, but here is twisted up with something typically found at the bottom of a modern woody-amber mall scent instead. For many of you, this is going to be a no-go, and for some this may be a take it or leave it, with the oud note here playing too small a role to make any real difference to the final outcome. For me, this final outcome is pleasant and a lot of fun, even if I don't see myself reaching for this nearly as often as the original or even Gold Edition. I am leaning towards only those looking to collect the line seriously considering this one, or those who like sweet fragrances or just Bogart nuts among us. As I said, this is good, maybe a bit tough to love and not for everyone, but I see no real glaring flaws besides the fact it plays so fast and loose with global perfume culture. Thumbs up

The house of Jacques Bogart seems to pack a lot of scent into the bottle for a modest price. One Man Show Ruby Edition is a bold synthetic fragrance with strong performance. It's a warm, aromatic masculine scent presented in a red bottle with a good spray atomiser that generously disperses the juice. Ruby Edition opens with what I perceive as a cough syrup scent as it sprays onto the skin, but as it settles on the skin I definitely get the dark tone of the oud in there along with a sweetness. As it dries down the incense really comes to the fore and for me it evoked memories of visiting Hindu and Buddhist temples. Incense, while a pleasant sweet scent and strongly associated with worship and devotion, may not seem an ideal fragrance for modern men. But in OMS Ruby Edition I think it works well because of the complexity of the other notes in the background. The oud is still there lurking in the background of the dry down, but there is also a certain masculine warmth that I think must come from the labdanum. The result was that I kept wanting to smell my arm as I found a sort of unique appeal there. Overall One Man Show Ruby Edition is warm and a little dark, yet sweet and a little spicy. Performance wise it is strong, I would advise against over-spraying, especially on warm days as it can become cloying. The fragrance lasts all day on my skin and projects very well with one or two sprays. It is a synthetic cheapie and so it won't be everyone's cup of tea, I do think the opening smells cheap. But I think it is a good fragrance and no denying that it's great value for those who like it.

Like with other Jacques Bogart fragrances, I find the scent, price, and power of this to be incredible. Only for about $25, this is one of the strongest fragrances I own. It smells to my nose basically of a loud cherry-oud combo with hints of lavender and apple in the background. Don't expect any sort of natural scent though. This is synthetic as it gets, but in a good way (it smells pretty great to my nose). This is also a BEAST of a fragrance. Anything above 2 sprays is overdoing it. Projection is loud while longevity is also strong, with strong projection for hours and hours. It smells kind of like a fruitier, slightly more fresh, "younger" (less mature vibes), and more cherry-intensive version of Bogart pour Homme, replacing the tobacco with oud. I own 3 Bogart fragrances - Bogart pour Homme, Silver Scent Pure, and One Man Show Ruby Edition - each of which I got for $25, and each of which project loudly and last an insanely long time in the cold winter air. They are some of my favourite winter fragrances for this reason.

4.5/5

I find One Man Show Ruby Edition very unpleasant. I do not agree with the other reviewers that liked it and found that the smell developed over time.

And yes, this is not a scent, this is a smell. Oily, petrochemical, with a distorted impression of grape underneath. The scent does not change. If it becomes less unpleasant it is because it gets weaker.

Stardate 20180328:

Too synthetic, too linear, too nuclear