Rudy Profumi Srl

The eminent Milanese company RUDY PROFUMI was founded in 1920 by a certain Spiridione Calabrese. He became a perfumer more by accident than design, turning to the production of cosmetics after trying his hand at preparing hair dyes in his small hair salon in Milan’s via San Paolo. In 1914, he let his brother take over the salon and he established a small workshop at his home, where he produced leather hair rollers, blushers, face powders, and lipsticks. The first blusher he produced was given the name DOREN. He was the first Italian cosmetics maker to work out how to blend and fix lip colouring into a stick (at that time they consisted of powders pressed with oil, sold in tiny tins). Many well-known firms would come to the home of this ingenious gentleman to buy lipstick and sell it on under their own factory brand. Such was his success, he was awarded the title of Commendatore del Lavoro (literally, Knight Commander of Industry). From a small family-run workshop to an industrial company and the RUDY PROFUMI brand. This brand was applied to luxury products, while less expensive goods, which were sold in high street chemists and fancy goods stores, were branded UBERY. RUDY PROFUMI soon rose to prominence, with its fair share of radio adverts and a familiar slogan, “The secret of the gaze that charms”, which also appeared in the most prestigious ladies’ magazines of the period and interval adverts between features at the cinema. The first perfumes appeared towards the end of the 1930s, including “Preludio Romantico”, which was promoted with the slogan, “The scent that brings to mind the scent that brings you to mind.”