I got my first Mind Games scent—the spicy, rosy Grand Master—when the brand launched two years ago. Its vessel is shaped like a bishop on a chess board, and so are the bottles for the other nine extraits de parfum that debuted alongside it. This was high-concept stuff for a brand new fragrance company, which made me wonder: Who comes out of the gate this strong, this confidently? Of the scores of fragrance and grooming operations that launch each year, this one stood out for multiple reasons.
Mind Games is the in-house brainchild of The Fragrance Group, which licenses and distributes a highbrow perfumed portfolio (including scents for Tumi, Bentley, Brioni, and Lalique, among others). At the helm of Mind Games is husband-wife duo Alex and Mariana Shalbaf, the CEO of The Fragrance Group and creative director of Mind Games, respectively. Together, they’ve combined invigorating and long-lasting scents from top noses in the game with trophy-like bottles—informed moves from practiced pros, which, not coincidentally, often lead to success on the chessboard.
