Mind Games Queening is the best Mind Games fragrance for most people, and Mind Games French Defense is the one to buy if you want something with more edge. Queening is the scent that made the house famous, a soft coconut and vanilla gourmand that reads expensive without shouting, and it is the Mind Games page our readers open most. French Defense trades that creaminess for black cherry, almond and coffee, and it is the better cold weather bottle.
Mind Games was founded in New York in 2022 by Alex and Mariana Shalbaf, and every release is named after a chess move, a piece or a player. The fragrances are developed with perfumers at Symrise, and the whole line is extrait de parfum: dense, heavily dosed compositions that you spray twice, not six times.
How the Mind Games Line Is Organized
The Artisan Collection arrived with the brand in 2022: ten fragrances split into white and black halves, named for chess pieces and classic problems. Blockade, J'Adoube and Prodigy come from this group, and they are the most traditionally niche smelling of the line, built on oud, leather, rose and incense rather than dessert.
The Soulmate Collection followed in 2023 and is where the brand found its audience: softer, sweeter and far more wearable. Queening, French Defense, The Forward and Gambit all live here.
In 2025 came Perfumer Extraordinaire, a pair that debuted at Neiman Marcus: Kingside by David Apel and Queenside by Christelle Laprade, named for the two sides of a chessboard. The brand has also added one-off releases, including Mentor and Counterplay in 2024 and Playmate in 2025.
Mind Games markets everything as unisex, and that is mostly honest, but some lean clearly one way on skin. The sections below say which.
Best Mind Games Fragrances, Ranked
1. Queening
Bergamot and coconut on top, vanilla cream and a powdery haze in the middle, then vanilla, coconut rum and musk underneath. Queening is a gourmand that stays soft instead of turning syrupy, closer to warm skin and suncream than to bakery, and the powdery streak keeps it from feeling juvenile. It launched in 2023 with the Soulmate Collection and is still the one people ask for by name. Moderate projection, excellent longevity, wearable year round.
2. French Defense
Black cherry and bergamot, then almond and amber, over cedarwood, coffee and vanilla. The almond and cherry pairing could easily smell like cough syrup, and the coffee and cedar in the base are what stop it, pulling the whole thing dry and slightly bitter by the end. If you have liked cherry fragrances but found them too sweet, this is the correction. Best from October through February.
3. Kingside
Pistachio, cardamom and grapefruit up top, hazelnut, rum and peony in the heart, almond milk, Peru balsam and tonka in the base. David Apel built the most convincing pistachio in the line, and the grapefruit is the clever part: it keeps a nut and milk accord from going flat. Buy this one if the current pistachio and almond wave is what brought you here. Rich but not heavy, and it lasts a full day.
4. Blockade
Mango and bergamot opening into oud and leather, finishing on amber, woods and musk. Blockade is the best argument that Mind Games can do serious as well as sweet. The mango reads fleshy and almost savory next to the oud, and the leather gives it a worn, lived-in quality. It is also the most polarizing bottle here, so sample first.
5. Mentor
Plum and caramel lifted by Italian lemon, then coffee, amber, resin and cassis, over oud, tonka and sandalwood. Mentor is the darkest thing the house makes and the most obviously autumnal. Stewed plum and caramel over coffee can collapse into mush, but the lemon up top and the oud underneath hold it apart. Heavy, sweet and resinous. Two sprays is plenty.
6. Playmate
Coconut milk, water lily and lemon, then gardenia, jasmine and tiare, resting on musk, vanilla bean, sandalwood and golden amber. Where Queening uses coconut as texture, Playmate uses it as a flower, and the tiare and gardenia give it monoi oil warmth. It is the easiest bottle here to wear on a hot day.
7. Prodigy
Citron, bergamot and Sicilian orange, through neroli, ginger and cinnamon, down to black tea, ambroxan, guaiac wood and olibanum. Prodigy is the only genuinely fresh fragrance in the Artisan group, and the spice and incense underneath keep it from reading like a simple summer citrus. The black tea and frankincense give the dry down a dusty, austere quality the opening does not promise. It is the most office appropriate bottle here.
8. The Forward
Pomelo, lemon and mandarin, then salt, tonka and jasmine sambac, over Madagascar vanilla, sandalwood and cashmeran. A salty citrus vanilla, and a good one. The salt is doing most of the work, turning what would be a simple citrus gourmand into something with a mineral edge. It sits in the same territory as the solar scents that have been everywhere for a few summers, but the extrait concentration gives it more staying power.
9. J'Adoube
Red currant and mandarin on top, pomegranate and Damask rose in the heart, leather, patchouli, benzoin and amber below. Composed by Nathalie Benareau and released in 2022, J'Adoube is fruity rose over leather, a structure done many times but executed here with unusually tart fruit that keeps the rose from going powdery. It is the most classically French thing Mind Games makes, which is probably the joke in the name.
10. Queenside
Cassis, lychee and pear, then lily of the valley, geranium and violet, over patchouli, oakmoss and musk. Christelle Laprade's half of the 2025 pair is the most old fashioned thing in the line: a fruity floral on a mossy patchouli base, essentially a modern chypre. It is lovely, and also the hardest sell to anyone who came here for gourmands. Rank it low on popularity, not quality.
Best Mind Games Fragrances for Men
Blockade and Mentor read most clearly masculine, Blockade for the oud and leather, Mentor for the coffee and plum. Prodigy is the safest of the three if you want something you can wear to work without thinking about it. French Defense and Kingside skew slightly masculine in the gourmand lane, and Kingside gets worn far more by men than the pistachio note would suggest.
Best Mind Games Perfumes for Women
Queening, Playmate and Queenside lean feminine. Queening is the one to own if you want compliments, Playmate if you want something warm and floral for summer, and Queenside if you prefer a drier, greener fruity floral to anything sweet. J'Adoube sits in the middle: rose and leather is shared territory, but the tart fruit pushes it slightly feminine.
Which Mind Games Fragrances Are for Summer
The Forward and Playmate are built for heat, one salty and citric, the other tropical and creamy. Prodigy works in summer too if you do not mind the incense underneath. Counterplay belongs here as well, with melon, guava and banana over osmanthus and sandalwood, though its fruit opening is the loudest of the four.
Which Ones to Save for Cold Weather
Mentor, French Defense, Kingside and Blockade all improve as the temperature drops. These are extraits built on resins, oud, coffee and nut accords, and in August they can feel suffocating. In October they make sense. Queening is the exception that works in both, part of why it outsells everything else.
Which Mind Games Fragrance Should You Buy First?
Buy Queening first. It has the broadest appeal and the best compliment record, and it is the clearest expression of what this house does well. If you already own several vanilla gourmands, buy French Defense instead, or Kingside if nuts interest you more than cherry.
Given what these cost, the smarter first move is a discovery set or a decant rather than a blind full bottle. Mind Games sells sample sets for both the Artisan and Soulmate collections, and our guide to samples, decants and travel sprays explains what you actually get for the money. Our roundup of niche fragrances worth the money shows how these prices stack up against houses that have been doing this longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Mind Games fragrance is the best?
Queening, on balance: the most wearable and most requested bottle in the line. French Defense is the better pick for cold weather, and Blockade if you want something darker and more niche.
Are Mind Games fragrances unisex?
The brand sells all of them as unisex, and most genuinely are. In practice Blockade, Mentor and Prodigy lean masculine, while Queening, Playmate and Queenside lean feminine.
Why are Mind Games fragrances expensive?
They are all extrait de parfum, a higher concentration of fragrance oil than eau de parfum, and they are developed with perfumers at Symrise. The house also sells through a limited set of retailers. Discounters usually list them well below the brand's own price, which is what the price cards below are for.
How long do Mind Games fragrances last?
Most run eight hours or more on skin, and the heavier ones, Mentor and Blockade especially, are still detectable on fabric the next morning. Projection is moderate rather than enormous, which is typical of extrait concentration.
What is the Mind Games Soulmate Collection?
It is the brand's 2023 set of ten fragrances, softer and sweeter than the 2022 Artisan Collection. Queening, French Defense, The Forward and Gambit come from it, and it is sold as a discovery set as well as in full bottles.
