MIND GAMES

For me, laying chess is about as much of a thrill as backing the car into a (too) small parking space … Is the parking space to blame? Unlikely. My lack of talent? Most certainly! And what does any of that have to do with fragrances? Well, all I really want to say is that confronting challenges head-on often brings rewards of personal success and satisfaction in the end.

So it was with MIND GAMES, a brand inspired by the game of chess. Just to be clear: no, I’m still no chess master. However, we at Spitzenhaus have come to the conclusion that our customers love to get to grips with more complex perfume concepts, scents not prone to quickly drifting off into the profane realm of easy indulgence.

What characterizes the game of chess? It’s about taking the long view, thinking moves out in advance, weighing up the future effects; in other words, it’s all about tactics. Depending on the perspective, the seemingly obvious can turn out to be an illusion. Ascendency can shift dramatically over the course of the game depending on which moves are made, the final outcome often surprising.

Marina and Alex Shalbaf, the founders of the brand, were not about to rely on chance either, simply plunking a random new brand down on the market and hoping it would make a splash. Instead they sat down with the crème de la crème of the industry to skillfully steer the enterprise towards a clear destination: checkmate. Alex Shalbaf is CEO of «The Fragrance Group», the leading niche perfume distributor in North America. One of the Mind Games Perfumer is Christelle Laprade. She is a nose at Symrise, the key player in fragrance and flavorings production, an enterprise born of the 2003 fusion of two German companies, Dragoco and Haarmann & Reimer. Shalbaf and Laprade are a perfect, well-attuned team. Each is a grand master of their discipline who knows all the ins and outs of the market.

When we at Spitzenhaus evaluate new brands for our assortment, we take a close look at the individuals active behind the scenes in the company and what potential this might indicate. Success is never guaranteed, but a project does have a solid chance when backed by professionals with a proven track record and a real vision. In this case we are highly confident and have taken a seat at the chessboard from the start, as the first company in Europe to launch Mind Games.

I would now like to present three creations from the line as an exemplary sampling of the brand’s wares. The collection of ten fragrances, in flacons based on black and white chess pieces, will be significantly extended in the near future.

In chess, a blockade is a strategic tactic to prevent the opponent from advancing. BLOCKADE plays with opposition and polarity, expressed in rival ingredients that come together in a harmonious synergy on the skin in the end, as if there had never been any rivalry at all. Nothing is as it seems. Give yourself over to illusion and experience the atypical interplay of mango peel and oud, tomato leaf and Ambrostar®, cyclamen and star anise.

A grand master needs no introduction, he is known to all. He is potent, charismatic and goal-oriented. He never does things by half-measures. A fragrance that strives for perfection. It begins with an almost coquettish floral note – it can afford to, because what soon follows is powerful: ebony, with its typical woody-dry, but also slightly sweet potency comes to the fore. Violet and rose dipped in coffee create a flamboyant yet harmonious counter move to the mystical frankincense note. GRAND MASTER needs not pin itself down: floral or spicy-strong. It is both. That is mastery.

Seriously? What a lot of chaos! My first impression. But it wouldn’t be my last. Just as there is often “method to the madness” of disorder, every ingredient in AS-SULI’S DIAMOND has its logical place — carefully considered by master perfumer Annick Menardo. The fig leaf cloaks the mandarin orange. A dream team: the fig leaf, with its pungent-green, slightly powdery note supports the fresh bitterness of the mandarin orange. But the real protagonist is frankincense in combination with its time-honored partner myrrh. Amberwood® and opoponax permeate the spiritual aura of the scent, steering the composition away from the overweening ecclesiastical tendency often associated with frankincense.