Mind Games

Mind Games was founded in New York in 2022 by Alex Shalbaf—CEO of The Fragrance Group—and his wife Mariana, whose memory of playing chess with her grandfather became the philosophical spine of the entire enterprise. The house transfers the strategy, patience, and elegance of chess into haute perfumery: every bottle is shaped like a chess piece, and every composition is conceived to reward the patience of a player who thinks several moves ahead before committing. The first release was the Artisan Collection, reportedly six years in development, making 2022 its public debut rather than its true genesis. Perfumers Emilie Cooperman, David Apel, and Annick Mendardo contributed compositions at extrait de parfum concentration, and the bottles—hand-blown into bishop and related chess-piece forms—are priced at around $375 for 100 millilitres, placing Mind Games firmly in the ultra-niche category by both price and concept. A second assortment, the Soulmate Collection, followed in late 2023. Covered by Robb Report and WWD among other publications, Mind Games has attracted attention as much for its conceptual rigour as for its fragrances. In a market saturated with heritage narratives and nostalgia, the house's intellectual proposition—luxury fragrance as an invitation to think rather than merely feel—represents a genuinely distinctive angle for the contemporary independent perfumery scene.