Mind Games | Kingside | Extrait de Parfum
Kingside is an opulent, highly sophisticated oriental floral-gourmand masterpiece from the luxury house Mind Games, launched in 2025 as part of their Perfumer Extraordinaire collection. Crafted by master perfumer David Apel, the fragrance serves as a liquid tribute to quiet power, refined elegance, and calculated strategy, taking direct artistic inspiration from the chess board. It completely steers clear of basic, fleeting citrus colognes or predictable, linear vanilla bases. Instead, it weaves a dense, multi-dimensional narrative built around a striking contrast of rich, milky textures and warm, intoxicating undertones. It opens with a bold, mouthwatering canopy of creamy pistachio gelato and vibrant cardamom oil, sharpened by a bright flash of grapefruit zest. It tells an olfactory story of deep sophistication and confident charm, shifting smoothly into a heart of hazelnut flower, amber rum, and pink peony petals before grounding itself on a deeply smooth, comforting baseline of warm tonka bean absolute, almond milk, and rich Peru balsam.
Olfactory Pyramid:
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Top Notes: Creamy Pistachio, Cardamom Oil, Grapefruit Zest
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Heart Notes: Hazelnut Flower, Amber Rum, Pink Peony Petals
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Base Notes: Tonka Bean Absolute, Almond Milk, Peru Balsam
Vibe: "The Strategic Seduction", intensely nutty-creamy, boozy with ambered rum facets, softly floral, and opulently warm with resinous balsam.
Performance: Operating at a premium Extrait de Parfum concentration, Kingside delivers an exceptionally robust, long-lasting presence on the skin that easily sails through 8 to 10+ hours of wear. It opens with an expansive, highly diffusive flash of spice and rich pistachio that projects a commanding, alluring aura well beyond handshake distance. As the fragrance reacts to natural body heat, the initial nutty-gourmand profile deepens seamlessly, transitioning into a dense, velvety scent bubble driven by the exceptional texture of heavy tonka, smooth lactonic nuances, and a comforting balsamic trail that clings stubbornly to fabrics for days.