French Defense Mind Games 2023

It starts off as a cherry scented magic marker for about 60 seconds and quickly dries down to a syrupy sweet amber soup. I picture a precocious nine-year-old calling this “mid” because there isn’t anything particularly nice or memorable about it. At any price, this is uninspired. At $400, it’s insulting.

French Defense:
To my nose, this is more of a unisex scent, the opening is more feminine for me.
Personally, I can barely smell the cherry in it.
You can feel that they used quality ingredients, but this perfume didn't evoke any emotions for me.
Its longevity is average.
Its sillage is above average.
10/7

Similar to the chess move it is named for, French Defense is all about the opening. But while a good opening is important, you can’t win a game of chess on that alone.

The cherry comes out strong and reminds me of cherry Chapstick in a positive way. While that smell sticks around and develops for a bit, the overall scent profile develops into a very standard mixture of amber and woods. Not bad but also not groundbreaking. On its own this would be fine, but it also has soft projection. After 30 minutes, I can’t smell it on myself until my nose is nearly up against my skin.

I really wanted to like this as I’ve been looking for a good cherry fragrance for a while. Unfortunately I’ll have to keep searching.

I almost made a big mistake and bought this perfume blindly since I hadn’t had the chance to test it.
The hype around it is insane, mostly from guys who probably got it for free—the bottle design, the Fragrantica rating, everything seems perfect...
But luckily, I managed to order a decant, and when I finally tried it... I thought, thank God I was lucky enough not to waste 250 euros on a scent that smells like women’s hand cream or some basic air freshener.
This leans way more feminine, and while it might smell good on a woman, it’s definitely not worth a premium niche price.
It mostly reminds me of strawberry and cherry candy… no depth at all.

I personally like the scent of French Defence. It’s delicate, light, feminine, but does come across with a bit of shampoo vibe. I’d also disagree with a lot of the other reviews and say this is actually a very unique violet, floral, camomile, cherry scent. As a cherry lover there is no other cherry that smells like this. Unfortunately where the scent falls flat for me is in the performance. Like a lot of Mind Games scents, this is weak and just doesn’t justify the price tag.