French Defense
On request
Clean cotton, rum and whipped vanilla
Queening is an Extrait de Parfum from Mind Games, a chess-minded house, composed by Christelle Laprade. It starts with a clean cotton accord, cypress and apple, passes through orris, rum and saffron, and settles into whipped vanilla, fluffy musk and coconut. The brand calls the base cocooning. With such a contrast between a tidy start and a plush end, a sample is the easy way to learn it.
On request
A decant is not an official brand sample: no box, no original bottle, and we are not affiliated with the brands. Read how we fill your sample
Want the full bottle after testing? Mind Games Queening Extrait de Parfum (100 ml) at NicheGems
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I really appreciate that I found a shop that has a wide range of authentic perfumes,fast delivery,great communication and very good prices. Thanks for everything!
The composition
The curve shows the order in which the notes come forward, not their strength.
On the skin
A clean cotton accord gives laundered, soft-edged freshness, cypress draws a thin resinous green line through it, and apple adds a crisp lightness. Wearing the decant, notice how quickly this orderly beginning gives way. It is a setup for what follows, not the main act.
Orris brings creamy powder, rum the depth of an aged spirit, and saffron a dry, slightly metallic spice. Together they turn the clean start into something rounder and more golden, a liqueur-like glow rather than sugar. This is the stage to watch closely over the first afternoon.
Gourmand notes take over in the base: whipped vanilla bean, fluffy musk and coconut. It is airy rather than syrupy, more a texture than a flavour, and it wraps the skin closely. A decant gives you days to learn whether that softness comforts you or cloys.
Testing it
Test it on a cool day or evening at home, when a soft extra layer feels welcome, and put it on the chest or the back of the neck where body warmth lifts the vanilla and musk. Judge the start, the rum stage and the final vanilla on separate occasions, and keep a note of which one you liked best.
Anyone drawn to gourmand perfumes who prefers them airy and clean rather than heavy and sweet. Mind Games calls its whole range unisex, and the cotton and apple start keeps this one approachable if richer vanillas are new to you. If you dislike any sweetness near the skin, the sample shows it in a day.
Queening plays two moods against each other, clean laundry and plush vanilla, and the balance between them depends on your skin. A 100 ml Extrait is a lot to spend on a contrast you have not worn. Ten millilitres filled from the original bottle lets you decide if the pairing works for you.
What you receive
We start with a full bottle of the perfume. Nothing is diluted, mixed or added.
Filled by hand into a clean glass spray vial of 2, 5 or 10 ml and closed straight after filling.
Our own label names the brand, the perfume, the concentration and the size.
A decant is not an official brand sample: no box, no original bottle, and we are not affiliated with the brands.
Samples are filled to order and cannot be returned. Is something wrong or damaged on arrival? Contact us and we solve it. To the contact page
Read how we fill your sampleQuestions
Queening Extrait de Parfum, filled by FragranceGems from the original 100 ml bottle into a 10 ml glass spray vial and labelled by us. Mind Games does not supply it, and we are not affiliated with the house.
It is a gourmand, but the sweetness is soft and airy: whipped vanilla and coconut, tempered by clean cotton, apple and a dry saffron note. How sweet that feels is personal, and a decant answers it.
Because an Extrait is concentrated and wears close, so it shows its character over time, not in one spray. A decant gives you several wearings to see how the vanilla and musk linger.
The cotton opens the scent and gives way to rum and saffron, then to the soft base. Wearing the decant over a full day shows how the layers hand over to each other on you.
The brand
Mind Games takes its vocabulary from chess: every perfume is an 'aromatic movement' named after a move or an idea from the game, from French Defense to Double Attack. Creators Alex and Mariana Shalbaf work with the master perfumers of the fragrance house Symrise, and everything we decant is an Extrait de Parfum. The names give no hint of the smell, mango, cherry, chocolate, coffee, so the sensible opening move is a few 10 ml decants.
Pick up where you left off
Reviews of FragranceGems (shop and sample reviews)
DecantGems is new. These are reviews from FragranceGems customers about the shop and about the samples they ordered there. Collected by Judge.me.
4.7 out of 5
1,200+ reviews on Judge.me
Reviews of FragranceGems, the shop behind DecantGems
I really appreciate that I found a shop that has a wide range of authentic perfumes,fast delivery,great communication and very good prices. Thanks for everything!
Timely info when item was back in stock. Some confusion with info about shipment updates on gls app but what is important: perfume came in perfect condition!
incredible fast delivery l. the fragrance itself its magnificent, the dry down woody base, is intoxicating. it last on me 10 hours plus. great service great fragrance
Good experience overall. Fast shipping without any incidents. Prices are good as well.
Really happy of my purchase. Serious seller, quality products, fast shipping, large catalog. I will order a lot of more !
Shipping was 5 days to Finland. Customer service was very good. Happy with the product also. Will shop again. Only thing I hope is that you guys would negotiate better price for GLS shipping to Finland. But I know that is not always possible. And I noticed the prices were lower than the competitors so the steep shipping price was not that big of a deal. Good job all in all.
Great shop with a fantastic selection and fast shipping. I was very happy with my order. It would have been a nice touch to receive a little sample, especially as I ordered two full-size products. ;)
Placing the order was very easy. Shipping was very fast. I am completely satisfied.
Plenty of perfumes and very good perfumes. Fast shipping. One negative. Expensive shipping from Netherlands to Greece
A selection of recent reviews in proportion to their star ratings.

From the house of FragranceGems
DecantGems is part of FragranceGems B.V. in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands. We fill every sample ourselves from the original bottle into a glass spray vial and label it ourselves. Behind it stands the same team that handles every FragranceGems order.
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