The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
En Prise takes its name from chess, a term meaning a piece under attack, exposed but not necessarily lost. It's the moment before the counter-move. Christelle Laprade built this fragrance around that tension: something bright and open at first encounter, but with depth that rewards staying. The perfumer has spoken openly about her intention to showcase Madagascan vetiver, a material with a particularly earthy, slightly smoky character that most houses tend to soften or bury. Laprade wanted it present, unapologetic, working against the sharper top notes rather than disappearing into them. The result is a fragrance that opens like a challenge and settles like a decision already made.
The choice of sugar as a heart note is unusual here, not the vanilla-or-caramel sweetness of many modern fragrances, but something more crystalline and almost translucent. It doesn't round the edges so much as illuminate them, letting the blackcurrant and geranium read as fruit without becoming jam. This is where En Prise diverges from the typical 'sweet spice' template. The saffron isn't buried or barely-there, it's doing structural work, bridging the bright opening to the earthy base. Laprade described wanting to highlight 'distinctive olfactive facets in a new and unexpected way,' and the sugar accord is the mechanism. It's sweet, yes, but the kind of sweet that pays attention.
The evolution
The opening hits hard: bergamot and Madagascan ginger, with saffron adding a warm, slightly leathery undertone from the first spray. It doesn't ease in, it's immediate. Thirty minutes in, the sugar accord starts to read, and the blackcurrant gives it a jammy quality that tempers the spice. The geranium keeps things green enough that it never turns dessert-like. By the two-hour mark, the top notes have receded and the cedar begins to assert itself, dry and slightly pencil-shaving in the way good cedarwood should. The vetiver is the real lingerer here, earthy, faintly smoky, staying close to the skin but refusing to disappear entirely. On fabric, this fragrance outlasts most. The oakmoss surfaces last, adding a mossy, slightly animalic depth that grounds everything. Throughout the wear, the interplay between sweet and savory remains dynamic, never settling into one register for long.
Cultural impact
En Prise arrived as part of Mind Games' Soulmate Collection, a fragrance that doesn't whisper. The scent delivers spice that doesn't retreat, sweetness that doesn't apologize, woods that last. It's not for those who want to disappear into a crowd. It's for those who want to be remembered. The fragrance makes an impression without resorting to the obvious tricks of projection and sillage, relying instead on genuine complexity to hold attention. Those who wear it tend to be the kind of people who notice details, who appreciate the work that goes into something that rewards close inspection.
