Faraz Moin and the Making of Cartel Reserve, an Emerging Indian Fragrance Brand
There is a new generation of Indian fragrance entrepreneurs changing the way perfume is imagined, marketed, and experienced. Among them is Faraz Moin, a multidisciplinary creative entrepreneur whose latest venture, Cartel Reserve, is built around a simple idea: fragrance should not simply make you smell good. It should make you feel unforgettable.
For Faraz, Cartel Reserve is more than another perfume label entering India’s growing fragrance market. It is an extension of years spent working across branding, visual storytelling, marketing, product development, and consumer businesses, brought together into a fragrance brand with a distinct personality.
In a market where perfume brands often compete through ingredients, concentration and luxury positioning, Faraz is taking a different route.
He is selling a feeling.
The Idea Behind Cartel Reserve
The foundation of Cartel Reserve is deliberately provocative: seduction first, danger second, sophistication always, with rebellion underneath.
Its philosophy is captured in four words:
TAKE THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE.
For Faraz, the idea represents the psychological advantage that comes from confidence: walking into a room knowing you belong there, leaving an impression without asking for attention, and possessing an identity people remember.
That philosophy influences everything from the names of the fragrances to their visual identity and advertising language.
Instead of relying solely on traditional perfume vocabulary, Cartel Reserve approaches fragrance through emotions and situations people immediately understand.
What does it feel like?
What kind of person wears it?
What happens when someone notices it?
Those questions sit at the heart of the brand.
From Creative Direction to Fragrance
Faraz Moin did not enter the fragrance industry through a conventional perfumery background. His professional journey has been rooted in creative direction, filmmaking, graphic design, branding, marketing and digital commerce.
Through his work across different industries, he has spent years understanding how brands capture attention, create desire and influence purchasing decisions. That experience became particularly relevant when he began developing Cartel Reserve.
Rather than approaching perfume simply as a formula inside a bottle, Faraz approached it as a complete brand experience, combining product, naming, packaging, photography, advertising, storytelling and consumer psychology.
The same philosophy can be seen across his other entrepreneurial ventures, including his salon business, Hair Lyrics, and his broader creative and marketing work through Imaginers and Create & Dominate.
Cartel Reserve represents the convergence of those experiences.
Fragrance With Character
The Cartel Reserve collection is built around recognizable scent inspirations while giving each fragrance its own identity and personality.
The names themselves are intentionally unconventional: Counterpoint, Aarzoo Obscura, Moonphase, Chernyy, Escapement, Talkh Honey, Firewall, Marrow, Sabr and Fire, Yaseen, Qurbat, Power Reserve, Qalb, Mercy Hunger, Nafs Smoke, Jurm, Hifazat, Muntaha, Lutf, and Shawq & Desire.
Each name is designed to suggest a story before the bottle is even opened.
The collection also moves beyond traditional gender divisions. Cartel Reserve approaches fragrance as an expression of personality rather than a strict men’s versus women’s category, allowing its scents to be experienced as unisex and identity driven.
Performance That Becomes Part of the Identity
One of Cartel Reserve’s key USPs is its lasting performance.
It lasts on your clothes until you wash them, unlike many other fragrances available in the market that may last only around the 2 to 3 hour mark.
For a fragrance brand built around presence and being remembered, longevity becomes an important part of the experience.
Making Luxury More Accessible
Another part of Faraz’s strategy is challenging the assumption that an aspirational fragrance experience must come with an intimidating price tag.
Cartel Reserve aims to bring a premium looking, highly curated fragrance experience to consumers at a more accessible price point.
The proposition is straightforward: consumers should not have to choose between an interesting brand identity and affordability.
The opportunity is not simply to sell perfume.
It is to create a brand people want to be associated with.
Building an Indian Brand With a Distinct Point of View
The larger ambition behind Cartel Reserve is to build an Indian consumer brand through culture, storytelling and creative direction rather than relying entirely on conventional luxury codes.
Faraz brings an unusual perspective to that challenge. He understands how a product is created, but also how it needs to be photographed, presented, positioned, advertised and remembered.
In an increasingly competitive direct to consumer market, having a good product is no longer enough. Brands need a point of view.
Cartel Reserve has one.
The collection is available through www.cartelreserve.com.
The Unfair Advantage
For Faraz, the long term vision is bigger than selling bottles.
It is about building a recognizable fragrance universe where the product, language, visual identity and customer experience communicate the same idea.
Confidence without permission.
Luxury without pretence.
Seduction without desperation.
Rebellion without losing sophistication.
Faraz’s journey has moved from creating visuals to building brands, and now to creating something people can actually wear.
With Cartel Reserve, the final product is not positioned as merely a fragrance. It is a statement of identity.
Because the objective was never just to smell good.
It was to take the unfair advantage.
