A glorious blackberry, rum and sugar concoction which feels as much cocktail as it does perfume. A fragrance to remind you of nights out, now there are only nights in.

Listed notes

Rum, blackberry, citrus, davana, caramelised sugar, cherry blossom, white flowers, osmanthus, amber, oakmoss.

Top notes

Here in the UK at the moment we are in the midst of our third lockdown. Everywhere is closed. Pubs and bars are off limits and an evening’s entertainment is now consigned to whatever you can find on Netflix, or a walk round the park in the sleety drizzle. It wasn’t always this way though, twelve months ago (and hopefully twelve months in the future) it wouldn’t have been outside the realms of possibility to find us tucked away in a cosy bar, nursing some wonderfully elaborate and fragrant cocktail while the drizzle pattered on the windows. If we were to travel there in our memories, right now, the cocktail may very well smell something like Fashion Intervention, by M.INT.

The strangely titled Fashion Intervention opens with a beautiful rendition of a blackberry. Tart, juicy, luscious but with something a little bit darker and earthier than other similar berries, here you can almost feel the flesh yield under your bite. The perfumer, Dominique Moellhausen, did a fantastic job with this element, it’s nigh on impossible to think of a better, more realistic blackberry note in any fragrance.

The blackberry appears with a flourish, but quickly diminishes in the mix as the volume is turned up on the rum and davana notes. As you might expect, there is a real sense of intoxication with these facets and even the experience of smelling these particular notes mimics that; they feel like they penetrate the sinuses with a deep sense of energy that is nearly enough to make you feel lightheaded if not quite drunk.

Heart notes

Hot on the heels of the blackberries and rum comes the crunch of caramelised sugar and a faint touch of a zestier sourness, lemony perhaps. Given that pretty much all the ingredients we have mentioned so far would make a delightful autumnal tipple, it’s very easy to see why this scent calls cocktails to mind.

Lurking behind this fragrant melange lies something just ever so slightly smoky. It feels as if someone has blown a match out at the other side of the room and you just get the faintest whiff of it before it disappears. It certainly serves to make the wearer feel even more as if they are ensconced in their favourite bar somewhere perhaps.

This marks the end of what we’re thinking of as the “cocktail phase” of the scent though because the second half of the wear tells a rather different story.

As the scent ages, the fruity beverage takes on a more flowery tone, but it does so very subtly and the transition feels quite seamless. The whole thing gently slides towards the fruitier end of floral before adding touches of slightly damp white petals into the mix. It’s a little like tasting the memory of the cocktail on someone’s lips whilst wearing your own floral scent.

Base notes

An interesting metamorphosis takes place in the base of Fashion Intervention which does feel slightly at odds with the rest of the scent, on one hand, but on the other the gutsy base gives a new, slightly unexpected direction.

A warm amber pathway leads us away from the fruity floral niceties and into the growling throat of the base of the fragrance. Here, oakmoss is abundant: rich, dense, wild with a hint of menace. You’re never quite sure if it’s a protective growl or a threatening one that is reverberating through but either way it swells up until it occupies the majority of space within the fragrance. Interestingly, the blackberry accord appears to make a return visit at this stage and the whole transition of the perfume feels like we have slipped backwards in time: from a refined, urban setting consuming the blackberry in a drink, right back to the deepest, darkest woods where the blackberry bushes creep along the floor of the forest. It’s a really interesting exercise in time and location travel when you step back and observe it and the end of the scent feels very different to the start, with the blackberry linking the two.

All in all Fashion Intervention is an interesting scent which, although it might not be wholly successful in joining the two halves together, has enough other highlights to be overall worth checking out. The blackberry facet is particularly pleasing, although the oakmossy base is bound to find many to delight.

The other stuff

The longevity of Fashion Intervention is excellent, lasting about ten to twelve hours following application, with that oakmossy finish lingering well. Projection is also good, going to handshake distance or so.

Given the lovely blackberry facet, this fragrance might do very well in Autumn, and given the weight and density of the scent – particularly latterly – it feels as if it is the sort of scent which would perform very well on a night out, indeed a night out drinking those cocktails.

When you say “cocktail” in relation to fragrance, there is perhaps the tendency to veer towards something which is overly sweet and frou frou, however, that rich base in the final phase of this scent definitely gives it a more grown up, elegant and sophisticated vibe.

The brand

M.INT are an Italian house and indeed, Fashion Intervention, was designed to evoke the city of Milan.

An enigmatic brand with wonderful presentation, M.INT make perfumes which are towards the high-end of the continuum but which are often bold and ballsy. They steer away from dull or conventional and produce scents which are fascinating in their strangeness, often very wearable but with kinks and quirks that make them feel as unique as the people that sport them.

Their bottles are covered in a mesh knit cover that allows hints of the colour below to peep through. They’re truly luxurious and unique. The bottle is housed in a metal tube canister to keep it safe, but it has the added bonus of also keeping out the light, meaning your precious perfume will stay true for longer.

We’ve previously reviewed Meek Passion, Affecting Mind, Winged Heart and Rainy City by this brand.

Buy it

Fashion Intervention is available from Bloom Perfumery London, where it is priced at £190 for 70ml EdP. Bloom very kindly supplied us with a no-strings-attached sample of this scent.

You can also buy M.INT perfumes online via their web shop.

Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay.