Intention

Intention is the follow-up to Fortitude in Bugzy Malone's House of Vision line, and it deliberately goes the other way. Where Fortitude leads with clove and cinnamon, Intention opens bright and slightly bitter on grapefruit and mandarin, with cardamom and elemi adding a dry, resinous lift that stops the citrus reading as simple juice. The house describes it as a tool for empowerment and a reminder to move with purpose, which is marketing, but the fragrance itself is genuinely more restrained than its predecessor. The heart is the interesting part: cassis brings a tart, faintly green fruitiness, geranium supplies a metallic rosiness, and orris root pulls everything towards powder and cool earth. Nutmeg keeps a thread of spice running through without turning the composition warm. The base then does the work that most modern unisex fragrances rely on, with musk, sandalwood, tonka, amber and patchouli building a soft woody floor and a small amount of vanilla rounding off the edges. Nothing here is unusual on its own, but the balance is good and it never tips into the sweetness that dominates the rest of the category at this price. It wears comfortably in mild weather, sits close to the skin after the first hour, and is one of the few fragrances in the range that genuinely works in an office. The brand calls it genderless and, unusually, that holds up.