Barricade

First off, I love this stuff. Second off, I've never smelled Mind Games Blockade so I do not have a frame of reference for comparison. What I do know is that I am willing to forgive shortcomings of this fragrance because I love the scent profile so much. It's very pleasant and fresh and uplifting. I'd rate this a 4.5/5 only because I wish it would last longer and project a bit more. For the price, however, I am satisfied. 👃🏻 Initial Impressions: There is a fresh pop of "green" mango in the opening. It's a refreshing burst and there's a hint of spice and sweetness for good measure. Initially this is a pretty strong (but safe) scent, especially in the opening. The mango really makes itself present but it's not a "juicy" mango. It's more of a green mango smell. I would argue that it's more wearable than something like God of Fire for this reason. Mass-appealing and an easy grab. Compliment puller but you'll have to re-apply depending on skin chemistry and weather. ⏱️ Performance: After the opening wears off, within about 30 minutes, projection is modest at best; it becomes a skin scent after only a few hours. This is a very versatile fragrance, it's masculine-leaning but I would still classify it as unisex. It's wonderful and so refreshing to wear, I just wish it performed a little better. It's definitely one of my favorites and since this review is based on a fresh batch, I would likely revisit after letting my bottle macerate and mature in a cool dark place for a few months. ✅ Conclusion: Barricade is a very wearable and attention-grabbing fragrance, perfect for spring and summer. It's fresh enough to wear in a professional setting yet pleasant enough to wear casually or in a public setting. Performance is not as great as I'd like, but moisturizer and the "vaseline" trick might come in handy here. Overall I enjoy this fragrance and highly recommend it. Just make sure to be aware you'll have to re-apply if you want more than 4-5 hours of wear out of this.

Got a sample of this, it's absolutely incredible! I have been so sick of the Aventus DNA, but this offers a very refreshing twist: replace the pineapple with mango and the smoke with lavender. Super realistic mango and lavender over woody notes. The lavender, adds some fantastic depth to the fragrance and makes it smell a lot cleaner than Aventus. I have never tried Blockade before, but this stuff is an absolute love for me! I'm probably gonna pick up a full bottle soon, but I'd like to get a few full wears out of this 3ml sample before I make my final decision.

This is amazing juice. It starts off with a similar scent profile as Aventus but is much more fresh and citrusy. Also replaces the pineapple with an unripe mango accord. On the dry-down though, it does veer off in its own direction with the tomato leaf. It is airy and I actually much prefer this over Aventus for the summer time in the high heat. Alexandria did an outstanding job at cloning Blockade. Highly recommended.

I have smelt the OG and this is sooo close, if not identical! Such a good fragrance overall. Mango scent lingers in the dry down more. I think the projection is more than the OG. Haven’t tested daily use for longevity.

Tropical Aventus = really good blend of Creed’s Aventus and Louis Vuitton’s Pacific Chill. Totally unisex.

It made me sell my Blockade, imagine how good it is

This one outperforms the original Blockade by a couple of hours... I'm lucky to get 4 hours longevity out of Blockade but Alexandria somehow gets me at least 6 good hours performance and smells 93+% similar to the original. The Alexandria is slightly less juicy/photo-realistic in the opening and Blockade beats it there but that's only for the first five minutes and then Barricade starts to ramp up. About an hour in the leather starts to be noticeable in the background which I don't ever pickup in the MG version and it really rounds out the scent profile. I'm currently wearing Blockade on one hand and Barricade on the other and the MG fragrance is barely more than a skin scent at the two hour mark while Barricade is pushing like crazy. If someone told me one of these costs $60 and the other is $320, I would definitely think the Alexandria version was the expensive one. Easy full bottle worthy purchase, if this is a scent profile you'd like in your collection pick up a bottle from Alexandria Fragrances and save yourself $200+ dollars instead of buying the MG version. (But as always... sample first) 9/10, great interpretation.

It's closer to the aventus DNA than I would have predicted. It's a solid interpretation (haven't smelled Mind Games) with a slight twist, and one of the better aventus inspirations. But just like almost all aventus like scents, performance is ok at around 4-6 hours with moderate projection.

I'm working on getting a sample of Blockade; however, I can't believe it's as bad as this. If this is a great clone as others say, I can't believe Blockade exists in the first place. I appreciate the Aventus DNA. I honestly stopped wearing because of its popularity. However, this is the first fragrance in that DNA profile that I wanted to scrub off. I've tried Yom and Layl's version. It's infinitely better. I can't believe how much Alexandria charges for this. I'm happy I got a sample. Weak performance, off putting top and dry down notes. Highly recommend sampling and keeping expectations low.