Midnight Hour

9/10 Opening I don’t care if it’s faint or only lasts as long as a fart—this opening is so good I’m writing this review while driving. (Just kidding... or am I?) Spicy mango smoothie vibes right off the top. I saw someone compare it to a Middle Eastern or Indian drink, and they were spot on. At first, it leaned a little too green and dry, but that smoky mango kicked in fast and amplified everything. ⸻ Limited but Worth It Wish I had more than one bottle—this one’s rare, and I’d love a backup. But fair warning: if you don’t like smoky scents, stay far away. This dries down into a very smoky mango, which surprisingly makes it versatile enough for year-round wear. In the air, it almost smells like mango shower gel with an aquatic twist—which is wild, because it’s nothing like that on skin. ⸻ Mid The green leaf note shifts to something wetter and more dewy, which works nicely with the smoke. The mango sticks around but turns more into ripe mango skin instead of that juicy, tropical vibe from the opening. Depending on your nose, it might even come off like orange shower gel. Definitely greener than I expected. So yeah—imagine wet mango skin with smoke and a hint of water vapor. Slight sweetness, nothing too sugary. ⸻ Drydown – 6.5-7/10 The wetness lingers just a bit, but it dries out noticeably. That mango skin accord stays the star of the show. Smoky, soft, a little odd—but addicting. So overall imagine if you took a ripe mango and washed it with really hot water. The scent of the stem wafting off the mango after the wash is realistic to this. ⸻ Final Thoughts: 7–8/10 No regrets at all. It’s perfect for summer, easy to carry for reapplication, and has a character that really stands out. I’ll be back with a more “unbiased” review someday—but for now, that opening alone stole the show. Like people say it’s not strong and projects for like 4 hours but it’ll be on the skin after that. Pro tip if you want to extend its life pair it with a fragrance with similar notes or a fragrance with ambroxan or iso e super. It will allow it to shine more For a hour or 2 longer.

This is a new scent profiles for me. I don't have a fully developed nose so I can't pick out EVERY note in a fragrance yet but this opens up like skittles on my skin. Imagine if Skittles came in a black package instead of a red, green, or blue package. It's dark and refreshing. I reaaaally wish that mango would stay to the point I think I might want to layer this with a mango mist because the mango note disappears in about 20 minutes on my skin After that it dries down to patchouli incense to me. I have alot of patchouli incense and this definitely just smells like patchouli to me... Peppery and sparkly. It's sexy though. A woman that drives the bus in my city said "Omg that cologne you wearing smells like I could just eat it!!!! You smell so good!" Lol I bought it for $20 at Burlington. Maybe my favorite from the BR like but they drop nothing but bangers to me. It's hard not to keep smelling your wrist! This stuff smells magical. Btw I must have gotten a good bottle because this is nuclear on my skin. I've had experiences with BR before, so I thought performance would be abysmal but to my surprise, I sprayed this at about 6:30 P.M... it's 1 A.M. now and it's still going really strong. Haven't even gone noseblind to it

Another fantastic Banana Republic fragrance. Fresh and tropical with a fresh clean spice. It then gets a tropical dark dry down. It opens up with solid mango skin note. It's green and has a touch of ginger tropical spice with a pink pepper zing . After I don't get much of the anise but the oud comes on in a dark yet perfectly blended way. It still has that oud smell but with the tropical notes in this it kind of gives me a mango seed and a mango wood type of smell. The patchouli is very light . Throughout this it keeps that tropical fresh dark spice . It's so good. And yes this does smell a lot like Mind Games Blockade . Blockade might be a bit more tart but it's super similar. Huge fan of this. Performance is not bad at all. Most BR fragrances are average at best but this is probably one of the best of the bunch . 4 sprays got me a solid 4 hours before it became a close skin scent. After that it lasted about 2 more hours . Super versatile and I believe it can be worn all year. . In my book this is an 8.5/10

SEXY Midnight Hour by Banana Republic is one of those fragrances that feels more expensive than it is. It opens with a dark, slightly sweet vibe—somewhere between amber, soft woods, and a hint of spice. There’s a smoothness to it that makes it feel warm, confident, and a little mysterious. It’s definitely in the evening/nighttime territory, but it’s not too heavy or overwhelming. It wears well in cooler weather, and it gives off that “pulled together without trying too hard” energy. Think soft leather jacket and late-night conversations. Longevity is solid—around 6 hours on my skin—and the sillage is moderate. It won’t fill a room, but people close to you will notice. Overall, it’s an easy win if you want something dark, classy, and wearable without dropping serious cash.

It’s a fantastic fragrance that closely mimics Blockade, but alas, on my skin it is as per the movie title, gone in 15 seconds. I have a 150ml bottle which was opened on purchase and has been stored in its box since around October of last year. If I don’t gift it, I’ll be using it at the pool, beach and anywhere else in high heat and spraying the hell out of it to get the best out of it and get it finished up. It also reminds me of Hacivat which mirrors a similar price to Blockade and it bears a close resemblance to Arabiyat Prestige’s Hypnotic Amber which costs twice as much as Midnight Hour. As I still have 2 bottles of HA I’ll stick with them as they last and project far better. Enjoy it while it lasts on skin.

#1712 in my “Tour de Fragrance” I really like this BR scent. The only BR scents I’ve been able to say that about until now is “Dark Cherry & Amber”, “Tobacco & Tonka." Mostly my issue with their scents is not the opening, which is usually fine, but the very poor longevity and silage. This one is exceptional. After a three mile run in the heat and humidity, dripping with sweat, plus an hour heavy lifting in the gym, and sill this stuff hung on all day! Almost, but not quite tropical. For me it would be business wear, something you could wear in a car pool or on a five hour flight and it wouldn’t be obnoxious to the people sitting around you. And importantly, priced right! Good Luck and Good Hunting!

Absolute banger. Keep an eye out at Ross and Burlington because it's still popping up at both. Only issue I have is that it doesn't last too long, a couple hours and then you need to re-apply. Hopefully I have just go nose-blind to it faster than it actually fades. But overall this scent profile is 10/10 to me. I have a 5oz bottle and 2 back-up 2.5oz bottles since I love it so much. I buy it every time I see it honestly. ALL of the Banana Republic fragrances that I have bought. They punch way above their class. Check out Neroli Woods, Black Walnut Legend, Metal Rain and 78 Vintage green. You will not be disappointed. Seriously better than most any other designer fragrances out there.

I got this fragrance from Burlington as most banana republics are found there. And then i saw this and then some “cologne expert” who was in a white suit and looked like a fat jeremyfragrance, told me it’s rare and worth a pickup. Needless to say jeremyappitizer was right. This is a really interesting and great cologne. It could not be described by me in words. It’s almost like a sweet mango with some flowers and a subtle tease of oud. But it also is not one to project very well, it might be my skin complexion or something like that. But I really like it. If you like this type of scent, Midnight hour is awesome! Shoutout to jeremyfatgrance tho...

This one is really good. Came across it at Burlington today and instantly picked it up as I have been wanting to get it for a little bit now. Smells just like Aventus with the Mango opening. A bit smoky, and quite similar to all the Aventus DNA fragrances out there but really really good. Better than CDNIM for sure. Smoother and better opening. I love Black Walnut Legend from Banana Republic so when I had the chance to get this for $20 I instantly scooped it, it's quite a bit more online as it's rare and probably discontinued... Honestly all the Banana Republic fragrances are some of the better fragrances I have tried lately. Highly Recommend.

This is a clone of Blockade by Mind Games. Same perfumer, same versatility, unfortunately similar performance (can't squeeze more than 4 hours out of either), and identical sillage. This and Blockade are more alike than any iconic duo of clone vs. original that I can think of. Much closer than Khamrah is to Angel's Share, much closer than CDNIM is to Aventus, etc. Blockade and Midnight Hour have some very slight differences, the mango note comes off exactly the same, but everything else is slightly tweaked, honestly for the better to my taste, even blind and not primed by the price disparity.

Picked this up the other day at Burlington for $20, I have SNOI, CDNIM EDT, etc... That being said it does share some similarities. However it doesn’t fully remind me of them, it smells more similar to blockade how others describe with the mango note, this however though is a very crisp fresh linen fruit type fragrance that smells amazing nice bit of mango too, great for spring/summer, and very versatile can be worn anytime anywhere. Performance & sillage isn’t too too great but for a $20 price tag it’s an absolute banger for the price, it’s a very good dumb reach. I highly recommend!

First sniff this reminded me of Mount Blanc Explorer. But side by side I noticed they’re a bit different. Midnight Hour replaced a lot of the lemon note with mango. But not a sweet juicy mango, more like mango skin. Unlike Blockade, it’s missing the bergamot. It’s not a 1:1. Blockade reminds me of a mango seltzer drink. However, on dry down Blockade loses the sparkly seltzer note (bergamot) and leaves you with a semi sweet mango/hint of oud scent which makes it very similar to Midnight Hour. I’m enjoying the fragrance. Really good buy under $30.

I’ve made plenty of questionable blind buys late at night while doom scrolling, but this wasn’t one of them. It has a modern base, likely ambroxan, yet it isn’t harsh or chemical. Instead, it comes across smooth and slightly sweet without being cloying, and overall it’s just very pleasant to wear. This will probably appeal more to a younger crowd. Some would label it a “gym scent.” I don’t, but that’s the category people will likely place this style of Explorer-ish fragrance in, for reference.

This is just lovely. Like I went through the other BR scents and yea they're all above their class in price but still pretty basic and pretty boring. Not this one--this one starts all fun and tropical but has such a lovely complex and musky drydown that I just can't believe it's so cheap. Read me broke friends: if you want something that actually smells among the quality of those in the niche class, because I've smelled them, this one is definitely up there.

Tropical aventus DNA at an affordable price. 10/10 value for money. Strong sillage the first hour or two, then sits closer to the skin for a total longevity of about 5-6 hours before really having to search for it. Great fragrance for the money. The only way it could be improved is re-released as an extrait de parfum. If this lasted longer it would be signature worthy. For now, re apply or overspray like crazy and maybe you could pull 7-8 hours out of it..

MAN! If this lasted longer it would be one of my favorite and most highly rated fragrances ever. I've tried so many renditions of Aventus - CDNIM, SCE, etc. and all of them got boring quick. This one opens up with a nice fruity green mango that perfectly cuts through the smokey, woody leather base that all the Aventus inspos build off. It never becomes headache inducing or cloying like a lot of other Aventus-y fragrances do for me. 4/5

I love this stuff. It’s literally Aventus with mango instead of pineapple to me. The longevity is pretty terrible. But for the price it smells way nicer than most budget fragrances. I used to have the BR cypress and vetiver that smelled like Hermes. Same with that one. It’s dead on the scent. Just poor longevity. If you like the aventus DNA you should really try this one especially for how cheap it is. $20 at Burlington.

I would say this is the EDT or weaker version of Mind Games Blockade. Both fragrances are designed by the same perfumer so the similarities are undeniable. I have both and I can attest to the fact that this is a great overspray fragrance that you can use daily without having to pay $200+ for Mind Games. I give this 8.5/10 for scent profile and price alone! Highly recommended if you love Mind Games Blockade.

At first, I didn't know if I liked this fragrance, but after a couple of days, I tried it again and loved it. It is a little weak imo but I sprayed around 8-10 sprays and it lasted 4 hours before becoming a skin scent and my girlfriend could smell it from 2-3 feet away for the first hour. For $20 like what I got it for at Burlington, I highly recommend this, and I would pay up to $50-60 for this fragrance.

A recreation of Mind Games Blockade by the original perfumer at a fraction of the price. It opens with a clean cut grass, creamy citrusy mango and ginger backed by spicy pink pepper. The heart brings out a tropical fruitiness before the base comes through with earthy patchouli, leather, and a subtle hint of oud. It's not a beast mode, but is a pleasant 4 hours.

This is most likely going to start off like most of the reviews towards this fragrance. At first I said Creed, then this dam thing started drying down, omg the mango 🥭 simply beautiful, oh yeah I see why people are saying Creed with mango infused into it this is really nice, and I got it for only $20 yes Burlington rack stocked store winning!!!!!

i got both midnight hour and blockade on each wrist rn and after about 20 minutes these are nearly identical. and in air i cannot tell a difference. both have bare performance but please buy midnight hour first before blockade, 20 bucks wont hurt and u may even end up liking midnight hour more (like me)

Very tropical with mango on top making it fresh and aquatic. Not a sweet fragrance. Similar to Creed Aventus but not the same profile. Performance is not the greatest but you can always spray a LOT to get an arm length projection and decent silage. Longevity is average. Safe blind buy.

90-95% similar to mind games blockade, missing a few nuances and depth on skin(not noticeable in the air). there is no reason for blockade to exist at its price of $400 when this exists for under $40. Just buy this, lol.

I have this and club de nuit and I reach for this one 100% of the time. Whenever it’s raining or it rained I feel like is a perfect time to wear it. But the you can wear this whenever it’s warm.

I love it. If Aventus had a tropical cousin. This would be that cousin then. Unisex, but leans slightly masculine. I get mainly the mango and star anise. Great for daily wear in the warmer days.

There is a new extrait version of this I just picked up. It smells even smoother and a little more mango sweet. Unfortunately still weak but worth the pick up for the price of $13 for a 30ml.

This is 20 bucks at rack stores. Overspray like you MEAN IT and have yourself something very similar to Blockade for very cheap. The smell is far better than CDNIM in my opinion.

I absolutely love this fragrance, a nice smokey sweet fruity scent. it's sweet but still has a sorta dark vibe still and it's intoxicating to me, love it.

smells to me like a slightly spicier aventus with an added candied mango accord. $20 at burlington is an absolute steal for this beautiful fragrance.

To keep it short and simple, for the price this is the best smelling fragrance in the Aventus family and it’s not even close.

Blackade with a different name and bottle. Fantastic scent with good performance. Great quality and scent for the price.

Smells like Aventus. Refined. Pretty weak. But for 1/10th of the price I can't complain. Solid. 7/10 Edit - 8/10

Juicy aventus with that Mango accord... and im here for it! not as sharp as i feel aventus is to MY nose.

Smells so good it almost makes you consider buying the original for $400 But for $20? its a no brainer

I wore it after a shower and it lasted 5hrs . Might have to reapply . It is too masculine for me .

Ngl it’s kinda like skittles or mango gum in the mid and opening. I knew it smelled familiar

Best cheap Mango out there. In the vein of Blockade and I love it. Lasts about 3 hours.

This is Mind Games Blockade on the cheap. The same perfumer.

The hour is late. The forest is silent. Eerily silent. No chirp of crickets from the forest floor or from tree frogs high in the canopy. Even the middle distance is holding its breath. The sharp inhale before the scream. One small, lone fire crackles in a sparse clearing. Clearly made by careing, careful hands, but altogether unattended. Those calloused and scarred hands, nowhere in sight among the shades and shadows of cedar and pine under a pale full moon. Gently bubbling in a small iron cauldron is a potion so dark it seems to swallow the firelight in a hunger that can't be sated and can't be stopped. A cavernous shadow; as thin as water and as thick as molasses and twice as stubborn, rolling in slow circles as if stirred by an unseen hand. The scent rising from it is warm, smoky, and sweet. Like incense smoldering in a church abandoned to the vines and lost to memory. Some say the man who brewed it was a rootworker, a practitioner of The Green. Someone who knew the language of cedar bark and night‐blooming jasmine. A few claim he wasn’t a man at all, but something older, darker, more dangerous. Some "One" born from the hills and earth, rock and bone, wearing a man’s shape but cloaked in feather and fur. But all the stories agree on one thing: He only worked at midnight, and only when the forest fell silent enough to hear the trees whisper their secrets, gathering ingredients no man should be able to collect. He plucked jasmine blossoms that only open under a full moon, petals glowing faintly like ghostly lanterns of foxfire and dew. He scraped suede‐soft bark from a cedar that had been struck by lightning but refused to fall. He caught incense smoke from a church fire that smoldereed for three days leaving only a bible untouched. Legend tells how he traded something... a memory... a promise... a piece of his shadow; for a vial of amber resin older than the mountain itself. He mixed them all in that iron pot, humming a tune no man could remember but all could recognize. The kind of opus you feel in your bones with the resonating frequency of sadness and longing. When the potion simmered to its finish, the forest... exhaled. Crickets returned. Frogs croaked. Owls resumed their sermons. But the man was gone. Most folks say he vanished into the trees. Some say it was the forest that reclaimed what it was due. Only the cauldron remained. Still warm, still fragrant, still swirling with that dark, resinous glow. And that’s how Midnight Hour came to be. A scent born not from a lab and beaker, but from a clearing of pine and cedar, smoke and ashe, where the world held its breath. But the old men who sit outside the feed store at dusk, the ones who speak slowly through thin lips and tobacco spit, they tell a different story. They say what was left behind was more than a scent. A footprint. Not a man’s. Not an animal’s. Something inbetween. Long, narrow, with the faint impression of claws that never touched the earth. The man who found the cauldron never spoke of the footprint. Not once. Not to his wife. Not to his preacher. Not even on his deathbed. But he carried the scent with him always. And the scent carried something back.

Not gonna lie I saw this in a tik tok once saying it was a good fragrance and I didn’t think too much of it, that was until I stumbled upon it and my local Burlington for $20 and my immediate thought was “why not?” Upon initial reaction I was reminded of an Aventus/montblanc explorer DNA, It starts off super fresh and fruity and most importantly greenish- with a hint of slight musk and a nice oud touch, it projects nicely for the first 3-4 hours without it being too overbearing. After 4 hours it becomes a skin scent but still noticeable to those around you . (I use about 6 sprays) . It’s very inoffensive and the way it separates a itself from the other aventus DNAS is the mid to dry down, around 2 hours the initial fruity opening is toned down and that’s where the florals , pepper and star anise really shine, the star anise giving it a very spicy, kind of oriental feel. It’s a pleasant, esoteric fragrance for the price being $20, almost niche quality. The dry down to the base notes is very good, definitely doesn’t blow me away but the overall fragrance puts me in an uplifting/sophisticated/artsy vibe. The depth and intricacy for the price is definitely a must have. Price : 10/10 (if you’re not shopping online) Longevity : 6.5/10 Overall : 7.5/10 There are many other great alternatives to a woody-fruity-spicy floral however Midnight hour is more my type of fragrance.

Bought this after reading reviews mentioning how close it is to blockade. Seeing the note break down similarities and the fact that both were created by the same perfumer made this a no brainer for me Now in terms of scent similarity they’re pretty close, I’d say 90%. But in the opening of this they’re completely identical. The dry down is where you’ll spot differences with Blockade retaining more of the fruitiness and Midnight Hour having more of an emphasis on the woods and leather. But these differences are only noticeable if you really try to pinpoint them side by side like I did. Other than that in the air they’re pretty much the same and have the same wearing experience For the price I’d give this a 10/10 simply for the scent profile, and price alone. If you can pick this up while it’s still cheap/available I’d def recommend it

It smelled like just another aventus clone at first so I was disappointed but after about 20 sprays between testing and wearing, the mango and tropical fruitiness came through beautifully. So if you’re in my situation and it doesn’t smell like how everyone else is describing, you may have to just spray 20-25 sprays outside or something. The fragrance itself is great. I’ve never smelled Blockade so I can’t say how close it is to that but this is like Aventus if you toned down the smokiness and threw in mango instead of pineapple. The longevity is moderate but the silage on me is very good, my scent bubble is wide but granted I am an oversprayer. Easily worth the $20 I spent. Blind buy worthy.

Midnight Hour is invigorating, unique and a bit exotic. Nothing in my collection smells like it. I only have one other mango fragrance: RL Polo Black. Reviewers may compare Midnight Hour to Aventus, but they are only similar in having a tropical zing. Midnight Hour reminds me very much of a unripe green mango that is still tart. The mango/ginger/star anise accord gives it a distinct Indian subcontinent vibe. I detect a coriander note as well though it is not listed. Midnight Hour has the feel of enjoying a mango drink in an Indian restaurant. This fragrance is best worn in Spring when you are full of energy and eager to go outside again.

This is Armaf ‘Not Only Intense’ 100% without the longevity. 2 sprays on the wrist and it was gone within 1 hour. Claims to be mango, but with the same profile as Creed Aventus and CDNIM, how can it be anything other than a pineapple accord? Easy $20 frag. Safe blind buy if you need ANOTHER Aventus clone, at least with this one you can layer it and not have to worry about running your pricey stuff dry. Ok upon another full wear of this stuff, with enough sprays. You can definitely call this a mango Aventus. It takes a couple sprays to make it pop up, but it’s there. Quite nice.

This scent is decidedly unisex to my nose. Sweet juicy mango, bright green leafy notes that remind me of juniper berry, especially paired with the spicy notes from the ginger and pink pepper. Those notes last the majority of the time on my skin before finally settling into a sueded leather and musk base around 3-4 hours in. Only lasts about 5 hours on my skin but I didn't mind a refresh spray when I picked this up for $20 at Burlington. I've purchased several of the Callezione Reservata collection and I've enjoyed every single one!

Well, I was just going to edit this, but somehow voice command deleted the original talking about how much I like it but although it’s still good all of the banana republic fragrances have this grassy note that is so synthetic that it puts off all their fragrances for me this one it is less noticeable because it comes off almost as ambergris but knowing what it is from smelling the other, others puts me off, but for sure it is a great value. It’s just definitely not what it’s compared to in the end.

The comparisons on this one are getting a little out of hand. No, this $40 dollar Banana Republic fragrance does not smell like Creed Aventus, and it won’t really get you close either. It’s missing the pineapple, smokiness is toned down and goes a different direction, and the mango top note makes this much more reminiscent of something like polo black. That being said, this is still a solid fruity, woody fragrance that is safe year round and projects/preforms decent enough for the price point. 7/10

This is a nice mango scent that I do enjoy. I think the oud isnt crazy strong if you are looking for a fragrance that has just a little bit of that amount and I definitely get a green mango skin type scent in the opening. My husbands’ comments are slaying me at the moment: “You smell like you went to town spraying some sauvage” “you smell like a teen uncle” “You smell like Johnny Depp if he lost the trial” Now my husband isn’t a fraghead in the slightest but I can find humor in his comments.

Despite what has been said in many reviews, Midnight Hour smells very little like Aventus. This actually smells much more like Polo Black. The mango is the most dominant note in this fragrance. It is essentially a fruity/fresh type scent. Im not exactly sure why this is called “Midnight Hour”, this is a tropical scent best suited summer nights. That being said it is an enjoyable fragrance that is more than likely unlike anything you’ve tried before. Overall 7.5/10 for me.