Alexandria II Xerjoff 2012 Parfum

Batch: January 2025, open for editing if it changes.

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So, where should I start - I am an absolute Oud opponent. I hate it. I have since my childhood. Growing up in a family where on my father's side, everyone strolled around with sticky, oily Oud on their skin. Kisses left, kisses right, and with each kiss, I felt worse and worse because this mushy, aggressive stuff was now sticking to me. Me and oriental fragrances - my arch-enemy.

So what do I do? I buy a 100ml bottle of Alexandria II as a blind buy. Hey, life has to stay exciting; you only learn from mistakes!

And there it stood, the box - typical Xerjoff. Beautiful, solid, elegant packaging, and upon opening, the unmistakable Xerjoff box smell. Somewhat citrusy, with a hint of synthetic and cardboard. Hey, somehow I would also like the Xerjoff box smell as a fragrance? So far, they all smelled somewhat like that.

But anyway, it’s about Alexandria II. Based on many reviews, opinions were somewhat divided. Many celebrated it, but often with the detail that this fragrance is very noticeable, takes some getting used to, an "adventure." That's all well and good, but I don’t want to send my surroundings on a getting-used-to adventure every time; they should like me from the start.

Whatever, why should I care about the opinions of others? It has to go on my skin. One spray, I like to be cautious.

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First impression - tar poop. Do you know that feeling when you’re sitting on the toilet, and something comes out that smells somewhat like tar and backside? That’s exactly how this smells. Musty, toxic somehow, burnt rubber, tar, just unequivocally unpleasant. Two people can now confirm this to me, without me having provided that input. Their first statement was "backside (nicely phrased)" and burnt rubber.

I can confirm. It just smells like that. However, I learned one thing - I am an absolute Oajan fanatic. I HATED that fragrance. Why? Because of the opening. I wondered how someone could spray something like that on their skin. Half an hour later, I was in love, and today it is my absolute favorite. Sometimes you just have to hide for 30 minutes before going out to feel good outside and smell like a rice pudding-induced Christmas market.

And with Alexandria II, that’s exactly the case. Marked by the liquid backside in the bottle, the skin masked in what some might excrete with irritable bowel syndrome, I now wait for something... positive. One minute, two, three, five, ten...

I go back to working from home while the note of end product essence floats around me.

But then something new... vanilla. Wood. Something smells totally sweet, yet herbaceous. As if you went straight from a successful bowel movement into a rather masculine bakery.

I smell my arm, but I still sense a hint of backside and fresh bicycle tires. But 5, let it be 10 centimeters, and the experience is already quite different. Vanilla, somewhat creamy, woody, a hint of cinnamon, but not nearly as strong as Oajan when it comes to the cinnamon.

I smell no flowers, no lavender, no roses; maybe the bottle is still too fresh, one can only speculate. I smell more gourmand, but not in the "I want to eat you" sense, rather in the "smells delicious, but not edible" way.

In the background floats something indescribable, which I can probably only attribute to the Oud. Somewhat leathery, but not animalistically bad. However, nice, and not bad. And actually, I hate Oud fragrances above all. Strange, maybe I have to explore a new niche after all these years. I always associate Oud with a dirty sweet horse stable.

The sillage is wonderful, especially after half an hour. You are surrounded by such a masculine-soft aura, slightly sweet, but not synthetic, rather incredibly pleasant. Spicy, but not aggressive as one knows from many designers; there is only a hint of spice. Vanilla and amber dominate, a radiantly warm fragrance, perfect for colder winter days. No, absolutely no comparison to Naxos, which smells like children's play dough with a bit of vanilla, but some like to compare both fragrances.

This one feels completely different. Calm, down-to-earth, luxurious, noble, but not aggressive. It doesn’t present itself as strongly as many claim, but another hint that this bottle is still a bit too fresh. The sillage is close; in the wind, you can smell it, but otherwise, it stays rather close to the body, at least with 2-3 sprays maximum. I will never use more, with any fragrance. I am anti "beast mode," my fingernails curl when I hear that. I just want to smell good for myself; others shouldn’t be negatively influenced by that, only positively.

And so far, it does that very well. It stays close to the body but presents itself quite strongly there.

And it lasts, and how it lasts. 24 hours later, tested each day for 2 days, and it still clings and radiates. On the arm, there is absolutely no backside smell left; a spicy creamy vanilla dominates, which in no way comes off as off-putting or takes getting used to. Quite the opposite - it smells like a typical crowd-pleaser to me; it smells like what many oriental designers try to be but fail because there’s always some chaos. Here, however, it is ordered; thought has gone into it, perfected, until something incredibly pleasant emerged that does not come off as aggressive but invitingly beautiful, somehow.

Alexandria II is a beautiful fragrance that spreads fear and terror in the first minutes. A wolf in poop costume, but it sheds that quite quickly.

Price-wise, it also spreads fear and terror, but I just wanted to try it out.

It stays in the cabinet; I like it.