The title says it all. I got a sample of Alexandria II last year and was completely blown away by the scent profile and the performance, absolutely top shelf frag from a house full of top shelf frags. Xerjoff has so many absolute masterpiece fragrances in their lineup and A2 is probably my favorite, alternating with Naxos depending on the day. The only downside, the price tag: $175 for a 50ml is a hard pill to swallow. I tried the Paris Corner clone called Prodigy (Brown) a few months ago, and while I enjoyed it, I felt it to be severely lacking in several areas. Upon reading reviews for Somewoody, it sounded too good to be true, especially given Zara's consistently inconsistent status within the community. I bought blindly, a practice I rarely engage in these days, and hoped for the best.
Upon initial spray I was a little disappointed, the A2 DNA is certainly present but so is a slightly dirty spicy (cumin?) note, my heart somewhat sank. Much to my delight within a few brief moments, that smell dissipated and I was left with an absolutely stellar recreation of the beloved Alexandria II. The scent profile is nearly identical to my nose, it's somewhat lighter in the lavender up top and and Oud on the bottom, but it's all there! What a delightful surprise!
Longevity is excellent at 10+ hours on skin with 4 sprays, not quite the 20+ hours with 2 sprays of the Xerjoff, but this is less than 20% of the asking price (currently $35 on the official Zara US website)! It easily lasts days on clothing as well. It is certainly lighter than the original, but at this price the performance is more than sufficient. The projection/Sillage is also excellent, I find a 4 foot scent bubble for no less than 4 hours with the same 4 sprays, sitting closer to my body for the following 3 hours before becoming a skin scent for another 4 hours or so.
As for use cases, I would say they mirror the original, I do wear it day or night and I will even wear it in the Spring and cool Summer days because I adore it so much, even though I know many scent aficionados may frown on this practice. I do like layering it with Luna Rossa Sport in top, which shares some similarities (lavender, vanilla, amber dominant) albeit much fresher than SW/A2. The original Xerjoff was marketed as Unisex, but I find that Zara made the right choice when the made the decision to market this fragrance towards men. I do think a woman could wear this, but it definitely leans more masculine in my opinion (and I tend to classify most frags as Unisex).
There really are no drawbacks to this fragrance in my opinion, with the exception of it being more cold weather compatible, and Zara availability can be very spotty at times. This is truly a 10/10 fragrance for me, it literally makes buying A2 redundant. I wish all of Zara's creations could achieve the same level of quality as this.
