Alexandria II from Xerjoff is Masterpiece and sits in my TOP10 best fragrances I’ve ever smelled. This wasn’t love at first sniff. I got a sample in the begging of my fragrance journey and it was summer (wrong time of year and my brain was “shocked” by new notes I smelled as beginner). I had to put it aside. Then it was a winter and I started to more a more enjoy challenging fragrances and I was getting in to stage oud nuances won’t surprise me anymore (western, animalic, skunky…I knew some fragrances needs right temperature and some needs hour on skin to start developing). I pulled it out again and maaan I loved it so much I had to own full bottle asap. Trick here is you need to be careful with spraying (2 sprays is enough trust me) and fragrance needs to benefit from colder weather so it can open up and show all the facets and stages of this gem! To me there is nothing animalic. It starts with beautiful palisander wood coupled with lavender. After few minutes smooth rose steps in but it’s nothing “rose overpowering”. Cedar & Lili of the valley can be also spotted that move the fragrance to very dry side. Final stage and dry-down is all about “western oud” smoothen by sandalwood combination with amber. To me this is a masterpiece from the Xerjoff House and it’s very unique. Many compliments received and this screams niche. Is completely unisex! Performance & silage is 12+ hours to me. I sprayed it on hand, later took a shower and I could very clearly still smell it on hand entire day (some fragrances don’t even smell after 3 hours of spraying like Alexandria II after shower). It’s definitely super-power mode and amazing gem created by Chris Maurice!