Los Vientos de Santa Ana

Yep, this is tumbleweeds and cacti under an unforgiving sun - with the slightest hint of a breeze from a far off ocean - just a faint scent of ozone and all that lies between, picked up by the winds and linger on their way to the sand. I love this - the varied and interesting scents of desert dry air in a bottle - not an easy feat, but a lovely quirky wear. If you want "regular", go to the Dior or Azzarro counter. If you want something with artistic merit and thought, find yourself a bottle of this. I purchased my sample and the contents and opinions are mine.

Opens up with a beautiful, bone-dry scent that reminds you of crisp dried hay and the sand in your feet. After a few minutes, the top notes dry down to a cool, woody masculine scent, with grassy vetiver and cold birch. A walk at the beach, and then a dip in the cold plunge pool

I appreciate the perfumer's vision. The image of bone-dry things being agitated by desolate winds appeals to my imagination, but I'm disappointed by what feels more like absence than agitation. I get a strong, acrid blast of orange-infused birch tar at first. It's followed by a fainter smokiness, bitter orange rind, a dash of salty ambergris and a slightly sweet Guaiac wood in the perfume's heart. None of this inspires any feeling in me other than disappointment. The perfume is strangely flat, as if it's depressed or tranquilised. I've given it a couple of hours on my skin but it's as dead as the bone-dry tumbleweeds blowing through the windswept desert. Distillation: fabulous vision tumbleweeds dancing in wind scent of depression

LVDSA is a fairly straightforward fragrance. I quite enjoy the "acrid" orange-infused smokey (from the birch) opening. Soon an airy Ambergris and an overload of generic Amberwood monotone takes over. And hereafter the fragrance plunges into the abyss. The drydown (for me at least) is scratchy, annoying, chemically & wash worthy. Instagram: @scentsperience

I loved the opening of this fragrance! A gorgeous blend of orange, green aromatics, wood and a healthy bed of ambergris. It evoked a walk along a windswept beach on a blustery day. Toes pressing into the thick wet sand, passing by coniferous trees bent back, like an olympic gymnast, from the heavy blast of ocean wind and hurricanes. My favorite part of the fragrance is gone in about 30 to 40 minutes replaced by a pleasant warm wood.