Funerie

I love it. The smoky, dry, leathery (an antiquey smell, not an oiled leather smell - I think more like the idea of leather than like maintained tack or gear) opening hits you like a plume of dust, it settles to a resiny, very slightly sweet (like old dried roses), incensy, smoky smell. It's close to the smell I bake into my jacket by holding it up to campfire smoke and putting off washing it as long as I can, and reminds me of metaphysical stores, but the kind with walls of herbs, not plastic junk. It lingers for a long time (~8 hours on my skin), but after the first ~20 minutes, the area of effect is immediately around my body. My partner took a while to warm up to the leather smell, but ended up liking it too. I do not get any fungal, moist, damp, dank smell from this whatsoever. I was bracing myself for a dank, rotting, musty vegetation smell. I thought Eldritch smelled more actually fungal, mulch, and dark. Maybe it's because I'm inexperienced, but I'm having trouble identifying what's challenging about it outside of people maybe just not liking the strong smoky/incensy smell. A day or two later on the cuffs od my jacket, maybe I get a slight whiff of dried mushrooms, but mostly the remains of smoky incense. On its own, its very pleasant, but not entirely "me". I ended up wearing Caravansary (coniferous, camp-firey) with it and really enjoyed the combination. I took a walk and happened upon an old Moravian graveyard. I spent time looking at the piles of leaves, taking in the washed out colors of old leaves and moss, and crouching down to read all the weathered stones. I felt pensive, reflective, and calm while snuggling into my jacket and sniffing my wrists was delightful. I dusted my wool hat with it. I think if you're actually looking for a scary, decaying, actively rotting smell, this wasn't it! If you want to smell like smoke, leather, and incense, a mysterious and slightly metaphysical smell, with a surprising soft/sweet edge, you might like it. If it evokes any kind of decay, it's something long dead and mummified, beautifully, on purpose, under a dusty bell jar - but again, as an image, and not the literal slightly fishy smell of a mummified critter from the attic. I found this to be more of a daytime smell than a night smell. It smells a lot more leathery on clothes than on skin.

At first, I really couldn't stand this fragrance. I was planning to wear it as a part of a project where I was pairing a perfume to a character that I worked as for a haunting job, and I couldn't get past the dark, almost rotting smell that it seemed to give off. As I wore it, I realized that what it was giving off wasn't very forest-like, unlike what Funerie describes on the website. It was cloying, very alcoholic and deep, and too challenging for my very brand-new-to-perfumery nose. The dry-down, though, was more pleasant, and the oud comes out very well in the notes of this perfume. It reminds me of peaty earth, of a decaying forest full of death and the smell of mushrooms and dirt after a hearty rain, but without the note of petrichor. It was still too challenging to wear, and made me a little nauseated, but did last for a very long time. I think it was the myrrh and tobacco notes that stuck around for me, and the rose was lost in translation. I think personally the blood was there, but accumulative and not bold and in-your-face. I found that the more time I spent away from the perfume, however, the more I was drawn back to it and the more I wanted it on my skin again. I've tried a couple of other perfumes by Pineward, including Holy Cross and Eldrich, of which me and my partner both wore amicably (And Eldrich I will be buying a full bottle of, it was worth the small bottle blind-buy), and I would absolutely recommend Funerie for those that love a deep, thoughtful fragrance. I think it's got its moments of when it should be worn, and it's definitely a challenging fragrance, but I've come to love it for what it is. It's haunting, it's illustrious, it's a hunter deep in the woods flaying deer and smoking cigarettes. There's an embodiment that does tell a story, even if it doesn't quite match the description of what Pineward puts out on their website. I think it's one of my favorite smells to this day.

A study in Decay. "Death" would have been another aptly chosen name for this composition. What Nick managed to pull off with this one is incredible. A perfume so dark, primitive, and challenging that yet manages to stay poised throughout the wear, mysterious, sexy, and even inviting. It feels like a script from Edgar Allan Poe, a Danse Macabre, not just a mindless puddle of concentrated and unusual raw materials. It is compelling. It opens up with a powerful Morel Mushroom note, meaty, organic, and earthy. Shortly after, the rest of the notes start to unveil. The scent evolves as a whole, rather than showing a classical progression. Accords like rose, leather, frankincense, agarwood, and myrrh interplay like being inside a whirlwind. At times, some of them unveil more than others, and they go back and forth like that. However, the main players, to my nose, are always the mushroom, the leather, and the resins. Therefore, it smells, for the most part, like a centuries-old leather garment that has been dragged through soil, and infused with the smoke of burning resins. The rose pops in and out, withered, lifeless. The oud and the cedar play together to create a woody accord in which the oud dominates. I feel that the mushroom and the oud work beautifully together, as the yeasty facets in these complement each other. The mushroom note dominates throughout the wear, imbuing an organic feel to the composition. A unique perfume. A rite of death celebrating nature's decay, and the dead have exquisite taste. I think Treacle just got dethroned for my favorite Pineward perfume. Review based on the original formula, yellow juice. The new one differs greatly, unfortunately. IG:@memory.of.scents

Been wanting this one for so long and I finally got a sample. Off the bat it is so smoky and warm. The blood note in this is striking and I’m surprised I was able to pick it up right away. It’s hot and thick with a touch of mineralic sweetness. Not dissimilar to Toskovats “Inexcusable Evil”. The smoke is, at first, a freshly lit fire of rotten logs. Has a very alive and choking quality to it that you really only get from a face full of wind blow campfire. That fiery heat cools rather quickly to an almost musty ashen residue. Like it lit up on your skin and burned down to dusty coals. Adore this. There is certainly a heavier blend of incense in the beginning. That I feel smooths into a well worn leather. You’re left with an arsonist leaving the scene of their latest crime donning a vintage leather jacket. Maybe a tinge of blood drying on their face as they drive through a hot summer night in a smoked out old truck. Honestly very wearable and another winner from Pineward. Update: I was able to get a sample of the original formulation. '22 is sweeter and stickier in my opinion. They are very similar and I love them both deeply but '22 might come out on top here. The florals remain newly dead and drying, smoke still swirls about but something about this feels more harmonic and mellow. The blood note isn't as strong but a warm metallic sweetness is still present. Raw honey comes to mind. Though it feels wild and dripping out of a hive grafted to a dead pine. Reminds me of vulture bees. As always, with Pineward, I'm head over heels in love with this original formulation. I need this stuff by the barrel.

If you want to wear a smell to offput people by your brooding nature, here it is. It’s described as having smoke, leather, resin, mushrooms, oak moss, decaying roses, and notes of blood. It’s supposed to smell like a funeral.. and I see why. Think about trudging through a forest on a damp fall evening to come across a secluded graveyard. The stones are covered in moss and there’s a pile of soil next to a deserted plot of land. This perfume is definitely meant to feel isolated, old, and decaying. If you were to ask me what it smelled like, upon the test strip it smelled like tongue depressors. Now on my skin? Evil tongue depressors. The nature is so green and dead it’s almost overwhelming, the smoke note at the opening is suffocating! It’s like this horrible sense of existential dread put into a cologne so your scent bubble can remind you that your death in inevitable I scrubbed this perfume off immediately, I couldn’t relax smelling it in every breath. Even after a deep painful scrub, the scent remained. The scent that clings to my skin now is still earthy, dirty, woody, but it has a tinge of sweetness. A faint memory, an inkling of sweetness that is enamoring and leaves you smelling for more