Ponderosa

This fragrance could give Fille en Aiguilles a real run for its money as far as my favorite compositions to wear around Christmas Festivities go. I remember sampling it back in 2022, expecting a total wreck, since I dislike both pine-heavy and sweet-gourmand perfumes. And it turned out to be a brilliant discovery. It is both a pine-dominant and a gourmand perfume, but the balance (and this is the key word here) of the two parts is so finely tuned that people like myself who struggle with both could find plenty to love about Ponderosa. Now, I never had the chance to smell Ponderosa Pine trees in real life. Supposedly, they do emanate these sweet vanillin, butterscotch, caramel, and cinnamon-like facets. What Nick did with this composition is to create a cozy and enveloping pine scent built around this unique-smelling coniferous by amplifying the innate “gourmand” and sweet facets of the tree. Therefore, you’ll get pine, and loads of it. However, it smells incredibly comfy and warm, delicious, and sweet, without ever becoming obnoxious or falling into the gourmand category (at least for me). My main issue with most pine-forward perfumes is that they lack warmth. When it comes to woody materials, I prefer the warmer, more exotic varieties. Hence, for me, coniferous notes have never presented much of an interest. But with Ponderosa, the warmth is present, in heaps. It works so well that you could feel it enveloping you. It is the warmest and coziest pine perfume I know, while always staying true to its identity, without succumbing to excessive sweetness. Just enough to convert even an unbeliever like me. Now, imagine if you were a die-hard Conehead. Fille en Aiguilles is my quintessential choice, while Ponderosa is the one that keeps me warm. IG:@memory.of.scents

As mentioned, the notes listing for this fragrance are wrong. Can someone please correct the note listing to the actual notes listed from the Pineward Perfumes website, which are: Ponderosa resin, ponderosa needles, cedar, vanilla, strawberry, cinnamon, butterscotch, beeswax, raisin cookies. The biggest mistake with the notes listing here is the complete absence of Ponderosa pine resin and Ponderosa pine needles, which are the main players in this spectacular fragrance and which are supported by the other notes, namely the butterscotch, strawberry, etc., to help put across the incredible smell of the wet bark of an actual Ponderosa Pine tree. They smell magical and this fragrance just dials the magic up a couple of notches. Ponderosa has become my favorite fragrance because it captures the epic beauty of the Ponderosa Pine Tree and also brings an elevated, magical element with the superior blending by Nick Nilsson. A magnum opus of a fragrance for a coniferous loving perfume hound like me. Thank you Nick for making this very special perfume! Highest recommendation from me.

It's a really beautiful scent but it is a lot: it's gourmand, it's spicy, it's woody. As you can imagine, it packs a wallop of a punch. So a little bit goes a long way. That said, everything is photorealistic- nothing synthetic or artificial. It's a very warm cozy smell. I get vanilla, butterscotch, pine forest, maybe some cinnamon, probably some cloves. Definitely for fall and winter months and not a year round fragrance. I may try experimenting with some layering to find a complimenting scent that calms this down some. I really like the smell but don't see how or where I would wear this. I'm too old for something this busy and I definitely could not wear this to work. Even if this is not your cup of tea, I would recommend buying a sample vial just to experience it. Although it's not for me, it really is something special.

Here we go. This one lands in the top tier of Pineward fragrances for me. IMO this brand is at its best when the woodsy theme is present but dialed back a bit from full-on photorealism. In Ponderosa, the gourmand elements contribute to achieving that goal, but they don't swing it fully into gourmand territory. They just bolster it and make it wearable enough to wear in polite society. It smells nothing like Cape Heartache, but it operates under the same basic theory, tossing in some faint strawberry and sweetness that balances out any scratchy woodsy note that might otherwise be too prominent. This is really well-composed, performs well, and achieves the goal of being both rustic and outdoorsy while remaining enjoyable as an actual perfume. So far this one and Gristmill are the bellwethers of the brand for me.

Finally got around to trying these Pineward gems, and Ponderosa is a runner up for full bottle purchase. Such a photo-realistic tree smell but gourmand. Sweet forest in a bottle! As if I bit right into the bark and tasted butterscotch/amber sweetness in it. Sweet pancake syrup over snow (if you ever did that as a kid growing up in the snowy mountains). Very reminiscent to me of the tall Ponderosa pines in the Yosemite area. A sniff of this takes me back to the times of exploring the woods with the sweetness of youth. Incredible fragrance, it's not just a scent it's a full-on experience. If you love the forest, and gourmand accords blended together in harmony, you may like this. It's extremely unique as are the other Pinewards I tried, definitely sample these first.