Steading

I still remember the very first Pineward order I ever placed, way back when none of these had any reviews - perhaps one or two here and there. I opened my little burlap drawstring sack, and just had my mind blown over and over again as each one of them transported me to various scent memories - childhood associations, painting pictures of autumn in New England, Christmas, snowy forest walks, and October hay rides through pumpkin patches. Steading particularly stood out as special. So let's finally review it, now that I've spent nearly two years with it. That note breakdown looks... Suspiciously familiar, doesn't it? I'll admit, I sought this one out because I wanted Sova, but couldn't find Sova. I thought, surely, this a play on Sova - how could it not be? Well, does it smell like Sova?! No. No it really doesn't. There may be some vague overlap, and certainly some shared ingredients, but Nick has done something entirely different, and entirely original. First off, is the obvious maple component. I'm guessing it's maple absolute - it's right at the forefront - still in the blend, but always making its presence known. Next, is the barley. This stuff is downright wheaty. Malty, even. I'm a craft beer nerd as much as a perfume nerd. This stuff is genuinely a perfumed barrel-aged maple barleywine. Sova is dry, raw, dirty and rustic autumn-in-a-bottle. Steading is sweet, rich, cozy, wheaty honeyed maple autumn-in-a-bottle. I don't want to mention Sova again here, because it's irrelevant. There's a significant tobacco presence. Leafy, moist, and hefty. The hay lends some drier leafy facets, preventing it from going totally Tobacco Vanille. I don't know what poplar is lending, but the hops do lend a resinous, slightly green component, lifting all these dense ingredients - but not above the beeswax, which grounds it all in that distinctive waxy honeycomb sweetness. I don't get any smoky or medicinal peat, but the pine needles do peak through - although more of a dried, golden needle, rather than super terpenic fresh needles. Everything is all glued together by a stunning leathery, feral castoreum note, which is essential here. Steading makes me envision a farmstead - tucked away somewhere in the fields of Northern New England. Vermont, maybe. Taps stick out of maple trees, with buckets of sap ready to boil down into syrup - the smell of which is present in the air. It's late october - the ground is lined with fallen pine needles from the deep forest that surrounds the farm. There are rows of wheat and barley ready for harvest, and a small hop yard next to them - the buds, fully mature. The beekeeping boxes are filled with honeycomb ready to collect, and the oaken shed - door ajar, is filled with bundles of various tobaccos - drying and curing. You take a seat on one of the hay bales and kick off your dirty leather boots, as you take in the fragrant smells of the farmstead, and the beautiful autumn foliage that drenches the surrounding land in colour. You're well prepared for winter. Performance is typical of Pineward, with this stuff just gluing itself to the skin for quite some time. Sillage is impressive for the first couple hours, settling a bit for several more, and remaining a skin scent for the remainder of the night. Obviously not intended for summer wear. It not only captures autumn, but it's just so rich and heavy, you wouldn't want it in the heat. As far as the Pineward lineup goes, this is ine of the quintessential core offerings, and despite the cheeky note breakdown, really bears little resemblance to anything. It's incredibly original, incredibly unique, and incredibly Pineward, to its very core. Stunning. A masterpiece.

Sampling Pineward Perfumes Steading, a spicy, resinous, borderline animalic blend that might be among the most provocative of the house that I’ve tried so far, with listed notes of tobacco, hay, beeswax, barley, dried needles, poplar, hops, maple, and wisps of peat smoke. The hay in particular seems prominent, and reminds me of the hay note in Slumberhouse Sova (in which it is similarly central), complemented by woody notes, the resinous beeswax, and a touch of sweetness via maple. It has the effective of being an ensemble of fall/winter notes, creating a mostly outdoorsy vibe that nonetheless has roughly foody aspects added to it, not as purely outdoors as the more arboreal entries in the line but not particularly gourmand-like like Apple Tabac or Revelries. Steading is certainly a bit less safe than some of the other woodier entries but I love it all the more for that. Again, I’ll need to retry it alongside some of the others but this is an easy love for me. Steading has the same pricing as the rest of the line, at $135/80 for 37/17ml. 8 out of 10

I ordered a sample set of six fragrances of Pineward so here is my first impression on Steading. I feel in this fragrance that the nose, Mr.Wells really love the nature. Excellent, high quality ingredients and very natural smell. I imagine being myself in the middle of a grassy field where I feel the wet hay and the pine trees around. Very complex so it needs 5-10 minutes after applying to set down. Dry down is very delicious. Just a sligthly sweet, very comforting, unique, calming, natural and long lasting smell. Sillage is moderate. I think this fragraces is not made to attract others around you but to enjoy it yourself. To enjoy the smell of the nature and to let you to dream being outside in the wonderful nature. Great fragrance.

The opening is pure maple syrup. Hot, thick, so so yummy. Hops and barley follow with a pleasant and distinct dryness. Very earthy not at all like a beer to me. A heavy lit beeswax candle warming the entire room. Pine is very quietly in the background, just adding a bit of foresty freshness. Could just be the fresh maple. Before it can fully dry down theres a rummy tobacco that feels perfectly soft. The final notes are dry grasses and maple honey wax. Beautifully blended. Steading screams autumn to me though I can absolutely see this wearing well in hot summer and frigid winters. Pineward is going to be the cause of my financial ruin.

Love the scent and the color! Perfect late-fall/winter. But I use it 10-20°C. Imo great for greatly varying weather in Mars-April or Sept-Okt. The opening is marvelous and the dry down tones down to tobacco/beeswax. Whish there was maple syrup or maple extract, moreover the Honey. But love em both! That would have added a greater woody element to the overall woody notes that are in this somewhere. Lastly the notes listed here aren't 100% accurate. Notes: tobacco, hay, beeswax, barley, dried needles, poplar, hops, maple, and wisps of peat smoke. A dense wheaty tobacco perfume with dried fir needles and honeyed maple sweetness.

Steading is one of those fragrances that makes me think that interesting compositions are also polarizing compositions. I love the opening on this one: loads of honey, hay, cumin, and hops--altogether pleasant on their own, but also evocative of pleasant memories of warm summer afternoons, wandering langorously around the barn in my chaps after a good ride. The tobacco comes out more strongly in the dry-down, but the honey-hay sweetness keeps it from feeling stale or cigarette-like. I get no direct animalic horse notes, but this might be the most grown-up horse girl (or boy, or whathaveyou) scent ever.

Green-resinous-animalic border crossing blend. Rather not for the fainted hearts out there. Notes present on my skin are beeswax, hay, castoreum, tobacco, hops and of course the signature of the line - conifers (I detect mostly pine). I’d say - if you like Slumberhouse Sova, but you’d like to have more extreme version of it - go for Steading from Pineward - you should be satisfied. Longevity is through the roof - over 12 hours with less than 3 sprays. It’s easy to overspray that one. Sillage is above average. I think it’s in my top 3 releases from the brand.

Conclusions after few wearings: This is somewhere in between Slumberhouse Sova and Slumberhouse Jeke. All together better than these two - in my opinion. Hay, tobacco, good dose of smoke and a pinch of sweetness, also some wet fur „thing” (I’m assuming castoreum). I’ve decided I want a bottle. My second favourite Pineward fragrance.

Another amazing fragrance. Quite complex and comforting. All the notes listed are present. Mainly are the maple syrup note, the peat, the barley, the conifers and castoreum(not listed here).

This is one of the samples from a bundle i got in 2020 that i can’t find because i used it all, its very much as polarizing as their other scents but i remember loving it

Second sample from Pineward. I like it, wife does not. Therefore, it will not make the list. I already have several fragrances that fit the dislike category from my wife. Certainly not looking to add more. Well, at least not this one. Its nice enough. Certainly maple and beeswax sweetness early on. Nice touch with the hay, barley, and hops. And I definitely get tobacco, which I love. The rest is just noise to me. Others may be able to pull the rest. Like I said, nice enough. Long lasting. Easy 10 hours from this as well. Heavy projection the first 2 or 3. Little closer after that. I went to breakfast and when I returned to my vehicle, it hit me in the face. Two sprays.

Steading is all about sweetness and warmth. It settles itself into a cloud of maple syrup, hay, tobacco, and honey in the base notes. The opening notes have a bit of freshness to them from hops and fir resin. This slight zing then takes on the sweeter, more enveloping qualities of a gourmand as Steading progresses. Pineward Perfumes for the most part have very powerful performance and Steading is no exception. You only need to apply a small amount to enjoy wearing it all day and into the evening. This is a fragrance to be worn at a cabin on a winter's adventure. It really comes alive in the cold winter air.

This is a smoked tobacco scent with honeyed beeswax, and syrupy sweet maple. There’s definitely boozy accords here too. This opens with strong and smoky tobacco and heavy beeswax, but it’s not overpowering. This scent feels really warm, enveloping, and has a smoky sweetness to it. The barley here adds a bready and wheat like accord and it blends nicely with a very earthy, dry hay. The pine needles add a fresh greenness in the background but it’s not super strong. I find this one to be a little more masc leaning but really enjoyed it.

Smells like fresh, loose-leaf chewing tobacco and then maple syrup... for a long time. I put one tiny dab on my hand last night before I showered, lets say 9 p.m. This morning my fiancé asked me why all the rooms in the house I'd been in smell like maple syrup. Later this morning I get to my office, wearing a lot of sprays of another fragrance (as is tradition), some being applied over said area and as soon as my coworker came in he said "Are you eating pancakes in here?" This stuff is monstrous!

In the bottle, this smelled amazing. The beeswax in the opening was beyond my wildest dreams. If I could find a true, one-note beeswax fragrance as accurate as this, I would bathe myself in it. Steading has other good notes, too, namely the hay and peat. However, on my skin, it quickly devolved. Spicy, smokey maple turned the corner into something I couldn't quite describe until my dad, who was standing on the other side of the room, asked where the indian food smell was coming from. have you ever had someone say something so annoying but so correct at the same time? I wanted to like steading so badly, but now I can *only* smell indian food. Don't get me wrong, it's the best cuisine on the planet, but I don't want to walk around smelling like cooked food unless it's because I just demolished a plate of shahi paneer bhurji. coupled with the enormous sillage, it's a hard no from me.

The opening is split: Up close, sweet fermenting plums, but just a few inches away it is more like -- I hate to say it -- garbage juice (are the hops to blame?). Fortunately that aspect subsides in a few minutes, around the same time the plums dry into honeyed prunes. The heart is a pantry stocked with tobacco leaves, beeswax, and cereal grains, but the beeswax gradually expands to overtake everything else. (I get no maple or peat smoke.) That early dry-down is pleasant enough, so I could recommend it to lovers of beeswax. But it gets to be a bit much after a while, with the beeswax somehow getting stronger and more pervasive with time. At the 10-hour mark I had to scrub it off.

This fragrance is very interesting, as many examples of Pineward's catalog are. While I am not the biggest fan of this one, I can absolutely appreciate the craftsmanship and natural aroma of this fragrance. Pineward uses the highest quality ingredients and they truly help these fragrances shine. The beeswax, hay, and tobacco really shine in this one, giving it a smoky, almost hazy feeling. This is added onto the earthy herbal notes of yerba mate and peat. This smells very dank and earthy to me, with a strange and smoky sweetness that just rubs me the wrong way. Still a fantastic quality fragrance, and I was glad to try it, even if I didn't like it so much.

You’ve time traveled to a medieval pub, probably in some sort of fantasy timeline where people took baths. It’s incredibly busy, it’s harvest time and everyone is celebrating - you’ve been shoved uncomfortably close to your friend who is showing off- chugging up a hot malty brew imbued with maple syrup while simultaneously packing some old loose leaf tobacco into a cob pipe with one hand. This one was boozier than I expected- and very heavy. It unfortunately gave me a headache but I might try again in fall.

Opens with a deep smokey maple, its dark, sticky fresh and unrefined thick like molasses, beeswax imparts raw untamed honey, the dry tobacco gives an earthy feel while searching a slight hoppiness can be felt similar to that from an IPA to have a good idea. The composition is rather complex and slowly shifts over time. 3 words - smokey,maple, dry

This fragrance helped me realize that I really don’t like smelling like tobacco or smoke. It just makes me feel dirty. If you can get past that, the honey and maple are pleasant enough, but I don’t think it’s enough to counteract the smokiness for me.

I very much wanted to like this fragrance, but it’s..... sickening. The opening is delicious, smells like warm maple syrup and I would love it if it remained this way. However it dries down into something awful. I think it’s the combination of tobacco and hops and there’s almost something dusty about it as well. I had to endure a full wear simply because this beast cannot be vanquished by isopropyl alcohol, soap, or water. It will also adhere to any fabric in the vicinity even if you did not spray it on there. The sweet thick honey final stage of this perfume could almost be pleasant, if it did not have that horrific middle stage. Instead it leaves me with the impression of being cloying, heavy, and inescapable.

I got a sample of this with my package, I didn’t think much of it and I placed it on my shelf with other samples i own...BIG MISTAKE. Whatever they put in this they made sure it projects like crazy and paralyses everyone within range before you even let it get out of the bottle. I usually enjoy smoky honey scents, even with hay... But this is just a lot, it kind of smells like you added maple syrup to chicken noodle soup and set it on fire

So totally different and kicks off with burnt sugar and the smell of beef stock. Extremely complex and too overwhelming for me and lingers. Deep, dark, sweet and smoke but that burnt smoke gets in the way. This is definitely a love or hate fragrance that I can see me getting used to but the initial feeling for me and my partner - no.

The notes listed make it an interesting scent to try. But when testing, the tobacco just ruines the whole scent, its all i can smell. I had to scrub this one of, it was aweful. I scrubt it really hard 3 times with soap, and i can still smell it on my arm. So if you're looking for a long lasting scent, this is it.

Not sure I have ever ran to scrub a fragrance off more aggressively before. Smells like what I imagine a horse pheromone fragrance would smell like...mixed with some dry and pungent tobacco and stale liquor. Barff.

From the Pinefarm's selection this is my favorite among the Apple Tabac. Steady reminds me Replica By the fireplace scent, but instead of peaky smoke effect, Steady gives a very pleasant "afterburn" effect like the smell few hours after wood burnt in the fire place. Yes, the beewax is coming there, but definetly in good, very smooth way. Similarly like the apple coming in Apple tabacs fragrance. Oh my, the settle down is really like the settle down in the real room of fire place, when the room cools down after the wood has burnt of! With Apple Tabac I do have to layer it with one birch-fragrance to get lasting projection, but this is Steady ready to go, as it is named for!

We keep and look after horses. This smells EXACTLY like the hay barn when we start to feed the horses the sweeter haylage, but not just the haybarn, but the entire scene of us standing in it with our smelly horse clothes on that haven't been washed in a couple of weeks and a horse is trying to stick his head in and grab some hay. I kinda get what LittleDinkums says about maggi seasoning. Not sure what gives that vibe, but if that was missing and was made a bit fresher to just smell like the haylage I may be more inclined to want to wear it.

4th sample from Pineward! This one is STRONG!! smells a bit barnyardy and farm-like but thats its own amazing charm, its a dank tobacco with the barley, hay and tobacco all working together. the sweetness comes from the honey which also smells like it came directly from a beekeeper, unfortunately i dont pick up much maple syrup. this is a great autumn fragrance, would love to wear this somewhere rural as the leaves fall around! overall 8/10!

An interesting arrangement of tobacco, coumarin, and maple notes, all coalescing into the smell of honey. Chergui for a beekeeper. Nice, but a bit of a novelty act. Also, a single spray outlasts four showers and a funeral.

Yep. Hay, tobacco, honey and then some pine. The pyramid is spot on to my nose. I like it a lot. Wintery, comforting, natural- all the things I like.

Smells like a tincture of St. John's Wart and tobacco. I don't get the maple. Good smell, but not my type. Treacle smells better.

Sickly sweet maple syrup barrel aged maggi seasoning 3/10 This has been another edition of "LittleDinkums Reductive Reviews."

something about this scent makes me feel ill. gave it away immediately.

Smells like burning horse shit and maple syrup lol

This smells exactly like Indian food.