Apple Tabac
Pineward Perfumes (2020)

Apple Tabac is one of the very few scents from Nick Nilsson, the author and creator of Pineward, which I would put in the middle between daring compositions of his and a safe blind buy.

It is a little daring because it’s got booze in it. If you like boozy scents or would like to get into boozy scents this is where you can easily start. On the other hand it’s got tobacco - a note not everyone likes and is not a total crowd pleaser, however tobacco here is rather mild and tamed.

It is a safe blind buy because it’s got very realistic, nice smelling soft apple. It’s almost like an apple potpourri or fall scented candle. It has some similarities with Slumberhouse Mond (apple) but in general Apple Tabac and Mond are totally different perfumes.

I recommend Apple Tabac as the one to start with when you want to explore Pineward.

The solitary standout of the dram collection that I loathed on first sniff. This smells exactly, and I mean exactly, like my recollection of one of the cheap shampoos that rotated through the family bathroom in the eighties, based on whatever my mother picked up on the weekly shopping trip. I got fake apple, over a whole lot of clean laundry musk. The only good thing I can say about it is that the fake apple varietal is a relatively retiring tween bodywash specimen and not one of the more aggressively eldritch ones.

The most realistic apple I've ever smelled. Longevity through the roof. I have yet to sample a bad Pineward.

Big, very realistic apple. Sadly, equally as powerful is celery, celery and more celery. Maybe it's a skin chemistry thing but the celery was unrelenting for almost an hour and I had to scrub this one. Looks like another reviewer had the same issue.

I originally got a sample of this a year ago, right when the branch launched. I liked the idea of apple-tobacco, but was curious at how well it would be pulled off. I was pretty impressed at the realistic, juicy, apple note that came through when I sampled it. It was intense and probably the most apple-forward scent I had found -- very autumnal and interesting.

Fast-Forward a year later, and I decided to revisit this one for the fall, with thoughts of buying a bottle. I was amazed at how much the scent had changed from what I experienced before. The apple was much more subdued now, and I got a very off-putting note that emerged and intensified as I wore it. Within an hour I had to scrub it off, but could unfortunately still smell that off-putting accord for hours afterwards. As a big fan of artisanal perfume, this is something that I rarely experience.

I'm giving this one a neutral rating, as an average of my two experiences. I'm not sure if the perfume just changed that much as it macerated for a year, or if my perception also changed a bit in that time. But regardless, I was thoroughly disappointed when I revisited this one.

Apple Tabac is my first sampling of the house of Pineward Perfumes, based in the Western US, which launched last year in 2020 but that I just discovered recently by chance, featuring many scents inspired the temperate forests of the region, curated by perfumer/owner Nicholas Nilsson.

Apple Tabac fittingly involves a lot of red apple, but not a ton of tobacco, immediately reminding me of apple cider and similar, spiced apple products (apple brandy, perhaps apple sauce), so very comforting, delightful, and mostly gourmand-like, with the notes of resins and dry fruits featuring prominently. It does not smell exactly like a food item, as the tobacco is part of the mix, but the blend is quite sweet and rich, and leans more toward a stewed / cooked apple vibe than a fresh apple, at least to my nose.

Apple Tabac pivots leans toward a daring, darker scent but in the scheme of cold-weather-evocative perfumes is fairly safe and agreeable, and I think that actually makes for a great introduction to a brand. Even those like me who adore a number of the darker, edgier scents of Slumberhouse or Hendley might nonetheless take comfort in Apple Tabac, as it hits the “stewed fruit with spices and resins” combination very effectively.

Performance wise, it’s quite strong and dense; I applied very little juice from the dabbers before a scent bubble was present, and I can fairly easily smell the fragrance on my neck and wrists more than an hour into wearing.

Apple Tabac (and every perfume in the catalogue) is priced at $135/80/20 for 37/17/4ml, with individual samples sold for each, as well the sample pack of all 11 scents (1ml each in dabber vials) for $45, which is what I bought.

7 out of 10