Hayloft
Pineward Perfumes (2022)

This is a strange one on my skin: It’s a soft sweet hay/grass/woody melange with hints of eraser rubber and vanillic notes. I kind of get toasted almond if I think in that direction, and the dusty wheat is there. It’s woody and grassy for sure and I definitely get a beautiful hay in there, but I’m not sure the entire blend is complimentary on me. The lavender and almond make it almost leathery or possibly they are the eraser rubber scent, and there’s an ozone note almost like wet ink, but overall the impression is a pasty murk. I really don't love this one. Hayride, that one I love.

Sampling Pineward Perfumes Hayloft, a late 2022 release and another hay-led scent featuring gourmand elements (like Hayride, in that respect) while not being fully gourmand, with standout notes of hay, lavender honey, toasted almond, and dusty wheat. It has the spicy floral quality of lavender honey, with just enough sweetness in the mix of honey and nutty notes to counteract the spiciness and animalic quality of the hay, very much a concoction where the honey and hay tell much of the story, with the sweet and spicy in balance.

Like Hayride, Hayloft is a superlative performer, among the best of the house, which generally has high-performing, high-concentration perfumes. Hayloft’s concentration is 31%, essentially extrait de parfum, and it projects for a good but continues to last a while. Like the rest of the line, Hayloft is priced at $205/135/80 for 57/37/17ml.

This is right up there with among my favorites of the line. I’m loving how perfumer/owner Nicholas Nilsson is exploring different areas, beyond the pine/pine resin-focused scents. The catalogue is becoming increasingly rich.

8 out of 10