Velvetine
Pineward Perfumes (2021)

Pineward Velvetine is an early 2021 release, and one of my absolute favourite offerings from the house.

These days, there are few perfumes that I smell for the first time, and I'm just completely, utterly, and immediately blown away by them, but Velvetine was one of them. I'll review it properly in a moment, but I like to create little imaginary scentscapes for Pineward bottles, so you can entertain me, or skip to the breakdown.

I was a '90s baby. It was a very different time. Certain nostalgic olfactory triggers that bring me back there can be very powerful, and most of very welcome - particularly in this increasingly chaotic adult life. Christmas was very big in my home - just my mother and I. There was always this sacred ritualism when it came to decorating the tree. My mother had several stuffed animals, plush Christmas decorations, and fabric ornaments - many of which she kept since her own early childhood, in the late '50's and '60s. Years of placing them in the fir and spruce Christmas trees had impregnated them with the scent of conifer balsam. The fabric itself also had a distinct aroma - almost woolen, slightly musty and stale - the smell of old books and age. The faintest woody sweetness had been imbued in them as well - between the decades of cinnamon-scented pinecones, and perhaps getting just a tad too close to the fireplace once or twice, gently singing the edges. This is Velvetine for me. For others, perhaps it'll be an old, tattered Christmas sweater, or an old rug, still retaining the ghost of holidays passed. Or perhaps it'll just smell like Play-Doh to them. All I know is, this one transports me to childhood Christmases, when life was simple and carefree.

Review:

Velvetine is a cypress-dominant perfume, but decidedly different from the usual fresh, brisk, clean fougere take on cypress. You get the green cypress scales, absolutely, like crushing them between your fingers, and it's certainly coniferous, although quite different from a fir, spruce, or pine needle scent. This resinous cypress is pinned up against a backdrop of warm, sweet, cozy labdanum, leathery black vanilla bean, and a heavy base of musky ambergris. That signature Pineward mulling spice and cinnamon blend is showcased here in spades, with the cinnamon being incredibly unique - woody and spicy, and not at all resembling apple pie spice or red hots. The clove/nutmeg portion of that is a bit more amplified and in the spotlight here. For the first couple of hours, the cypress remains fixed to the top, constantly singing a fragrant, foresty, coniferous tune, but as it wears on, the warm, dark, cozy base of vanilla, cloven spice, and resinous labdanum begins to overtake it. Between the ambergris and labdanum, the final hours of its wear can actually translate a little animalic and dirty, but it's still beneath that diffusive cloven spice and the dark, dry vanilla. To my nose, everything from the cypress down to the vanilla is nothing but natural absolutes and tinctures. It's incredibly real, incredibly genuine, and if there are any aromachemicals in this one, they aren't detectable to my nose.

Velvetine clocks in at over 30% concentration. Expect the thick, dark, molasses-coloured juice to, one, stain skin and light fabrics, and two, perform like nothing else. On skin, you can expect this to project very, very heavily for the first 3-4 hours, and will remain for close to 20 hours before it completely fades, and on fabric, this will stick for months. Semi-permanent. In a poetic little twist, a sweater sprayed with Velvetine seems to mimic the very effect it reminds me of - the woolen fabric - forever imbued with the scent of Christmas through the years - the tree needles, the spice, and the musty smell of time and age. It all seems to come full circle with this one.

For some reason, Velvetine seems to be one of the less revered Pineward offerings. That's a shame, because it's the only one to highlight cypress as the focal point, and remains quite unique when compared to the rest of the line. I cannot cite anything that even remotely resembles this one, and I would encourage anyone checking out Pineward to grab a sample of this one and just try it.

A nice spicy, cozy unisex with spices and some famous Pineward conifers signature, making it consistent with the rest of the line.

On my skin it is fairly linear, however I do detect singular notes such as cloves, cinnamon or vanilla. The base is amber-vanilic and built, strenghtened up with labdanum. Another unisex, this one even maybe leaning towards women, but just a little bit.

Longevity is around 8 hours, sillage is just above average. I'm quite neutral with Velvetine.

On initial application, Velvetine goes on me as an old-fashioned sweet/powder/spice, Granny's handcream and cookies. On my skin, the spice wandered off almost immediately, and shifted to a very generic "potpourri aroma", the kind that gets infused into dyed plant material sold in bags, not anything you'd get on mixing your own scented materials. After a few hours, the clove came back and wandered wispily around me, adding just a touch of dark'n'spicy to the rest of it.

I get what it's going for, warm cosy winter snuggles, a holiday of a fragrance, and I see why it's a hit among the indie perfume set. I'd probably enjoy it on someone else, but for whatever reason it REALLY isn't for me, and I disliked wearing it quite a bit.

Pineward Perfumes Velvetine is a nice sweet/woody/spicy mix with some dirty hints as well, with notes of ambergris, cypress, vanilla, clove, labdanum, and fir. It has the fir/cypress center that so many in the line have, with a relatively safe balance between the dirtiness of ambergris and the sweetness of vanilla, both quite noticeable, along with the clove, providing the spicy midway between dirty and sweet.

Velvetine does have a smoothness that lends credence to its name, and does feel like one of the more agreeable options at the house, not so pine/fir/spruce-intense as it is a sort of sweet/spicy/woody ensemble, which, like pretty much the entire line, conjures both the cooler weather and the outdoors.

It’s definitely giving me a bit of déjà vu, as well, in its comfort, so while it’s a little less boundary-pushing than some of the other entries in the Pineward line, it’s very easily lovable and performs well, and is another great entry in the line.

Its pricing, like the rest of the line, if $135/80 for 37/17ml.

8 out of 10