The Pineward Bottle Debacle

I really dislike doing posts like this. However, I feel like that I have something to say about the situation. Pineward, a brand that I adore, was found to list their bottles at 57 ml and 37 ml, respectively. It turns out that these bottles were actually only 52 ml and 32 ml.

I know what the initial thought was, as I had it as well. Nick was cheating us. My heart sank into my stomach and I couldn’t fathom the thought of the brand that I loved so much doing this. A brand that I have spoken about many times on I Fragrance, and that I always purchased bottles from. It was a sinking feeling of anger that overwhelmed me. I was not happy. I never asked Pineward for anything outside of continuing to make perfume for people like me.

I began to run through my favorite scents of his…The essence of an autumn hayride from my youth, complete with fallen nuts and hot cocoa, the crispy apple orchards in Apple Tabac, the wheaty beeswax of Steading, the sappy fir resin entangled in earthy roots of Fanghorn, the sawdust sprinkled woody wonder that reminded me of my uncle’s furniture shed with Gristmill, and the New England countryside of Pastoral. I was afraid that this brand, which understands my desire for rustic and rural scents was gone, and I could never look at them the same way again.

Before I get into this, I know the picture isn’t the best, but I wanted to tackle this while it was on my mind instead of taking new photos.

The initial shock faded, and I began to think rationally. Nick, the owner of Pineward, has a stellar reputation as being generous and kind, plus his passion for perfume is rarely matched. His style of perfumery is rare, as only Slumberhouse, Hendley, Havenhollow, and Folkwinds can do this sort of dense, rugged American perfumery inspired by nature.

The question remains. Why would he do this intentionally? The answer is simple. He didn’t. It logically makes no sense, as if it was intentional, people would find out.

It was likely an unfortunate oversight. I don’t believe that someone like Nick, who could charge double for his scents, would try to cheat anyone. I don’t know him personally, and I have never had a conversation with him. From what I know about him, he just isn’t that type of guy.

He probably just assumed the sizes were correct. I know you could say that his batches would have had more in them after filling the bottles, but he probably didn’t even notice. It’s easy to make such an oversight. He very well could have been judging off the bottle size and not his own measurements.

Pineward’s prices have always been fair. Considering how many naturals he uses, and the fact that he makes some of them himself, he is already not making as much as he could. Where else can you get a natural hay scent for under $200? You can’t because hay absolute is expensive. If Nick was out to cheat people, he would have charged triple what he does. However, he doesn’t. His fragrances are accessible to most people. That should tell you all that you need to know.

Also, we have no idea if this was a thing with the etched bottles or only the new ones. it very well could go back to the beginning, but I am still sure it’s not intentional.

His fix? Knocking the price down on the 52 and 32 MLs to compensate. Some people say that the math doesn’t add up for the previous price per ml. However, that doesn’t matter to me, as his fragrances were already priced well. No need to nitpick the semantics. We all know about inflation as well.

Also, he is offering 15% off the new price, or any order over $80 until the 28th. Pineward rarely does sales, so this is actually a big way for Nick to apologize.

So, I will continue to support Pineward as I always have. This is a minor thing, and I highly doubt it was intentional. We are all human, folks. We all make mistakes, and I am sure that Nick feels worse than any of us about this. Let’s not make a mountain out of an ant hill.