This is a dry (not juicy, not sweet) apple with a smoky tobacco lingering alongside it. There’s something almost bitter or waxy here (to me it reads like the skin of the apple) + something alcoholic. The bitterness fluctuates with wear, the tobacco changing its mind on whether it wants to be sweet or harsh. There’s more of that “tingling” from the fir (fresh, green notes tend to present like that to me). The drydown is a bit like a caramel apple, nothing tart, but a hint of that opening apple that never quite fades away, enveloped in an almost chewy caramel! The caramel aspect is definitely from the dried fruits, but somehow on me it can smell a bit BO-like — savory and almost spiced? Something similar happens with Gristmill. Smell faded in about 3 hours. Not my favorite, but I think I will need to retry this in autumn. 2/5

Wow I love this one! Fresh light greens with a creamy sandalwood drydown, almost incenselike. It’s resinous and smells like coke when it first goes on. Like a very mentholy, almost sharp green-brown, as if it were fizzy. I normally am not the biggest fan of herbal scents but this balances it in a way to offer a more refreshing, less stale vision of Herbs. After a bit, I get more of the bark of the tree itself, woody and still prickly. Eventually, a sweet, creamy sandalwood comes wafting through, first noticeable from a distance. It takes me by surprise at first, and when I lean closer to my wrist to sniff, I lose the scent. Over time, it melds more with the other prickly woods in the scent, smoothing them out, presenting more cohesively. It was okay in terms of projection, and I found I often caught whiffs as I moved around. The dry down is sandalwood with an almost textural element from the other woody/resinous elements, and a touch of green remaining. Lost projection at around 2-3 hours in but 8 hours later I could still smell it on my skin, I think this is the most long lasting Pineward scent I’ve tried. 5/5

My partner says this one “smells like a forest garden”. I get a Blue Green vibe from this for sure! It definitely changes a lot with rest. There is something light in the background here, I think it’s the herbs (particularly the chamomile). The musk isn’t overwhelming but it is present and warm. After some wear, I get wafts of this sweet, herbal smell that I find very intriguing! I’m not sure what it is exactly but I was continuously sniffing my wrist in an attempt to smell it again. Maybe it’s the vanilla + chamomile, it seems to only really be present from a distance, making me wonder if it’s being buried under the heavier scents from a closer sniffing distance. It’s a cool, smooth vanilla, in contrast to everything else being warm and a bit prickly! The drydown is a sweet vanilla tea for me. It’s a startlingly bright and punchy scent somehow… the lingering scent of the greens and blues on my clothes feels invigorating, even when on my skin it has dried down to a cozy, gentle scent. Overall, this is a dark, dry, cozy scent, with blue green fispruce bearing the brunt of the work, as deer musk hangs out in the background. It does evoke the feeling of being bundled up in a cozy blanket with a campfire in the background and dark, looming forest around you. It shares some of that tannic smokiness with Murkwood, I would say, but the smoke is less present here, though it does gradually come out more with wear. 5/5

Damp dirt here, very similar to Murkwood to my nose. I had a hard time distinguishing the various facets of this one, but in comparison to Murkwood, I would say it’s more dark green leaves with dirt and no incense/smoke. It doesn’t change much with rest, or morph much with wear. Very refined tbh, for a forest fragrance, in terms of not being as wild/”in the dirt” as I was expecting. I like this, but I think I prefer Murkwood, as this one is a bit more plain and I can’t smell it as much after a few hours. 3/5

So here’s where body chemistry played an interesting role…All of these I tested on myself, but I had my partner try this one as well. On my partner's first application, it smelled like cedar planks with a touch of sweetness that made the perfume very captivating. It was almost like a creamy sandalwood, and the cedar was not very funky at all! I was enjoying this a lot. But then I tried it on myself…this time I got more of the richness of the cedar, but in a way that’s not very fresh…it reminded me more of a storage chest/polished wood. I get a slight motor oil / bbq quality to it as well. After some time, it veers towards a fun and prickly sandalwood, but then immediately I smell like Indian food. I’m not sure how, but even on my clothes, I smelled savory spices. I think my skin can make some scents smell a touch “spiced” or savory but this was one of the extremes! Unfortunately, not a huge fan of how it wears on me but I will be pushing this more onto my partner haha. 2/5 due to body chemistry :(

Nutty, sweet, bright, light! Doesn’t change much with rest. This reminds me a bit of an oat-scented body wash, or honey bunches of oats. The honey is really light here, somewhat floral. It’s quite sweet and I can definitely see this as being cloying after some time but it’s a very cozy scent and I will try wearing this more once the weather gets colder. Maybe just not the most "me" scent. 2/5

Oooh this one is kind of like a smoky, bitter grapefruit on top of a subtle aquatic base. My partner says it smells like “seaweed, or like a sushi incense, but in a good way”. It is surprisingly more woody than I expected. Occasionally I get a bright whiff of juniper, from a distance. After some wear, there’s a hint of sandalwood (this shy sandalwood pops up in quite a few other Pineward scents!) that comes out to smooth things over, but the grapefruit is still there, though less overtly aquatic. More of those forest greens come through as well, and it compliments the grapefruit quite well, remaining bright and refreshing as a general couple throughout weartime. The drydown is mostly light wood with a touch of grapefruit and a very subtle seaweed smell. If you are afraid of the seaweed note, as I was – don’t be! It’s very approachable here. 4/5

A very resinous incense, with a touch of sweetness. The incense is dirt-like and smoky (likely the lapsang suchong). There are some very subtle dark bitter greens, and it’s very interesting to smell this layered on top of the deep smoky body, as if a slight relief from the incense. After a bit, the tea flavor strengthens and it gets a bit sweeter, as the prickly fir scent dissipates. The incense is not the most clear smelling (it doesn’t outright read as an incense perfume to me, because there is so much going on), but I really adore all the layers in this and find it fun to wear. 4/5

I found this one really benefits from some rest! When I first tried it on, it was a very watery, sweet mango, and I found the mint was kind of muddling it? The combo of lychee and mango was not very apparent but it was juicy and bright in a general sense. After resting, it was less watered down. It became more of an almost unripe mango + bright lychee, tempered by mint, with a touch of tartness and green from rhubarb and cassis, not overwhelmingly sweet but with a fun tart poppiness. Something (I suspect the mint, still) is keeping this from reaching its full Juicy Sweet potential, but as an avoider of the Cloying, i find this works in the perfume’s favor. The drydown is a sweet mango + creamy sandalwood, it doesn’t morph much. I can smell the sandalwood better from further away, as it’s a bit subtle. Very intriguing, will be wearing this a ton in the summer! 4/5

Thank god the clove isn’t overly strong here! (Not the biggest clove fan). On first sniff, I get something akin to deep, dried red fruits, something a bit herbal. It reminds me a bit of dried fruit leather, with maybe a touch of honey. I’m not sure whether I think of it more as “fruit leather” (like the snack) or “fruit Leather” (like leather which is kinda fruity) because both can apply here. More of the forest aspect of the scent reveals itself as the perfume dries, and it seems very subtly smoky to me? I’m wondering if that’s the cypress. It’s cuddly, not smothering, but there’s an intriguing “cool” aspect to this, which I definitely did not see before resting. After a bit, the overtly fruity leather combo gives way to a more vanilla backing, and it becomes this cuddly, clear vanilla with some of the lightly smoky greens. There’s a slight tartness from the opening but it’s much smoother and…velvetine now! The dry down is a warm vanilla. Simple and comforting, I’m not huge into the opening but really like the drydown. 4/5

The free sample that came with my order! I was a bit scared as I am not the Biggest fan of lemon notes especially. When I first applied it, it was certainly a bright lemon, on the base of something light and almost cucumbery. Luckily for me, the lemon soon faded and gave way to a creamy green scent. It’s a bit of a light, simple scent but I enjoyed it and found it refreshing on these warm spring days. That said, it didn’t change that much with rest, and I found it to be the least long lived out of everything I tried. 3/5

IMPORTANT: 1. To have the best performance set to Full screen and set the resolution as you wish or the monitor resolution - 2. Set refresh rate as you wish or the monitor hz rate - 3. MSAA Off (Trust me, on the fourth capture it explains why) - 4. Vsync On if you set refresh rate to 60, off if not

IMPORTANT: 1. All sliders up (Can turn it down if needed) - 2. You can turn some of the qualities options down if your graphics card can't support it - 3. Reflection Quality doesn't make a change and consumes a lot of fps so off - 4. Soft Shadows to Softest or lower. If you want performance, don't set it to AMD's CHS or NVIDIA's PCSS

IMPORTANT: 1. Post FX as you wish - 2. If fps don't reach to desired ones, turn Ambient Occlusion Off - 3. Tessellation can be turned down to High (Doesn't make a huge change of impact on fps

IMPORTANT: 1. NEVER, If you want FPS, NEVER turn up Extended Distance Scaling if you have a slow cpu, this is the one setting that will crush your CPU down and go 30 fps, unless you have a very good cpu, believe me - 2. Since we disabled MSAA before and at 1440p it looks horrible without it, we set Frame Scaling Mode to x1,500 since it looks almost the same as MSAA and consumes much less resources

IMPORTANT: 1. AMD Fluid Motion Frames On so you can have the best performance for high refresh rate monitors (Search on YouTube how to install AMD Fluid Motion Frames if the option doesn't appear) - 2. Radeon Boost Off because it looks horrible when looking around - 3. Enhanced Sync On for any tearing - 4. Freesync On if possible ofc

Final settings (And maybe the most important ones if your game goes to 30fps while driving), I have two other settings that I have turned on so it works perfectly.
- RivaTuner - Install it and set it to limit GTA 5 to 60-65fps (With Fluid Motion Frames you'll see 120 fps on screen) so the CPU won't stress on keeping up to the GPU to give the most FPS as possible (This if you have a slower CPU that bottlenecks the GPU as I have) (Don't try to limit the fps from Radeon Software because AMD Fluid Motion Frames will unlimit the FPS and it would'nt work)
- Limit the CPU's threads - In this video https://youtu.be/y-66LJcPtBg?si=MvKPKfUr0L_K54Ja , you'll see how to set the Affinity of the GTA5.exe process on Task Manager to use less threads. At least give up two or more threads if possible. (I believe that the game, as it uses all the CPU cores, Windows doesn't like it and it slows down the game on purpose so Windows doesn't stop working)

1. Most Impactful
   1. DirectX Version (Don't turn down, DirectX 11 is the best on performance)
   2. MSAA
   3. Texture Quality (Warning: Clothing and most of the textures will look horrible from Normal to High)
   4. Reflection MSAA
   5. Grass Quality
   6. Shadow Quality
   7. Reflection Quality
2. Moderate Impactful
   1. Soft Shadows
   2. Post FX
   3. Ambient Occlusion
   4. In-Game Depth Of Field Effects
   5. Tesselation (High - Very High)
3. Least Impactful
   1. FXAA
   2. Vsync
   3. Pause Game Without Focus
   4. All three sliders
   5. Shader Quality
   6. Water Quality
   7. Particles Quality
   8. Anisotropic Filtering
   9. Tesselation (Off - Normal)