Incense In The Wind

Radiating Incense In The Wind - a painting by Hai Linh Le

Thursday 27 June 2013

Dawn of Time Frankincense & Myrrh



Bought on the internet some time ago, and I've forgotten where. The incense is made in  Thailand for the Ancient Wisdom distribution company. Normally I dislike AW Thailand incense - however, this has been made to a higher standard than normal. The sticks are very finely hand rolled, and then dipped in fragrance powder, giving the appearance of a top quality Goloka or Satya made stick. The aroma on the stick is quite gorgeous, and invites you to keep inhaling, and then to sniff again and again. It's musky, sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh. It's all these top quality, deeply pleasant scents. The packaging is a plastic bag, poorly printed with the brand name and AW's name, and the actual scent name is on a little adhesive strip used to seal the packet. Not impressive. I recall it was sent with a sample of the brand's "Of Persian Roses" scent. That is packed in a piece of hand folded paper, on which the scent name has been written in by hand. That's a good marketing idea - though stamping the name and contact details of the sellers would have been useful. As it stands - I have a free sample,  but I don't know who sent it to me. 

Though the aroma when burning is pleasant enough, as with other AW incense, it doesn't match the aroma on the stick. It's fairly faint, and smells more of burning herbs and plants than it does of fragrance or perfume - and I'm getting little of the Frankincense & Myrrh, though it is there. I think the woody base paste dominates too much, and though there are some attractive scents used to coat the stick, they are not in sufficient quantities to make enough of an impact.

So this is a promising stick, which sadly doesn't quite deliver. Better than your average AW incense, but way below what one would expect of  Goloka or Satya, and even below what one might expect of the average hand-rolled Indian stick. Certainly below that of Japanese incense. 

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