Incense In The Wind

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

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Tree of Life Jasmine (discontinued)

Fourth review - scroll down for earlier reviews


As with the other Tree of Life sticks, this is a perfumed incense presented as a masala style incense. As with the others, it has a pleasing modern perfumed fragrance on the stick, which does not survive the burn.  


Date: Oct 2023   Score: 20 





Pleasant sweet perfumed scent on the stick. The scent wanders a bit, and can smell off, but mostly wanders around a woody scent with faint floral notes that may be jasmine. It's nice as a woody, warm, musky scent. But it's not really jasmine.  

Date: April 2023  Score: 20  


Delicate, light sandalwood and jasmine incense. Pleasant enough, but lacking in impact and character. Perhaps could be used when a very subtle scent is required, but on the whole, not an incense I see myself rushing to buy again.

Date:  June, 2015    Score: 30 


These sticks have a delicate floral perfume out of the packet. The fragrance when burned starts off with  warm notes of sandalwood base combined with sweet floral high notes. This is a more traditional Indian incense aroma than Tree of Life's Shalimar; however, there's a baby powder quality about the high notes reminiscent of Mystic Incense Baby Powder, which is another Cha Cha Dum Dum brand. The Mystic Incense brand appear to have a stronger fragrance. These Tree of Life sticks are delicate, refined, and at times just a little to subtle. I like them - I just wish the fragrance was stronger.

Date: April, 2014  Score: 30 

Jasmine v Jasmine (a burn off)

Vintage Incense
(Incense not available from
this brand for over a year)

Aargee Imperial Raja Rani Lavender Fragrance




I've had this incense for nearly 10 years, and it still smells fresh and strong.  A proper job masala incense with essential oils, resins, herbs, and halmaddi mixed in a charcoal paste, and then hand rolled onto a hand cut pink dyed bamboo splint, and covered in a dried tree bark powder, partly to stop the moist sticks from gluing together as they dry, and partly to give the appearance of a masala incense. 

The scent on the stick if from the fragrant oils - it's fresh, citric, jammy, and floral with sandalwood notes. There's elements of peach. We're looking for the lavender, and agree that it is there, but it's toilet water lavender, not the real stuff. 

The burn is quite smoky. It's warm, woody, and attractive, but a bit blurred, so it has lost the top notes. An halmaddi scent, which I associate with lambs wool - your mileage may vary - is entangled in the burn scent pretty much all the way. There is a vague sense of lavender being burned in a late summer field a little distance away.  

It's OK this incense, though - perhaps due to age, or perhaps due to burning more interesting incense since I last burned this, I find I'm not as impressed today as I was in 2017, nor even 2014. It's enjoyable, it's decent, and I'd certainly be interested to buy it again fresh if it was still being made, but it's not top end. 


Date:  June 2023    Score: 30 




I'm returning to these with curiosity. I reviewed them in 2014 when I hadn't been reviewing incense for that long, so it will be interesting to see how I respond to them now, almost three years later. There is a pleasant musky undertone, with some sweet patchouli and sandalwood, Some lovely sharp nips of halmaddi, and swirling around this are soft floral tones, which suggest lavender, but are swiftly carried away by more swirls of halmaddi. There is much going on, and most of it is woody, though now and again there's that whiff of floral, lavender-like, but never quite settling. This is a teasing scent, quite gorgeous, and I don't think I did it justice last time.

I'm not sure how it is made. There is a charcoal base, and a fine brown powder rolled on, but when smelling the stick there is an intense volatile aroma - quite sharp, much sharper than I would imagine one would get from a dry masala. It does appear to come from a concentrated essential oil or solvent of some sort, so I do think there is some dipping involved.

I like this. I am moving up my score to something more deserving, and more in keeping with others in the Imperial range.

Date: Feb 2017    Score:  39



Charcoal base on red sticks, then rolled in pleasing aromatic brown masala powder including halmaddi, and also perfume dipped, resulting in a heady, flowery fragrance from the packet.

Imperial is Aargee's special halmaddi range of incense. Halmaddi is a resin, like amber, frankincense, and myrrh, which comes from a tree. As with other such resins, it is sticky when first extracted, then becomes brittle when dried. The aroma is particularly favoured in the West, where it is associated with Nag Champa and traditional, artisan incense makers who make incense entirely from raw, natural ingredients as opposed to the larger operations where sticks are dipped in perfume, sometimes synthetic, as the main manufacturing method. When the ailanthus triphysa  tree from which the resin is extracted, became scarce due to excessive harvesting for match sticks, the price went up, meaning it became even more valued and precious. In the 1990s the Indian government protected the trees; then in 2011 and again in 2013, leased the trees out to responsible extractors, so the price has come down, and more incense containing halmaddi is coming out of India.

There is the warm slightly sweaty wool jumper smell of halmaddi in this. It tends to be sweet, though with a little acidic tone which gives it interest and character. There are also some pleasant slightly heady flowery perfume tones, which I could be convinced are lavender, though could also be violets. It gently fragrances the room with flowery notes underpinned with soft musk and sandalwood - the occasional pinch and squeak of halmaddi comes in and catches at the back of my throat and nose. While I like halmaddi, it does tend to scratch at the soft palate at the back of my mouth so I can't take too much of it.


Date: April 2014    Score: 33
***
Vintage Incense
(Incense no longer available)


Ratings of other incense by Aargee


Halmaddi

Best of Lavender


Wet dhoops




Dhoops are incense pastes rolled into sticks or logs, or extruded or moulded into logs or cones. They are not rolled around a bamboo stick.  The finished dhoop can be soft and moist like plasticine, and easily moulded or broken into small pieces, or they can be dry. Most Tibetan incense is in the form of dry dhoops. Wet dhooops tend to contain ghee, the fat remaining when liquid is extracted from butter. They tend to be smokey and strong smelling, and are usually used to ward off evil spirits rather than to perfume a home.  They are particularly useful at repelling flying insects. 





They are most suitable for burning outdoors, or in large spaces with the doors and windows open. They will certainly cleanse your home! 

They are amongst my least favourite forms of incense. 

Reviews


Vaishnodevi Gugal Dhoop
April 2014 - Score: 11


Vaishnodevi Chandan Dhoop
Feb 2013 - Score: 10


Gopal Joie Deluxe Dhoop
April 2014 - Score: 10


Mysore Sugandhi Surya Devya Laxmi Dhoop
June 2018 - Score: 10








Vaishnodevi Gugal Dhoop




Made by Goel Dhoop & Agarbatti of New Delhi. Like the Chandan Dhoop, this is a smokey acrid incense which can be quite challenging. It is slightly more fragrant than the Chandan, but not by much. I don't really like these wet dhoops. Gugal is the resin from commiphora wightii, a plant in the torchwood family which includes frankincense and myrrh; it is burned directly on charcoal in India, and used to chase away evil spirits. Yeah. That's about all you can do with it. Chase things away.

Date: April 2014  Score: 11
***

Wet dhoops

Spiritual/Ritual Incense


Monday 28 April 2014

Gopal Joie Deluxe Dhoop




Made from a blend of pure Desi Ghee, natural herbs and perfumes. Made by Gopal Magic Moments of New Delhi, who were founded in 1942. This is a soft, slightly sticky dhoop with a slightly acrid, greasy smoke, as you'd expect from burning old butter. As with some other soft dhoops, this is a little too heavy for me. It's not a product I want to be in the same room with as it is burning.


Date: April 2014  Score: 10
***

Best of Gopal Joie incense

Wet dhoops

Best jasmine incense




Arabian jasmine (also known as Bel Phool) is the main jasmine flower of India - it is native to India, and has been used for hundreds of years as personal ornamentation, for flavouring tea or food, and as a fragrance. It is one of the oldest fragrance flowers cultivated by mankind. It has associations as an aphrodisiac, and is also regarded as an anti-depressant and sedative, and as an antiseptic or cleansing property. 

Synthetics are common in jasmine perfume, and some of these synthetics (or molecules) can be more expensive, rare, and desirous than naturals. In a decent quality incense it can be hard to know what is and isn't synthetic, especially when synthetics and naturals are blended (which they often are) in order to create a more potent fragrance. 

Reviews

* = Reviews over 5 years old


Shroff Incense Mogra (M)
Dec 2022 - Score: 45


GR International Jasmine (P)
 April 2018 - Score: 40*


Goloka Nature's Parijatha (M)
Feb 2017 -  Score: 35*


Tulasi Jasmine (P)
Nov 2018 -  Score: 35*


  
BIC Panchavati Gajra (PM)
Oct 2023 - Score: 33


Nandi's Madhu Mallika (M)
April 2014 -  Score: 31


HEM Precious Mogra (Jasmine) (P)
July 2014 -  Score: 31


Aargee Stamford Jasmine (cones)
May 2019 - Score: 30


D'Las Aura Jasmine
Perfumed  Score: 30

Other jasmine scents


Hari Om Divine Incense Butmogra (P)
Oct 2023 - Score: 29↓  (32)



Perfumed  Score: 28


Satya (BNG) Egyptian Jasmine
Score: 27


Ganesha incense cones
Perfume-dipped  Score: 27


Aravinda's Parijata (P)
Oct 2023 - Score: 26↓


Darshan Love in Life Jasmine
Score: 25


BIC Jasmim (P)
Oct 2021 - Score: 25


Cottage No. 12 Jasmine (M)
Oct 2023 - Score: 24 


Balaji Bel Phool Premium Incense Sticks (P)
Feb 2024 - Score: 24 



Oct 2023 - Score: 24↓


Nikhil's Nature's Blessings Raatrami (P)
Feb 2024 - Score: 23


Pan Aroma Incense Sticks
Score: 22
The sticks do have a jasmine tone to the scent - mildly fruity, faintly medicinal with a hint of camphor, and the sweet flowery perfume of jasmine. sharp in places, a little vulgar, and rather modest in smoke and aroma intensity - but it's not offensive, and works OK as a background room freshener.



Score: 21 


Score: 21



Spiritual Sky
Score: 21
Strawberry jam, and - yes - jasmine aroma on the stick. And a jasmine aroma when burned, underscored with some sandalwood and a certain amount of burning rubber - with a bit more sweet jam.

Tree of Life Jasmine
Oct 2023 - Score: 20



Nikhil's Nature's Blessings Mogra (P)
Feb 2024 - Score: 20


MDH R-pure Mogra
Score: 20
The sticks are thin, though burn at a moderate and even pace, producing a thin and modest smoke which can be a little bit sharp and hot. The aroma is warm, faint sandalwood, with wood smoke, some damp leaves, and the occasional flowery, sweet note that could point toward jasmine. It's a mild, inoffensive aroma. While there are no high points, there are equally no low points. This is a basic, cheap, workable incense. It has little to commend it other than cheapness and inoffensiveness.


Mahendra Betco Mogra
Score: 20
Artificial mogra (jasmine) perfume dipped sticks These are solidly made basic incense sticks from Mahendra Perfumery Works of Bangalore.. Handrolled from charcoal on chunky sticks which just have the tips dyed green, and then perfume dipped. There's a lack of style or grace about Mahendra's products, but in general they are decent, workable, low cost everyday incense. This one doesn't quite work for me - it's a little too assertive, and in the wrong way. It asserts its chemical origins, and makes the room smell damp and cheap and slightly off.

Aargee Jasmine (tube series)
Score: 20
Strong, smoky, and clearly chemical based. Not unpleasant, but close.

Joie Jasmine
Score: 20
Hot and crude.

Touch Mogra
Score: 19

Gokula Incense Cones Mogra
Score: 19

 
ITC Mangaldeep (Krishna Impex) Mogra (P)
Oct 2023 - Score: 18


Divine Spirit (13 scents)
Score: 18
Small cones - only 15. Jammy fruit aroma on the cone - hint of tangerine and jelly mint. Most fragrant of the Divine Spirit cones when burned, with a decent memory of the jammy fruit and tangerine, and a hint of a flowery aroma that could point toward jasmine.



Nikhil's Nature's Blessings Rajnigandha (P)
Mar 2024 - Score: 14


Number: 36
Top Score: 45
Bottom Score: 14
Average score: 27
***
  
Jasmine v Jasmine (a burn off)


Best Scents