EL Incenses and Fragrances Capture Luxury Flora Incense (discontinued)

  

Fifth review (scroll down for older reviews)

These sticks are fairly inconsistent. On this burn we got little. Not much strength, and mostly just a smoky wood aroma. Came across as a poor quality faded perfume incense rather than a proper masala. 

[Note: Oct 2023 - I've not seen these available for over a year, the website is down, and there's no response to emails, so I'm moving this company to Vintage] 

Date: Nov 2022   Score: 22 

Fourth review

I've come back here to ELIF's Capture as I've been burning some modern masala incenses which appear to me to be using perfume rather than essential oils, and I wanted to get back to something more natural, which I know is what ELIF is about. I've been a bit up and down in my responses to Capture, though some of that I feel is either due to inconsistencies in the incense formulation, or simply the intensity of the experience which can be a sensory overload. I've spoken to a couple of  online retailers recommending ELIF as a modern brand worth looking into, but both had already been sent samples, and said they were not interested. One was quite scathing about the quality, feeling it resembled sawdust swept up from the floor. 

This burn has been way more rapid than the others, and the result is rather a lot of incense smoke in the room quite quickly, which certainly does lead to a sensory overload and a bit of a headache. This is a highly fragranced stick, best experienced, I think, at something of a distance, rather like Sai Flora. There are certainly charms here. And those charms are best discovered slowly from the stick itself, where at my own pace I can explore the super fresh orange zest and the blast of summer flowers. The burns have always been a bit, well, dangerous! This is an incense that on the burn has a wilful mind of its own. It can stutter almost to a stop, or it can burn so rapidly that mere mortals faint from the intensity. This is an incense that only the Gods can truly appreciate! 

I like Capture, but I have a love/hate relationship with it. It fascinates me. It seduces me. And it also irritates and frustrates me. I think this is an incense I will; be retuning to for review more often than most. Usually I get to know an incense, and there is no need to re-review. But Capture is a little more complex and fascinating than most. 

Date: Jan 2022   Score: 37 

Third review

A reappraisal. The scent on the stick is quite dense and sombre, floral for sure, with some wood supporting it, and a little sharp volatility. Pleasant; and, while not mighty or spiritual, is inviting. When lit it burns awkwardly with some fibre strands, which makes me assume it is a coconut charcoal, and that the company have not yet perfected the combustible elements. Satya have had recent problems with that as well. Different burns bring out different scent aspects (the "varied" or "inconsistent" notes from the scent comparison above) - currently it is mostly sandalwood. I'm getting little of the fruit or flowers. This particular burn is not impressing me, and I'm lowering the score again. When it is good, this is a decent floral incense that can stand with top end masala, but there are inconsistency issues which means that sometimes, as now, the better fragrant elements have not made it satisfactorily enough into the mix. I suspect they have the right ingredients, but not yet the right production or manufacturing to ensure those ingredients are combined well. This is now becoming simply smoky and a tad unpleasant. I'm lowering the score, but keeping it in my Decent Stuff category, because when it's good it is good. And it has mostly been good.


Date: Nov 2021 Score: 30

Second review

I put Capture into a little scent comparison with other decent masala incense (plus a few perfumed ones). It didn't stand up as well as I thought it might. Though pleasant, it was felt to be a little too "smoky" or intense in relation to the fragrance, and that some elements of the scent felt a little artificial. Initially it impressed as quite "churchy" with a floral and fruit scent, a little more floral than fruit, and that it was sweet and pleasant, though not profound. There was a sense separately noted by myself and a couple of others that some fragrance elements were not natural, for example that it had a washing up liquid "pink grapefruit" scent, or that there was a sense of fruit juice, but a cordial rather than fresh fruit. It has variety (or inconsistency, as the variety is not part of an understood scent journey, and the scents emerge sort of randomly rather than in an integrated or natural manner) and is rather pleasant, though there is something missing. And the burn continues to be problematic.

Date: Nov 2021 Score: 32

First review

A beautiful box of flora incense sent to me by Umraz Ahmed of El Incenses and Fragrances (ELIF). ELIF was founded in 1970 by Umraz's father, and the company at the time were competing at the same quality level as Satya and Sai Flora, though did not have the international reach. Then, for a variety of reasons, the company closed. Umraz has reopened it this year, with an intention to compete again at a high quality level, citing Satya and Balaji as companies they hope to match. I had queried with Umraz the price of the incense, as it is marketed at 200 Rupees for 50g, which is among the most expensive Indian incense I have seen (excluding Indian incense resold under Western brand names in the UK and US, which can fetch much higher prices than in the domestic market), and the response is that the company are aiming at the premier end of the market, and Umraz feels that the halmaddi they use is of such quality that it gives them a unique selling point.

ELIF make "flora" incense, which is something I have been looking into recently, particularly in the sense of the difference between a "flora" incense and a "fluxo" - both terms were used on Sai Flora, which is the oldest flora/fluxo I am aware of, and which seems to serve as the template or inspiration for most others I have encountered. I am still not quite sure what a "flora" is, or how it differs from a "fluxo", partly because makers seem to use those terms quite loosely. However, what most floras and fluxos I have experienced seem to have in common is that they are visibly fatter than standard masala incense, and moister. There is an obvious use of essential oil in them. This Capture has a beautiful oil, quite juicy and fruity, slightly citric - kind of tangerine. And there is some creamy white wood, not spicy or masculine like cedar, but soft, feminine, and gentle like a white or Indian sandalwood. I like this a lot. When I first burned it, it was after I had been burning some Satya, particularly Karma, and it felt to me to match the Satya, but not exceed it. But after spending more time with Capture, it is seducing me with it's gentle and beautiful charm. It is not quite on the same heavenly level as something like Bengali Jungle, which I have been playing with for some weeks now, nor some of the world class masala incense of Koya's which I have been burning a lot of this past week, such as their Nirvana, but it is certainly competitive with Satya on quality (though not on price), and Sai Flora, though I find it way more refined than Sai Flora, so it's not a direct comparison.

Sai Flora is an assertive and unusual incense - it can be somewhat overpowering, but much of the appeal is on its sheer intensity, which can be matched by Bengali Jungle, and then surpassed in terms of beauty.

The main experience with masala is often the overall impression, and it can be hard to pin down individual scents or precise moments, though some of the moments we noted when burning these sticks were warmth, wood, raw flesh, sweetness, intensity, and a sense of difference. A curious set of experiences when listed like that, but somehow it gelled together. I liked it the most of the three of us, but all in all, we were all impressed, and I feel it is certainly a player in the field of top end masala incense.

Date: Oct 2021 Score: 39

***

Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme

A little scent comparison

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

India luxury box incense