Flourish Fragrance Indian Kasturi Natural Incense

 

A sample pack of a masala style synthetically perfumed incense stick from Flourish Fragrance of Ahmedabad on the upper Western coast of India. Flourish don't appear to have a regular outlet in the West, though they are available internationally via eBay and Aavyaa (Aavyaa work out cheapest). 

Kasturi is the Indian word for musk from the deer. These days Indian musk comes from plant or synthetic sources.  The paste on the stick is moist and pliable - in the manner of a flora - with a light coating of melnoorva powder. The scent on the stick is harsh and chemical - not at all attractive. It's like sniffing toilet disinfectant blocks. However when lit the scent on the burn comes together quite attractively - quite woody and musky. I tend to find that woody and musky scents works better as synthetics than do floral scents. I find this reasonably attractive, soothing, and compelling as an everyday room freshener - but then, I do tend to like deep, dark, woody, musky scents. 

 

The wooden incense holder was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com.  

Date: May 2024   Score: 26 

***

Musk

 

Flourish Fragrance

Flourish Fragrance

 

Flourish Fragrance are an incense house based in Ahmedabad on the upper Western coast of India. They produce perfumed and masala style incense. They have experience of incense making dating back three generations to 1965. 

Flourish samples

Reviews

  

Flourish Fragrance Indian Kasturi Natural (PM)
May 2024 - Score: 26 

  

Flourish Fragrance Jasmine (P)
May 2024 - Score: 20

Flourish Fragrance Violet (P)
Sept 2021 - Score: 20 

Scents reviewed: 

Top score: 

Bottom score: 

Average: 

***

The Best Incense Makers

Flourish Fragrance Jasmine

 

I have a few samples of Flourish incense - a mix of perfumed and masala style. I had one sample a few years ago - their perfumed Violet, and wasn't impressed. I note that I got the impression back in 2021 that the company was formed in 2009 - I may have got that impression from their Facebook page, though on their website, they say they began in 1965, and that they are currently a third generation incense house. 

Flourish samples

This is a machine extruded synthetic perfumed stick. The whiff on the stick is unpleasant. It's like toilet disinfectant blocks. There is some black smoke and vigorous flame when lit, suggestive of DEP, which is used as a scent fixative.  

There is some thin, smoky synthetic jasmine scent on the burn. It's not that attractive, though there is some awareness left in the room of light jasmine. 

The incense holder I'm using was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com which has a range of incense holders. It's cute, and we like it, though because it's narrow, the ash can and does sometimes fall outside. Those who use the Chinese website Shein, may notice that it is also available there. 


Date: May 2024   Score: 20 

***

Best jasmine incense

 

Flourish Fragrance

Gamta It Smells Like Saffron Rose

 

Gamta are a relatively new incense house based in Mumbai who use Panchgavya products in their incense -  they blend cow products, such as milk, dung, and ghee, into the incense paste according to Ayurveda principles. They use a liquid fragrance - possibly an essential oil with a carrier and fixative such as DEP - in the incense paste to deliver the key scents. 

As with the other Gamta samples I've tried, this has a rather strong chemical odour on the stick combined with the earthier elements. I've found the  earthy elements to reduce and the chemical odour to have grown stronger as I've moved through the samples, this could be coincidence, though I'm inclined to suspect it may be due to me becoming more sensitised to the odour.  There is a sense of rose about the scent, though it's a synthetic rose in disinfectant smell. Not great. 

Available in India and the West via Aavyaa

When lit there is copious black smoke and a wild flame, such as you'd get when burning plastic. However, when blown out, the stick settles into a steady and consistent burn with an attractive brown and grey swirling column of smoke. I like the sight of incense smoke, so I'm pleased when there's an attractive column, such as here. The brown colour I don't think I've been aware of outside of these Gamta sticks. I like it. 

There is a warm, slightly sweet, slightly floral scent on the burn, backed by mild woods. Gently pleasant and relaxing. This is a modestly attractive incense.

Date: May 2024   Score: 28

***

Gamta Incense

Gamta It Smells Like Saffron Sandal

 

Gamta use Panchgavya products in their incense -  they blend cow products, such as milk, dung, and ghee, into the incense paste according to Ayurveda principles. They use a liquid fragrance - possibly an essential oil with a carrier and fixative such as DEP - in the incense paste to deliver the key scents. 

I've had two saffron sandal incenses - Heera Saffron Sandal and Om Sai Brand Vedamrut Saffron Sandal. The Heera wasn't a significant incense, but the Om Sai was reasonably interesting, so I wrote a fair deal about the nature of masala and perfumed incense as well as the nature of saffron and sandal scents while I was enjoying the fragrance of the burn. Pleasurable and interesting incense scents may incline me to being thoughtful and reflective. 

The scent on the stick is quite volatile and inclines more to a pine disinfectant than an incense, though there are sandalwood elements making themselves known, plus hints of what I could be convinced are saffron notes. And I'll repeat here what I said about the saffron scent in Goloka's Saffron: "The key aroma ingredient in saffron is widely regarded as saffronal, which appears in other plants such as wolfberry and elderberry; though other minor active ingredients, such as lanierone, are also considered to be important, and some scientists consider that the scent may be predominantly produced by lanierone. There is some doubt as to what the actual aroma of saffron is as individuals perceive it in different ways. Though if push came to shove, I would say that what I perceive on this stick I would accept as a saffron scent."

Available from Aavyaa

When lit the stick produced a lot of black smoke and a hungry, flaring flame - which I tend to experience with sticks which have a high volatility in the aroma; which seems to indicate a high probability that DEP was used. The stick soon settles into a steady and fairly even burn producing a decent column of swirling dusty grey smoke, and a firm but not domineering fragrance. The scent on the burn is pleasant sandalwood - creamy, softly sweet, woody. I like it, though it's fairly simple, and there's not much going on. And there tends to be a little smoke or burning furniture now and again.  As a pleasant top end room freshener this is very good - it is a decent sandalwood scent, albeit almost certainly synthetic. 

I can't find outlets outside of India, though Aavyaa, who ship to the West for free for orders over £50 or $60, sell 30 stick packs for ₹375.00 (approx £3.60 or £4.50).

Date: May 2024   Score: 31

***

Gamta Incense

Gamta It Smells Like Miracle Majmua

 

I think this is my first encounter with majmua, which is a popular Arabian and Indian perfume made from a blend of  essential oils and sandalwood. The essential oils used don't appear to be fixed, but generally include kewda - made from the fragrant screwpine; khus - made from vetiver; mitti - made from baked clay; and kadam - made from the burflower.  Gamta are a Mumbai based incense house possibly founded in 2021 which use Panchgavya products in their incense - which means they blend cow products, such as milk, urine, dung, ghee, and curd, into the incense paste according to Ayurveda principles.

  

Available from Aavyaa

The scent on the stick is curious. Not unattractive, but certainly not a common fragrance, and not one likely to be found in a Western room freshener product. It's woody, sensual, somewhat perfumed - an assertive masculine cologne, alcoholic, volatile, pine, furniture polish, damp leather, warm wool clothing, cold clay pot. I kinda like it, though more for the compellingly unusual blend of aromas than for any attractive aesthetic pleasure. 

There was some black smoke and hungry flames on lighting, and the smoke is denser and more browny grey than is usual. As the burn settles, the rich, sweet, earthy scent makes itself known in a semi-heady and rather seductively attractive manner.  I've had a look around, and this appears to only be available in India -  Aavyaa have it at ₹345.00 for a pack of 30 sticks.  

I rather like this. 

Date: May 2024   Score: 39

***

Gamta Incense

Gamta It Smells Like Heritage Heena

 

Gamta are a fairly new Mumbai based incense house which use Panchgavya products in their incense - which means they utilise cow by-products, such as  milk, urine, dung, ghee, and curd, according to Ayurveda principles. Heena is an alternative spelling of henna, the red dye used as a body decoration and hair colouring. Henna has a mild scent of earth, cloves, or green tea, which divides opinion. It is occasionally used as an incense fragrance, such as Aargee Maharani Heena and Om Sai's Trishala Heena. 

 

Available from Aavyaa for ₹375 (30 sticks)

The scent on the stick is pleasant and mildly interesting. Like the Authentic Agarwood there is a tension between the liquid perfume ingredients and the finely ground fragrance (masala?) ingredients which doesn't satisfactorily resolve - the scent on this stick feels sharp and synthetic, somewhat dominating the more natural and interesting fragrances. On the whole, though kinda interesting, this is not altogether an aesthetically pleasing scent - not one I'm likely to use as a room freshener before guests come round. 

The burn is steady and consistent - something I find with machine made or extruded sticks (the only real benefit from hand rolled sticks is the random nature of them, which makes burning them more of an interesting and organic experience - though I also like the romance of a hand rolled stick, which feels more appropriate for a traditional and subjective pleasure product such as incense). The fragrance settles fairly quickly, and while not being too assertive, does make itself known in the room. It is a pleasant perfumed scent - floral, hovering around a heady slightly damp rose, earthy, mushroomy, mild wood, some clove... Yeah, it's OK. It feels more natural on the burn than it does on the stick.   

Date: May 2024   Score: 32

***

Gamta Incense

Gamta It Smells Like Authentic Agarwood

 

I have five samples of Gamta Organic Incense. Can't remember where I got them from - they were in a plastic bag along with some samples from Balaji and Flourish, so highly likely from some internet shop where I had done an order - perhaps Aavyaa. 

I can't find much information on them as their website, GamtaOrganic.com, has a fault where I can't access it. But they do have a Twitter account, a YouTube account, and a FaceBook account. They are based in Mumbai, and appear to have been founded in 2021. Their marketing focus appears to be that they are making Panchgavya products - which means they utilise cow by-products, such as  milk, urine, dung, ghee, and curd, according to Ayurveda principles. They have at least one video showing incense being made from ingredients such as milk and crushed up cow dung. Well, that video is a marketing video, so we don't see the incense being made on a commercial scale, but I suppose it gives a rough idea of what they do.  I couldn't find any outlets on a casual search. The Indian Amazon says this Agarwood is not currently available. 

The samples

The  Panchgavya paste has been machine extruded onto a hand cut, plain bamboo splint. The paste is hard but crumbly. There is a mix of the scent of perfume and fragrant ingredients on the stick. The perfume is mild, soapy, floral, and pleasant; the scent of the fragrant ingredients is interesting rather than pleasant - damp, mouldy, earthy, a little pungent, dirty underwear, grassy, herby. The two scents together tend to clash rather than compliment each other - rather like an ill or elderly person trying to cover up body odours with perfume. 

The burn is steady, even, with an attractive ghostly grey swirling smoke column. The scent is moderate, and initially is damp, mouldy, slightly smoky, faintly woody, mildly perfumed - a sort of weak, everyday oudh perfume. It gradually settles and becomes reasonably attractive in a woody, musky, earthy manner. While not a quality or "authentic" agarwood fragrance, it does wander around in that area. Some of the damp, earthy, pungent aromas add interest - the top notes are a curious blend of urine and vague floral. 

On the whole I kinda like this. I'm not overwhelmed by it, but I find it interesting and reasonably attractive with some curious scent notes. 

Date: May 2024   Score: 34

***

Gamta Incense

The best agarwood incense

Pradhan Royal Life

 

I got this from  Pilgrims Fair Trade for £1.50 back in June 2018, and it got mislaid, and turned up this week during a tidy up of our spare room. Pilgrims Fair Trade no longer sell it, and it doesn't seem to be exported on an organised basis (my box says "For Sale In India Only"), but it can be bought on eBay for £3.80,  €1.42 from Templo de Buda, based in Portugal, and €1.72 from Inciensos Namaste, based in Spain. While looking around I noticed that Dolly of Om Incense Show had reviewed it last month.

My box has 12 short sticks - 6 inches long with approx 4 inches of hand rolled still pliable charcoal paste which is given a modest coating of melnoorva - tree bark powder used to prevent the still damp sticks from gluing together as they dry. The scent on the stick is a curious blend of perfume and other fragrance ingredients, such as you'd get in what I imagine would be a traditional masala.  The perfume aspect is quite floral and sweet, while the other fragrance ingredients are more leathery, woody, rotting veg,  mushroomy, vague and blurred, such as tends to be the case with dried fragrant ingredients which mostly come to life when burned. There's a delicious caramel scent and a little bit of honey. It's interesting and pleasant, with a champa (frangipani) quality to the florals - quite fat, peachy, heady, sexy. It's more interesting than attractive, though it is moderately attractive. 

It burns well: steady, moderate, with a pleasant silver grey column of smoke. The scent on the burn is gentle and modest - slowly informing the room with a woody, musky, sweet scent over which the champa florals play. There is a nag champa quality about this with its balance of musky, creamy woods and fat, heady, champa florals. As with my experience with proper masalas, the scent on the burn is more attractive and compelling than the scent on the stick. I like this stick. It's not profound, and the scent profile is fairly familiar, however, it is well done, and the burn is very attractive once it has settled and informed the room. I intend this year to do a nag champa burn off this year, and I shall put this Royal Life into the mix, and see how it compares. I'm also interested in getting some other Pradhan incense to see what they are like. 

Date: May 2024   Score: 39 

***

The Best Incense Makers

Fumino (Inbound To Anglia Ltd)

 

Fumino is the brand name for incense and home décor items imported by Inbound To Anglia Ltd, a one man company founded in Cambridgeshire, though currently based in Southampton. The City Road, London address on the packets is a convenience address. The company sells mostly via eBay and Amazon. The incense is sourced from "a team of expert ladies at our third-generation family factory in Bangalore", which could apply to a number of companies, including Satya.  Six pack deals on Amazon are available for under £10. All the sticks appear to be masala style, and they look and behave like Satya sticks, though the fragrance is clearly based on some form of perfume rather than dried fragrant ingredients. There are approx 14 sticks per packet. The packets all have the same design - a cool black, with a simple though elegant stylised design of incense smoke. Each scent has a different colour for the smoke design. There is a short somewhat poetic blurb on the back relevant to each scent.  Each packet has a card with a voucher code for 10% off the next purchase at fumino.co.uk, a website that doesn't work for me. 

Sticks are 8 inches with approx 6 inches of hand rolled paste which has been coated in a generous dusting of melnoorva - finely ground tree bark which is mainly intended to stop the freshly rolled sticks gluing together as they dry. There is a pleasant aroma on all the sticks - mainly a men's cologne type perfume based around a low cost everyday oudh.  The scents tend to group around the same woody, pleasant, oudh like area regardless of what the name is - indeed, the names appear to bear little to no relation to the scents.  The fragrance experience on the burn tends to be somewhat inferior to that on the stick - the amount of inferiority impacting on the overall pleasure experience. It is the top notes, the more fragile citric and floral notes, that are somewhat reduced on the burn. On the whole, though, the sticks are decent, good value room fresheners, and the best are more satisfying than that. The experiences do vary, however, and will come down to personal taste. 

Reviews 

* PM = Perfumed masala (an incense that has qualities of both a perfumed and a masala incense)

Fumino Indian Spices (PM)

April 2024 - Score: 45 

Fumino Wormwood (PM)
April 2024 - Score: 38

Fumino Oudh (PM)
April 2024 - Score: 36

Fumino Autumn Breeze (PM)
April 2024 - Score: 31

Fumino Cinnamon Apple Clove (PM)
April 2024 - Score: 29 

Fumino Coco Cinnamon (PM)
April 2024 - Score: 20 

Scents: 6 

Top score: 45

Bottom score: 20
Average: 33

***

Own brand distributors

Fumino Wormwood

  

I initially assumed that the wormwood of the title was another name for agarwood, especially as there is an oudh fragrance here, but all the Fumino scents I've burned have had an oudh quality about them, and wormwood doesn't appear to be an alternative name for agarwood.  This wormwood is likely to be the biblical wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, that has been used as a bittering herb for centuries, and is a key ingredient in absinthe. 

There is such a commonality in fragrance with the Fumino scents I've burned that it seems curious that I like some better than others. And that could be down to all sorts of vagaries which may have as much to do with me and the burning environment as to the incense itself. I will be going through all the Fumino scents again in approx one month to see how I react then. Meanwhile, as with the others, I really like the scent on the stick.  It's perfumed, woody, sweet, honeyed, mild fruit - sweet citric like orange, lightly floral (rose with a hint of jasmine) and herby. It edges toward a male cologne - a sort of everyday, low cost oudh, which is not as negative as it sounds. It's a light, refreshing, pleasant oudh, rather than something heavy, rich, or sexy. 

The poetic blurb on the back

As with the other Fumino, the fragrance experience on the burn is not as appealing as that on the stick; however, this experience is very positive with a decent spread of bottom and top notes, keeping it lively and interesting, and more engaging and pleasant than just a room freshener. Pretty much all that is there on the stick successfully makes its way into the burn, though the top notes, the florals and fruit, are less distinct. It is, however, a gently heady experience - which is always going to work with me, and is warm, woody, sweet, musky, and sensual - which again is going to excite me. There is a buttery, subtle oudh quality which holds stable in the base, while small herby notes play around on top. I like this. 

Date: April 2024   Score: 38

***

Fumino

Fumino Coco Cinnamon

 

As with the other Fumino incense I've burned, there's a very attractive men's cologne scent on the stick, a little musky, a little Arabian bukhoor, a little bit Old Spice. There's also some coconut and some sharp, light, nutty, sweet, wood, like beech. A little perfumed, but still highly attractive and compelling. 

Blurb on the back

As with other Fumino, and indeed, many perfume based incenses, the scent on the burn is not quite as compelling as on the stick. A number of the sweeter, higher notes are weak or missing, there's more deep notes, altering the balance, and there's a smoky element. It remains an attractive room freshener, but much of the appeal and complexity has been lost - it's a narrower, deeper scent, predominantly burning wood. Fragranced wood to be sure, so pleasant enough, but there's little counterpoint. I'm not getting much, if any, cocoa or cinnamon. 

On the whole a pleasant room freshener, but a little disappointing after the attraction of the scent on the stick.  

Date: April 2024   Score: 20

***

Fumino

Best cinnamon incense