Bangalore Incense Store Mother Incense

Oooh this is cracking! Scent on the stick is a tad volatile and toilet cleaner. It hovers around pine, sandalwood, rose, spice, and some resin. Then when lit up, wow! The cold throw scents are here, but now more balanced, clean, and sharp, with the volatile toilet cleaner notes burned off. Patchouli, nutmeg, musk, cannabis flirt around, and then the frankincense kicks in, and woosh, we're on another planet. 

I love this!  

Available from Bangalore Incense at 10 sticks for £0.39. Bangalore Incense ships internationally.  [As of May 2026 there is a glitch that multiplies  by a thousand the price when it comes to purchase. So a £2 (or $2) incense becomes £2,000. Jaygee has told me that if folks contact him on WhatsApp (+91-8549904990) he'll give them the true (and much lower!) cost. In the meantime he is working to fix the glitch.]

Date: May 2026   Score: 46/50

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Jaygee's / Gurugee

Mattipal: Earthy Sacred Fig Incense

Mattipal is the sacred fig or peepal tree, Ficus religiosa, also called bodhi because Buddha obtained enlightened while sitting under a fig tree. The essence of the leaves of the tree has a pleasant spritzy, figgy, honey fragrance. A combination of the leaves and bark is used in some fine perfumes, such as Teone Reinthal's Bodhi, and 4160 Tuesdays Bodhi Language.  There is occasionally some confusion regarding mattipal being another name for halmaddi,  the resin which is used, like gum arabica, as a binder to slow down the burning and hold and intensify the scent of the fragrant ingredients in an incense. This is because mattipal is a name given to two different trees - the Ficus religiosa, which produces the mattipal fragrance essence, and Ailanthus triphysa, which produces the halmaddi gum resin. Halmaddi does not have an attractive scent, and there are no perfumes, even cheap ones, made from halmaddi as far as I know. So while mattipal can refer to the halmaddi tree as well as the sacred fig tree, when it comes to the fragrance, mattipal only refers to the sacred fig. 

Reviews

Vedic Vaani Gili Mitti Mattipal (M)
May 2026 - Score: 42

  

Elbenzauber Mattipal (M)

Jan 2024 - Score: 28 

 

Cottage Industries Heritage No. 11 Mattipal
March 2023 - Score: 24/50 

  

Reviews: 3 

Top score: 42
Bottom score: 24

Average: 

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Incense ingredients

Vedic Vaani Gili Mitti Mattipal

Mattipal when given as an incense name is the aromatic bark of the Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa), and not to be confused (though people often do because the error keeps being repeated) with halmaddi resin from Ailanthus triphysa. It is unfortunate that Mattipal is used as one of the alternative names for both trees - and this is where the confusion lies. But halmaddi resin is never used as a perfume, while mattipal tree bark is. 

Gili Mitti is a traditional Indian attar made by distilling sandalwood with pieces of clay to create a rain on earth fragrance. Such an accord would work well with the natural earthy, musky tones of mattipal. The scent on the stick is  awesome, and something a little different to most incenses. It is pleasantly earthy and dry with strands of clay and sandalwood. And it has that electric ozone note of fresh rain drops on dry ground during a hot summer. The sandalwood wraps it all pleasantly and warmly. 

For such a chunky stick the smoke and fragrance is rather quiet and mild. It is a relaxed and relaxing accord, and very, very beguiling. There are times when a clean, gentle, relaxing, and somewhat beautiful scent is just what is needed, and this is the sort of incense I want at times like that. And absolute bonus point for the scent being a little jump to the left of the usual.  

Available from Vedic Vaani at 100gm for £5.78 plus shipping (at least £25). 

Date: May 2026   Score: 42/50

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Vedic Vaani of Mumbai

  

Mattipal:
Earthy Sacred Fig Incense

Reviewed in USA

Vedic Vaani of Mumbai

Vedic Vanni is a modern online distribution unit set up in 2013 by two businessmen,  Ashish Gandhi and Mayank Goyal. They sell a full range of puja items, including incense, which they sell under their own brand name. The incense blog ORS came across the website in 2022, bought some of the sticks, and enjoyed them.

They are occasionally talked about on Reddit with a wide spread of opinions, but a constant that - like buying from some of the Vrindavan traders - the quality is variable and inconsistent, and what is in the box may not be what it says on the outside. I've been mildly curious about them, but when looking at their shop and prices, and knowing that they were inconsistent and rebranded from unknown incense makers, I wasn't that interested in buying 100gms worth of unknown (and apparently fairly random) monoscent incense for £30 including shipping, when for the same price including shipping I could get 20x20gm packs of different incenses from Vrindavan Bazaar. 

Regular readers of this blog will know that while I may really enjoy incense from rebranders such as Happy Hari, Gokula, and Sai Handicrafts, I am mainly interested in incense (good or bad) from the authentic brand, as my buzz  is tasting the local culture along with the local product. I am, therefore, more accepting of a local rebrander than a Western rebrander, as there is still that sea salt tang of the local culture. Anyway. Yes. Curious about this Vedic Vaani brand, but, when looking at the reality, wasn't curious enough to spend proper money on large amounts of dubious incense. But Brief Chemistry from Reddit has been generous enough to send me a bunch from a haul he got at the end of last year (2025).

Reviews

   

Vedic Vaani Gili Mitti Mattipal (M)
May 2026 - Score: 42

Vedic Vaani Tambulam Paan (M)
Mar 2026 - Score: 35/50

Vedic Vaani Royal Javadhu (M)
Mar 2026 - Score: 35/50

   

Reviews: 3

Top score: 42

Bottom score: 35
Average: 38

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Own brand trader

Incense in India

Notice about Jaygee and the Bangalore Incense Store

For those who are familiar with Jaygee and his Bangalore Incense Store, you may have noticed that he has been working to improve his website recently, and to make purchases and international shipping easy and low cost for Western customers. However as of May 2026 (and for some months apparently) there is (and has been) a glitch that multiplies the price when it comes to purchase by a thousand. So a £2 (or $2) incense becomes £2,000.

He has told me that if folks contact him on WhatsApp (+91-8549904990) he'll give them the true (and much lower!) cost. In the meantime he is working to fix the glitch.

Jaygee's / Gurugee

Bless International Frankincense & Myrrh Incense Cones

We use incense cones as a convenient room freshener, especially in the bathroom; and I am an incense hunter, so when I top up our room freshener cones I do like to look for incenses houses I've not previously reviewed. When topping up this month I came upon Bless International on Amazon, and I was drawn by the name and the packaging, so I bought a pack, but at £4.99 for a pack of 20 cones, I decided to only get one pack, as that is rather expensive for cones.  

Looking into Bless International, I note similarities with Raajsee, whose cones I bought at the same time. They are both based in Jaipur, in north India; they both sell tapestries, and other items, along with incense, and the incense cones are bottom end perfume-dipped wood powder cones, possibly sourced from Asia. There is no evidence that they made the cones themselves. The scents are very generic - Sandalwood, Rose, Patchouli, Palo Santo, etc.  They have a distribution point in the US and in the UK (via Amazon). 

Generic soapy scent on the cone. There is no frankincense or myrrh in this cone - just fragrance aromas blended to give a general scent impression of frankincense and myrrh. The scent on the burn is mostly smouldering wood powder. Placed at a distance away to give the lighter fragrance notes a chance to drift across while the heavier wood smoke scent notes drop away, there is a faint awareness of the soapy smell. It's not great. 

This is low quality everyday room freshener incense. Certainly not worth £4.99 of anyone's money. Decent quality incense cones for freshening the house can be bought from Amazon for less than £2 a pack, such as Satya (assortment of 9 packs for £13), and HEM (assortment of 12 packs for £12). 

Date: May 2026   Score: 13/50

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Frankincense

Own brand trader

Incense in India

Raajsee Palo Santo Natural Incense Cones

This carries the name palo santo though I'd be surprised if there is anything from a palo santo tree contained in this cone. This is a blend of fragrance oils which creates a pleasing accord which is intended to give the impression of palo santo. The cold throw scent on the cone is clove, menthol, lemon, caramel, honey and brown sugar with a hint of floral and  patchouli. Some aldehydes. It's actually quite attractive. Indeed, on the whole the cold throw scents of all the Raajsee cones have been pleasant in an everyday body spray or room freshener manner. Unfortunately the hot throw scent on the burn tends to be obscured by the smell of smouldering wood powder and binder.  

And the same is true here. The scent on the burn is unhappily compromised by the use of wood powder. Placed at a decent distance the heavier wood based scent molecules tend to drop and reduce before they reach me, while the lighter fragrance oil scent molecules tend to carry further, and I smell more of them. But, even so, there is still a little too much muddled and harsh bonfire smells for my comfort. 

Bought as part of an assorted pack of Raajsee cones on Amazon: 6 packs for £12. There are better quality and more attractive incense cones that can be bought for £2 a box or less. 

Date: May 2026    Score: 23/50

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Raajsee of Jaipur

   

Palo Santo