Rajpal Kasturi

 

Kasturi is the Hindi word for musk. Musk incense is generally composed of a blend of synthetics, with perhaps some patchouli, vetiver, and/or sandalwood oils used in slightly higher priced incenses. More expensive, traditional musk incenses may use traditional botanical substitutes such as ambrette (musk mallow) or labdanum. However, the bulk of everyday musk incense is likely to be mostly composed of - quite effective, though often blandly everyday - aroma chemicals. This Rajpal Kasturi is a bulky stick which is heavy with oils, and there's an earthy note here which could suggest the use of vetiver and sandalwood oil to liven up and give depth and character to the everyday aroma chemicals. I find this more promising than the synthetics heavy Kesar Kasturi I just reviewed.

The scent on the burn is warm and generous. For such a bulky stick it is reasonably mellow, not too smoky or aggressive. There's some patchouli notes - musky, sweet, earthy, leafy. Very likeable. Ultimately it doesn't do much, and stays within a prescribed area of patchouli-musk-wood; however, what it does it does well. This is a likeable warm incense. 

My samples come from Reddit user Brief_Chemistry. Packets are sold in India via the Rajpal website at 50g for ₹250 (£1.96p) plus shipping. International purchases are made via WhatsApp +91 99209 36644, with payments done by bank transfer.  

Date: May 2026    Score: 31/50

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Rajpal, Mumbai

Musk incense

Rajpal Kesar Kasturi

Kesar is saffron, and Kasturi is musk.  Both are suggested fragrance ideas rather than the real ingredients. Saffron is an expensive spice, rarely used in incense due to the cost; and genuine legal musk (extracted from the musk deer) is rare and expensive. Most incense makers blend low cost oils, such as cedarwood and clove for the saffron and vetiver and patchouli for the musk, with aroma chemicals, such as Safranal and Galaxolide. And it is likely that is what the maker of this incense has done. Though the scent on the stick is quite light, so it feels like some White Musk and some aldehydes have been used instead or alongside the standard ingredients. 

   

The scent on the burn is clean and modest. It unfolds as a modern White Musk and aldehyde room freshener. Quite acceptable. Fairly crisp and sweet, with some florals - rather more florals than expected. It's a modest but pleasant incense, leaning more into perfume-dipped territory than what is expected from traditional masala. 

My samples come from Reddit user Brief_Chemistry. Packets are sold in India via the Rajpal website at 50g for ₹120 (93p) plus shipping. International purchases are made via WhatsApp +91 99209 36644, with payments done by bank transfer.  Also available on eBay.co.uk - 2x50g packets for £14.39 with free postage.  

Date: May 2026    Score: 27/50

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Rajpal, Mumbai

Saffron incense

  

Musk incense

Rajpal Ultra Premium Patchouli

Quite a generous stick of patchouli incense from Rajpal in Mumbai. Thick and heavy like incenses termed Flora, in the style of Sai Shri Flora Fluxo - which appears to be the first to use the term, and has been much copied by other incense houses since, often using the same packet design. In my experience, even though such flora style incenses may be sold in luxury boxes, and are thick and heavy with paste and oil, they tend to be cheap and crude, and are often offered at a lower price than other stock from the same maker. Speculation as to why this would be ranges from manufacturing in bulk as flora sticks are very popular in India (after perfume dipped) to the lower cost of the fragrance ingredients compared to other masala style incenses.  

  

Pack of Rajpal Patchouli (Ultra Premium)

Patchouli is one of my favourite incense fragrances. While it has been used as a fragrance ingredient since the 1800s when the leaves were used to protect fabric from insects when exported from India to the West, its use in incense appears to have only begun in the 1960s - there are no reliable details of patchouli being used in incense in India, Asia, or Japan earlier than this. Though it is speculated it may have been used as an unnamed fixative base in Japan in the early 20th century (when steam distillation allowed the fragrance to be captured as an essential oil).  Patchouli as a fragrance works well in incense as the scent doesn't evaporate with the heat, and it is a strong and lingering scent. And it has become one of the most popular incense scents, along with Nag Champa, Sandalwood, Jasmine, etc.  

Cold throw scent on the stick is earthy, sweet, woody, tree bark and forest dust, caramel and lamb's wool. It a splendid scent. Well, for those who like woody, deep, dark, sweet and dusty scents it is splendid; for those who like something more light, floral, and airy, perhaps not so much! 

The scent on the burn is sultry and woolly - I suspect halmaddi has been used. For such a generous stick, the scent and smoke impact is not excessive. I like this. It's not a clever incense - there's a blend of oils supporting the patchouli, and its a little more grounded and woody than I generally prefer, but I like it for what it is rather than what it is aiming to be. There are some sharp, fruit/floral notes which provide some contrast. There's also mineral resinous notes, rather like sambrani.  Yes. Good one. 

My samples came from Reddit user Brief_Chemistry. Packets are sold in India via the Rajpal website at 50g for ₹300 plus shipping. International purchases are made via WhatsApp +91 99209 36644, with payments done by bank transfer. 

Date: May 2026    Score: 34/50

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Rajpal, Mumbai

Pick the Perfect Patchouli

Help Us Green - Recycled Flowers Pioneer

Karan Rastogi of Help Us Green sent me four samples of recycled temple flower incense for review in 2025. When he wrote offering the samples, I responded that I was very interested in the use of recycled temple flowers in incense, and mentioned Phool as the pioneers. Karan  wrote back to clarify that he started Phool with Ankit Agarwal in 2017, but in 2019 Karan Rastogi and Ankit Agarwal split over disagreement over how to fund  Phool - Karan favouring organic growth, while Ankit favouring external funding. Both companies make incense by using recycled temple flowers as a replacement combustible, as well as exploring other uses for the flowers, such as for fertiliser and an eco-friendly styrofoam.  

Help Us Green are based in Kanpur along the banks of The Ganges. 

Reviews 

Help Us Green Patchouli (PM)
 May 2025 - Score: 42/50 

 

Help Us Green Sandalwood (PM)
Aug 2025 - Score: 29/50

Help Us Green Rose (PM)
May 2025 - Score: 27/50

  

Help Us Green Mogra (PM)
May 2026 - Score: 27/50

   

Reviews: 4 
Top score: 42
Low score: 27

Average: 31

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Recycled Temple Flowers

Incense in India

The Best Incense Makers

Help Us Green Mogra

Attractive box, free wooden incense holder, and recycled temple flowers used as part of the combustible ingredients. There is a resemblance to Phool in terms of packaging and use of recycled temple flowers; that is because Help Us Green was founded in 2019 by Karan Rastogi, who co-founded Phool in 2017, but then split with co-founder Ankit Agarwal due to disagreement over how to fund the business (Rastogi wanted organic growth, Agarwal wanted external funding). 

I love the idea of using recycled flowers as an incense combustible - it is kinder to the environment, and helps reduce the impact of climate change. However, the down side is that flower waste have off-odours, such as damp and decay, which can intrude on the overall fragrance accord, and/or the natural flower scents can clash with the intended fragrance. Careful drying and sorting can mitigate, though all too often there is batch inconsistency due to the variability of the sourcing of the flowers. Where I have found recycled flower incense to be attractive, such as with Calmveda, when digging deeper it appears that  the flower waste is only a proportion of the combustible. However, even if only a proportion of the combustible is flower waste, that is better than none at all. 

I have liked the Help Us Green incense I have tried so far - indeed, I have liked some very much indeed, such as the Patchouli, and as Help Us Green is focused on the environmental side of re-using flower waste (rather than just following the trend), I find myself aligning with this company. 

Mogra is the Arabian jasmine, and  while there have been jasmine incense I have enjoyed, on the whole it is not an incense fragrance that particularly delights me. From the start of this blog I have emphasised that scent enjoyment is personal - it is individual and unique due to the complexities of how we perceive scent via emotions and memories. Some scents I enjoy more than others. Some styles I enjoy more than others. There is no universal 'good' scent; we each react differently. What captures my imagination might leave you indifferent, and what you love, I might actively dislike. People often ask me for recommendations, or to tell them which incenses are "good"; but we each need to find that out for ourselves. Like finding our life partner ourself. You can't read on a forum or blog which partner is best for you, especially if the writers know nothing about you. Same with incense. All I can do is describe the incense honestly, and then say how I respond to it, especially in comparison with other incenses I have had over the years. That I am not a fan of mogra/jasmine should be borne in mind when reading this review. If you love jasmine, then your reaction to this incense will likely be rather different to mine.  

The cold throw scent on the stick is perfumed, slightly damp and musty jasmine/mogra. Mild sweetness, hint of White Musk, florals, new leather handbag. Not hugely inviting for me. Scent on the burn gives me the same experience. There's jasmine perfume, some suggestion of pale sandalwood, and a mild hint of damp, which could be the jasmine perfume or the waste flower combustible, as I have experienced the same accord with both jasmine and recycled flowers. Floral scents seem appropriate for recycled flower incense, as the scents can merge together. If the fragrance is appropriately formulated then the off-notes from the recycled flowers are incorporated into the intended floral scent and enhanced or covered up by the subtle merge. 

I'm not put off by this mogra, nor by the recycled flower combustible; however, jasmine is not my thing, so this doesn't excite me. 

Date: May 2026   Score: 27/50 

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Recycled Flowers Pioneer

Recycled Temple Flowers

Best jasmine incense

HEM Spearmint Incense Cones

Yep, smells of spearmint on the cone - a little dirty and musky, which adds to the interest. Makes a change from the usual, though the scent on the burn is a little vague and smoky, and wanders around menthol and camphor with some patchouli. Perhaps not as much on target as it could be, but acceptable as an everyday room freshener. 

HEM incense is available all over the world from your favourite incense dealer, or simply the corner shop. I got mine from Amazon as part of a 12 different boxes for £12 deal. 

Date: May 2026   Score: 25/50

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HEM Corporation

Vedic Vaani Jai Mahakal

Mahakal is another name for Lord Shiva, the Hindu Cosmic Dancer and God of Time, so the fragrance will be ambient and suggestive of divinity and magic rather than specific to any particular scent. I tend to prefer such creative incenses - they tend to be looser, more inventive, and less of a potential disappointment when the incense almost inevitably fails to live up to the expectation of the named scent, be it rose or sandalwood. Here we can either just enjoy the fragrance, or gently engage in contemplation of how the incense creator plays with the concept of Mahakal.  This is the first incense I've had with the name Mahakal, though there are others, such as Jai Mahakal by Ajanta - described as "using high-quality natural aromatic oils inspired by traditional Shaivite fragrances". Shaivite fragrances are such as sandalwood, vetiver, and camphor - natural fragrance products found in India, and those scents are present in the cold throw fragrance on the stick of this Jai Mahakal -pale creamy wood, sweet caramel, warm earth, lamb's wool, brown sugar, and cooling menthol. It's a lovely, beguiling, calming scent. 

The fragrance on the burn is gentle, calming, clean, attractive, and centred on sandalwood and resin. Pleasant, though perhaps a little too everyday to be especially charming. 

Available from Vedic Vaani at 100gm for £5.31 plus shipping (at least £25). 

Date: May 2026   Score: 32/50

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Vedic Vaani of Mumbai