Emporium Impressions Premiere Incense Gift Pack (brand closed)

Picked up cheap from a local hardware shop. Incense gift packs rarely contain quality incense, and incense bought cheap in hardware shops is highly unlikely to be quality. Yet I buy them because I want to support shops selling incense. I'd like to see the day when big supermarkets carry a range of decent incense instead of those awful plug in room fragrances or - even worse - room air sprays. But I don't hold out much hope. There's the familiar names from gift packs - Vanilla, White Musk, Patchouli, etc. This is made purely for a UK market. There's no indication on the pack who made them - it just says "Made in India". But they are imported by Emporium, and Impressions is their brand. Emporium do have their own incense factory in Calcutta, and they also use Karigar in West Bengal, and other manufacturers in Thailand and China

The sticks are all very basic charcoal paste thinly rolled onto a plain bamboo stick and then dipped in a synthetic perfume. There's six square boxes, each with 8 sticks inside.

Patchouli
It's a pleasant scent - a little floral, possibly jasmine. Nothing patchouli about it at all. I like it. Warm, quite heady. Sweet and dreamy, with a decent musky undernote. Much better than I expected. But nothing like patchouli.
Score:  27

Sandalwood
This is another pleasant scent. Also floral, though more rose like, a little old fashioned and restrained. It is softer, less heady than the patchouli, so has less impact, and reveals more of its chemical origin. But it's not offensive. Would work as an everyday cheap scent.
Score: 21

Vanilla
This is very sweet, and does smell of vanilla. Warm, melting vanilla ice-cream, with jammy floral hits. I like this. While not being overwhelmed, I am being more impressed by this gift pack than I thought I would be. Not to say that these sticks are good, but that they're really not that bad, and are reasonable value for money. This vanilla works for me, and I might be inclined to buy this scent again. The more I burn these, the more I like them. 
Score: 29

Ylang ylang
Ugly earthy scent on the stick, mix of bad eggs and damp swamp wood. Very faint scent on burning. When catching it, it's warm, musky and rather chemical. Ylang Ylang is a flower that produces a scent rather like jasmine. There is a sense of heady jasmine here - but not much. It's OK, but it's not working very hard.
Score: 20

Sea Breeze
My previous encounters with the aroma name Sea Breeze have been in the Divine Spirit collection, a Emporium brand, and Joie Sea Breeze, a brand imported by Emporium. There is little similarity between the three either in appearance or scent - just the name. This is slightly floral, slightly mineral, with a hint of benzoin, pine, camphor, and toffee. Slightly medicinal. There's not much going on. OK.
Score: 21

White Musk
Quite a soft, mild perfume, though there is a distinct pleasant musk note. Not earthy, but quite refined, like patchouli. I quite like this. It's not exciting, but is certainly reasonably pleasant for a cheap incense bought from a hardware store. The more I burn these sticks the more attractive I find them. 
Score: 28

Overall this is not an exceptional pack. The scents here are not mood enhancers, or to be used when guests are coming,  but will work as effective everyday room fresheners. Stale cooking odours, wet dog, stinky toilet - these will absorb the smell, and replace it with something more pleasant. Cheap, cheerful, effective, and not harmful to the environment or pets. And the Vanilla and White Musk scents are actually quite attractive.


Date: May 2015    Overall score: 25

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Emporium incense
(Own brand label
out of business)

Vanilla