Aargee Stamford Moods

Selection packs or gift packs are becoming increasingly popular. This one is titled Moods, and is branded Stamford, Aargee's mainstream brand. It contains six popular aromas, and their accompanying "moods": Sandalwood (Meditation), Aloe Vera (Healing), Frankincense (Spirituality), Jasmine (Divinity), Lavender (Anti Stress), and Vanilla (Calming). All sticks are perfume dipped onto a hand rolled charcoal base, and are of a decent quality. Perfume dipped are not "artisanal" or traditional incense sticks, but are popular in both India and the West, as they are cheap, pleasant, quick and easy to make, and the scents can be more modern, and fine-tuned to the tastes of the target audience. They are also less likely to induce allergic reactions.

All in all this is a slightly better set of scents than might be suspected from the packaging. Yes, chemical perfume dipped, and yes, an unadventurous set of scents, but the scents are accessible and inoffensive, and occasionally quite pleasant.

Available from Amazon for £3.50 including postage. 

Sandalwood

Sandalwood is "Meditation". This is fairly sweet and moderately heady. There's a pleasant weight to it. But it doesn't really smell much of sandalwood, and is quite obviously chemical based. Not an incense to use for meditation, but acceptable as a cheap everyday room freshener.
Score: 25

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera is "Healing", which is apt, as the sap of the plant is used to cure injuries. Fairly faint aroma, inclining toward moist nettle and gentle white flowers. Inoffensive, but so lacking in presence as to be almost pointless.
Score: 20

Frankincense

Frankincense is "Spirituality", which is appropriate as it is used for church incense. This is a pleasant dipped perfume incense. The aroma is candy sweet frankincense. As frankincense is one of my favourite scents, I'm predisposed to like it.
Score:30

Jasmine

Jasmine is "Divinity". Fairly chunky sticks with a strawberry jam aroma. There is a sense of the heady, flowery notes of jasmine, but it's rather light. Pleasant enough, though. Flowery, fresh, and with a jasmine aroma. OK.
Score: 31

Lavender

Lavender is "Anti-stress". This is sweet, heady, fragrant, and very pleasant. It fills a room with lively awakening scent. Attractive little perfume dipped incense. Doesn't really sell of lavender though.
Score: 33

Vanilla

Vanilla is "Calming". The aroma on the stick is divine - like sweet, delicious candy and honey. When burned, the aroma is not quite so exciting, and betrays it's chemical origin, but is still reasonable.
Score: 28


Date: June 2015   Overall score:  27

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