Regent House Angel Wings

25 sticks for £2 from Incense Essentials. The sticks are about average length, though only just over half of the stick is incense. There is a charcoal core, and then a decent layer of light brown masala powder which is dipped into a modern scent. On the stick the modern scent notes are quite clear, with apple tones, and a sense of alcohol solvent with a touch of cat pee. Not inviting. The sticks are distributed by Aroma World Ltd in Yorkshire, who are trading as Regent House. They appear to be a small company making fragrance related products, room fresheners, etc, and the "Angel Wings" scent used in this incense is their main product, which they use on most of their range.

The scent is light, modern, and attractive. Clearly synthetic, but then so are the world's most expensive and desired perfumes. Natural is not in itself a guarantee of quality or pleasantness: dog shit is natural, Chanel No 5 is synthetic. I know which I'd prefer to smell. But it's each to their own. My ideal would be to smell something natural and pleasant, but next in line, given a choice of natural and unpleasant or synthetic and pleasant, I'd choose the synthetic. There is much about this scent that reminds me of Cha Cha Dum Dum's Mystic Incense range - Pink Sugar and Baby Powder, and Tree of Life's Shalimar, in that all of them are going for modern, light, subtle scents. Nothing earthy, heavy, or blunt, but delicate, uplifting, refined, and sophisticated. This is a distinct step away from traditional Indian incense, both the ancient tradition of heavy, resin (especially halmaddi) led masala incense, typified by Satya and Mother's India Fragrances, and the modern tradition of perfume dipped incense which relies on the common scents of Rose, Jasmine, White Musk, etc.  The delicacy of these incenses, and the subtle attractiveness of their scents is more in tune with Japanese incense.

I like this scent. I'm not excited by it - it doesn't thrill me or lift me up, but it does intrigue me. I think there are flaws in it - too much of the civet inspired notes, and a little too obviously synthetic with traces of plastic and solvent, but these are not heavy flaws, and I'm liking this rather more than I thought I would. Do I like it enough to buy again? Hmmm. With the Mystic Incense Baby Powder, I kind of liked it, but wasn't overwhelmed and thought that would be the end of it when I finished the pack. But the scent remained in my memory, and I do miss it and want to smell it again. I suspect that could also be the case here.

Date:  June  2015   Score: 35

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