Stamford Satin (discontinued)

It's an amusing gimmick. Incense cones packed into little containers designed to look like paint cans. The series is called Satin, and the three fragrances are given paint names: Oriental Red, Sunflower Yellow, and Mandarin Orange. I paid £10 for a big box of these: 12 cans each containing 30 cones - that's 360 cones, working out at less than 3p per cone. And each can contains a cute coloured ceramic cone holder. Brilliant! Except that the perfume on the cones is very faint, and the aroma is mainly of the core organic material. Not good. While at times the cone aroma is simply bland, other times it is acrid and unpleasant. It's fairly random as to what the result will be, and makes no difference which colour/aroma is chosen. It's possible I'll simply end up just throwing the lot away. Made in India for Aargee's Stamford brand.

Sunflower Yellow

Mandarin Orange

Oriental Red

Date: July 2015    Score:12

***

Vintage Incense
(Incense brand
not currently available)

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Golden Dragon

Fairly basic perfume-dipped incense. Poor quality production means the sticks are of varying thickness, and the charcoal paste has been poorly applied. The finished result is misshapen sticks. There seems no pride in the process. The perfume scent is indifferent. and fairly weak. It's not offensive, but there's nothing much here to commend it, other than as a cheap and basic everyday room freshener. Keep in the kitchen or toilet.

Score: 25

***

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Mysore Sugandhi

Mysore Sugandhi

The Mysore Sugandhi Dhoop Factory of Bangalore was formed in 1934, and claims to be the first exporter of incense from India - their name means the fragrant incense factory of Mysore, and their Chandan Dhoop was made under the patronage of the Maharaja of Mysore. 

Some of their basic single scent perfume-dipped incense was sold under the Aargee brand in the UK. Aargee is now Stamford London, and no longer  uses the Aargee brand, so those incenses are discontinued under that brand; however, the scents will still be available with the Mysore Sugandhi brand.  

Reviews

* = Reviews over five years old

Aargee Patchouli (P) (Discontinued)
March 2015 - Score: 33*

Aargee Rose (P)  (Discontinued)

July 2018 Score: 30↑↓ [Average 28]* 

(see Gateway of India)

Gateway of India  (P)
Nov 2024 - Score: 25↓↓ [Average 28]

Aargee Musk (P)  (Discontinued)
Dec 2015 - Score: 27*

Aargee Lavender (P)  (Discontinued)
Dec 2015 - Score: 27*

Golden Dragon  (P)
July 2015 - Score: 25*

777 Chandan (P)
May 2015 -  Score: 22*
(see Aargee Sandalwood) 

Aargee Sandalwood (P) (Discontinued)
Dec 2015 - Score: 22*
(see 777 Chandan)

Aargee Jasmine (P) (Discontinued)

Dec 2025   Score: 20↓

Surya Devya Laxmi Dhoop (D)
June 2018 - Score: 10*

Scents reviewed: 8
High score: 33
Low score: 10
Average: 27

***

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Fiore D'Oriente Angels Gabriel

Revisiting this as a comparison to some very enjoyable bukhoor incenses I am burning at the moment.  I still like this - it's candysweet, light and playful. Quite yummy, especially on the stick. And there is something quite comfortingly familiar about it. Nice. 

Date: March 2017   Score: 38

Incense made in India to traditional masala methods for an Italian company, Fiore d’Oriente, founded in 1988. They have about 17 ranges - this is from the Angels range. It has a beautiful scent on the stick - musky, sweet, sophisticated. While it has an elemental earthy quality, damp lambs wool and morning mushrooms, there's also something modern and elegant. On burning I can detect there's a bit of  halmaddi in the mix which gives the incense a bit of a sharp edge, but not so much as to overwhelm. I like this. It's soft, subtle and pleasant. I would like to order more Fiore d’Oriente incense, and explore the ranges, but I am hesitant at the prices. They sell for around £6 a pack of 10 sticks.

Date:  July 2015     Score: 39

***

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