Satya Nag Champa Fresh Rose Dhoop Cones

A fresh box of Satya Rose. Oooh. This is lovely. Sugar sweet. Delicate floral rose - not heavy and old fashioned, but light and playful and a little bit sexy with hints of strawberries. Really like this one. Lifts the room, lifts the mood. An incense to make you smile and if you're young to dream ahead and hope, while if you're old, to reminisce of old romances.... 

Checking the box, I note that it is an older style box with the old Satya family logo, and the old website address of nagchampa.co.in (now taken over by a Chinese company). The incense smells really fresh - not like stock dating from before 2014 (when the brothers split up, and the logos changed). 

The logo on the box is the pre-2014 one

It is a highly perfumed incense, and I feel that the perfume would have evaporated if kept in storage for at least six years. I wonder if this is a fake? Next time I buy some incense I'll get another box of the Satya Rose and see what logo is used. Fake or not, this is a very attractive cone! 

Date: Dec 2020    Score: 40 

OK. I have a sample box of the Satya rose cones I burned last year, and I've popped one into a cute looking, but totally impracticable Chinese jade burner I bought off eBay many years ago. They are still listed there  - thousands of them - usually listed as vintage jade or vintage silver. They can be bought very cheap, but they can also go up to silly prices because they look so cute. But they are not genuine, they are not old, and they are not incense burners. They are purely ornamental. In order to get them to burn incense you have to make holes in the bottom in order to get an air flow, otherwise the cones just goes out. Also, you need to put the cones on a heat resistant stand (you often get free stands in a cone packet - either a metal one, or ceramic, or clay) before putting it in the burner, otherwise the burner gets VERY HOT! Even with that, it is advisable to put the burner on a heat resistant surface.

Anyway - the rose incense. It's a delicate floral scent, hints of strawberry in with the rose. It is a pleasant scent - quite soft, delicate, and light, so if you don't want a rich, heady rose scent, then this is a good alternative. Rose is not one of my favourite scents, so I'm not inclined to get this again, but it is quite nice.

Date: Feb 2017    Score: 28

Tatty little box of cones found near the bottom of my incense collection. The seal had been broken, so I've burned these in the past, and the remainder have been exposed to the air, so they are not fresh. I'm not getting any of the high floral notes, just the basic base notes. Really no point in giving a score as they are not as they should be. Put this here as a marker to remind me to get some fresh cones to rate.


Date: July 2016  Score: NA

***

Satya 
Shrinivas Sugandhalaya of Bangalore

Best rose incense

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Goloka Chandan Dhoop Cones

Second review - scroll down for earlier

I've been burning a few sandalwood cones over the past couple of days, and this Goloka cone remains by far my favourite. It smells of top quality sandalwood with creamy vanilla tones. Soft, seductive and very heavenly. Love it. Upped the score a bit.

Date: April 2018   Score: 45

First review

I love sandalwood (chandan), and I love Goloka incense, so a Goloka-made sandalwood is heaven. I've already rated the sticks, back in April 2013, and gave them a high score of 46. I bought a large box of the cones last year, but haven't got around until now to rating them. I love the cones. Soft and very yummy. I did have a rummage in my box and in my drawers for the sticks, but while I have lots and lots of Goloka sticks, none of them are the sandalwood, so I can't do a side by side comparison of the cones and the sticks. That will have to wait until I order some more incense (probably not for a long while as I have too much to work through already!)

This is a very refined scent. The wood is fresh, warm, woody - with a sort of polished quality. The smoke is soft and suggestive and very pleasant, so everything is soft and inviting, with no harshness, assertiveness, or sharpness. There is an enveloping seductive warmth about this which makes it suitable for all occasions. Great for the bedroom with it's spicy seductive undertones, also great for welcoming quests with its warm inviting friendliness, great for everyday use with its lingering gentle woody tones. A great incense.


Date: July 2016  Score: 42

***

Goloka

Sandalwood

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Satya (Original - 2014) Nag Champa Dhoop Cones

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Having a tidy up of my desk and I come upon this sample box of Satya's Nah Champa cones. The logo is pre-2014, but the cones is still quite fresh and lovely. My experience is as it was in 2016 - a soft gently floral (rose) scent, though I also note an underlying musk and patchouli. This is a pleasant, slightly sweet scent, which puts thoughts of Turkish delight in my mind, no doubt due to that combination of rose and sweetness. Yeah, it's nice. Definitely something I'd be happy to buy again and keep in stock. 

Date: Dec 2021   Score: 37 

Having a rummage at the bottom of my incense box for some more cones for our cone bowl in the bathroom (we use cones instead of air freshener sprays - you use the toilet, you light a cone....), and I come upon this old box of Satya's Nag Champa cones. It's from 2014, but - as with so much incense I have in the house - I hadn't yet got around to rating it. I burn it and it's quite soft, and doesn't have the prickly edge or freshness of the sticks. So I rummage and find a box of the Satya Nag Champa agarbatti to do a side by side comparison. Yes, straight-away I note that prickly edge, and the damp lambs wool. But also I am getting a lot of petrol fumes which I don't recall having experienced previously. I look at the box and it says "2012 series". Does that really mean it was made in 2012? Is it really that old? I recall buying a large supply quite cheaply a few years ago, and this is what is left of that supply. It might be worth getting some fresh (perhaps "2016 series"), and making a comparison. I'm not enjoying either of these. The cones are the least objectionable as they are quite soft, with a flowery, almost rose like quality, that I don't really associate with Nag Champa, but which is quite pleasant, while the sticks are fairly sharp and assertive, with that petrol fume aroma which is quite off-putting.

Score is for the cones.


Date: July 2016  Score:  33 

***

Top Ten incense cones

Nag Champa

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)