Incense In The Wind

Burner Burner - Carhartt jacket incense burner

Saturday, 8 October 2016

Stamford Mythical Range Incense Unicorn's Grace



Perfumed volatility on the cone. Synthetic room-freshener scent - familiar, but I can't quite catch it. Green, fresh, citric, lime, lemon, slightly floral mid or heart tones, few base notes - perhaps some woody pine. It's attractive - it's got me sniffing away... 

The scent on the burn is again green, but with more base so it's like cooking cabbage and/or spinach, but more attractive than that sounds - some cheeky little citric top notes start playing around.  This is a nice incense. As I've been going through this new pack of Stamford Mythical cones, sold now by Stamford London rather than Aargee, I'm finding a fair divergence from either my experiences back in 2016 and 2017 when I initially reviewed them, or in the quality of the cones themselves. It's possible that Stamford are sourcing from a different incense maker, or it could be that my own appreciation of incense has altered. I am marking them down quite a bit from the original scores, and though I will also be marking this one down, I don't think I'll be going down too far.  

I've just looked at my review from 2016, and I see that packs back then did have blurbs on them. And the blurb then was the same as it is today: "Adore the mythical aroma of aloe vera in Unicorn's Grace, its magical presence is sure to transport you to a serene and tranquil land." Ah, yes, aloe vera, that is the elusive "green" scent I have.  I'm not sure, even now, knowing it is meant to be aloe vera, that I would pin it down to that.  Kiwi! that's what I'm smelling. It's kiwi.  Hmm, as it burns down to the thicker part of the cone, so I'm getting hints of scorched sawdust. Shame. That, for me, is one of the weak points of burning cones - the way the scent changes, and usually not for the better, as the heat gets down to the thicker end of the cone.  It's not much, but it is there. I'll be moving the score down a little more than I initially intended.  The brass incense holder in the pic was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder. It is also available from the Chinese website Shein


Date: May 2024   Score:  31



First review


Unicorn's Grace is part of  the Mythical series by Stamford that I dubbed "Black Magic" before I knew the official name. The full set of 12 scents is available from Bargain Shop on Amazon for £12.38 including postage. There are twelve cones in each box, along with one of those thin metal stands which are actually little use as the heat goes through them. Our family love the mythical theme of the series, and my daughter chose this one to burn first as she loves unicorns. It has a rose and grassy aroma touched with some sandalwood. The blurb on the box says: "Adore the mythical aroma of aloe vera in Unicorn's Grace, its magical presence is sure to transport you to a serene and tranquil land." It is relaxing, and very pleasant. The scent on the cones is sweet, jammy and sherbet like with some herby, medicine-like peaks.

Made in India by an unknown source, these are not charcoal perfumed-dipped cones, but cones made by hand from natural fragrant ingredients. These are lovely.


Date: Oct 2016   Score: 36

Stamford
Mythical Black Incense cones

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment: