Poundland Coley & Gill Incense Sticks 5PK

Pack of five different scents from Poundland under their Coley & Gill brand. The scent names are the same as their big single packs with free incense holder, though the sticks are of a slightly different composition - the Cotton Fresh for example is perfume-dipped charcoal in this multi pack, but perfume-dipped sawdust in the single packs.  And the lengths are different - the single pack sticks are 10'', and the sticks in these multi packs are 9''.  It is likely that the stick blanks were made by different companies. The box says "Fragrances made in the UK", and there is clear knowledge of the ingredients with lists of the chemicals (such as butylphenyl, methylpropional, benzyl salicylate, etc), so it is likely the blanks were made in India or Asia (possibly Vietnam), then imported to the UK where they were perfume-dipped. Or perhaps the perfume solvents were shipped out to a company in India where the sticks were then dipped. Hmmm.

There are 16 sticks per hex pack, so 5x16 = 80.  The single packs contain 60 sticks - though you do get a stick holder, so it's about the same value.


French Vanilla

Vanilla is an effective and pleasant incense scent, and it works OK here. It's not heavenly, but is certainly better than a toilet cleaner incense. You do get the scent of vanilla rather than just the stick core as you normally do on cheap perfume-dipped incense. This is a very decent everyday incense, and is a damn good price. Contains methylcinnamaldehyde which gives it a woody warmth and coumarin, which gives it an organic sweetness.
Score: 27

Sandalwood

This one is less successful. It bears little resemblance to sandalwood, and is quite clearly chemical based. It is a little sharp and hot and reveals some of the charcoal base. This is not a decent everyday incense, this is basic toilet freshener. Contains 4-tert butylcyclohexyl acetate which is meant to give a woody, cedar like smell, but this scent is higher and cleaner and crisper than wood. It's not offensive, but it's not impressive either.
Score: 19


Strawberry Flower & Lily

Charcoal base dipped in a floral scented solvent - quite sharp and harsh. Some smoke and fruit notes when burning. Hints of cherry, but no strawberry. Contains heliotropine (also known as piperonal)  which would account for the floral and the cherry notes. This is quite acceptable. I quite like this. It's not heavenly, but it smells clean, fresh and with a lively cherry fruit quality, that it would be acceptable as an everyday incense.
Score: 24


Fresh Lavender

The scent is not that strong on this so some of the sharpness and heat of the base charcoal comes through. Contains linalool, which should give it a woody sweetness, but I'm getting getting much of that. Toward the end of the stick I get a creamy rich warth which is quite pleasant, but it's too little too late....
Score: 20

Cotton Fresh

Oooh I like this. Soft, creamy and very yummy, with musky undertones.  Contains a wide range of chemicals that have been blended to create this scent, so this has not been made by some back street manufacturer, but by one of the major companies who have their own laboratories. This is a little removed from romantic images of the artisan incense maker using skills handed on by his father, but the scent is so pleasant and useful and inexpensive for everyday use. I enjoy the variety of types of incense that are available - the rather rough, raw, earthy stuff from Tibet, the sensual Persian tablets, the subtle flowery little Japanese sticks, the everyday perfume dipped cones from the back streets of India as well as the handrolled halmaddi sticks made for the American market.
Score: 36


Overall

This is a decent package, great value for money as everyday incense. There are a range of scents which are OK to burn to freshen up the house, or to cover up a nasty pong in the toilet .Added to which the Cotton Fresh is worth £1 just by itself, so I feel this package is well worth buying again.

Date: April 2017   Score: 30

***

 Incense Ratings
Top of the Dhoops!

Top Ten 
Perfume-Dipped Incense

Vanilla

Moksh Lucky Kewda

Sorting through some of my boxes, and trying this one again. Yeah, it's an OK everyday scent. Nothing special, but quite acceptable. And, yep, at the top end of  the everyday stuff, just nudging at but not quite decent stuff.  I'm quite happy burning this, but there's nothing here to make me want to order it again.

Date: July 2018   Score: 29 

Kewda or kewra or ketaki is the distilled essence of the screw pine or pandanus plant, which is used as a flavouring in Asian and Indian cooking, particularly biryani. The Lucky part of the name possibly comes from a nickname for Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, where the plant is mostly grown.

It's an everyday perfume-dipped incense by Moksh, but it's good stuff as the scent is a little unusual. It doesn't smell that impressive on the stick - it has a floor polish sharp solvent nature, though even there some distinctiveness is shown. The bamboo stick is not top quality as it intrudes slightly on burning - there's a little too much of burnt pencil shavings coming through. The charcoal paste has been applied very smoothly and evenly. At first it looks machine made, but looking closely some rolling marks can be seen. The scent is best appreciated in the background. If sniffed too directly, the off notes from the solvent become too apparent, but left to gently inform a room, it does offer pleasant musky floral notes with hints of leather and tamarind.  I like this. It's not one to use for meditation or for when guests are around, but as an everyday incense, it works well. Would I buy it again? Probably not, but it's up there at the top of the everyday incenses.

Date: April 2017 Score: 29

***

Moksh Agarbatti

Top Ten 
Perfume-Dipped Incense

Best floral incense

SAC (Sandesh) Sandalwood (masala)

I reach into my incense box for some everyday perfume-dipped incense to freshen and brighten up the house after lunch, and also do a quick review before settling down to work. I find a hex box of SAC, and think that'll do. Open it up and it's a a proper job masala incense. 

OK, fair enough. I'll give it a go. I like masala incense, but because it can sometimes be a bit heavy, and I can have a negative reaction to some of the ingredients, particularly halmaddi, I don't burn it as often or as casually as perfume-dipped incense, and review it rarely, because when I do burn it, I prefer to burn it in a different room to me, or burn it when we're going out so we have the benefit of it when we return (masala incense tends to linger longer and more pleasantly than perfume-dipped). Reviewing masala incense I find difficult, because to be close enough to it to do it justice can give me a headache at least, and often also set up a throat irritation.  [2023: This is no longer how I feel about masala incense]

This incense has a charcoal base onto which is rolled the dried masala ingredients [2023: I have since discovered that the wood powder on the charcoal base is not the fragrant masala ingredients, but usually powdered tree bark put there partly to stop the sticks gluing together as they dry, and partly as decoration and/or to identify the stick as a masala type incense] - there is a solvent on top, so this has also been dipped.  Hmmm. Maybe it's not a proper job masala. There is a very thin covering of powder. The scent on the stick is citric and pure alcohol, there's pine, and some vague floral notes. Hmm. I'm just getting a bit of wood - cedar and sandalwood. But this is not a pure, quality sandalwood. The scent from the burning stick is quite soft and mild, so there doesn't appear to be any halmaddi. The base charcoal comes through first - a little hot and harsh, but there is also an awareness of sandalwood. Hmmm. It's OK, but this is more like a perfume-dipped stick than a proper-job masala. There's a bit of both, but the main scent appears to be driven by the perfume solvent that the stick has been dipped in. It's OK, but it's going into my everyday box rather then my good stuff.

Date: April 2017   Score:  25

***

SAC (Sandesh)

Sandalwood

 Incense Ratings
Top of the Dhoops!