The Mother's India Fragrances Sattva

 

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Part of a sample pack of short sticks - two of each scent, with six scents in the pack. Bought quite cheap from a hippy shop in Hitchin, Herts: Harvest Moon. I've had a few Mother's sample packs over the years, and the content does vary. This one contains samples of Amrita, Ganesh, Meera, Rishi, Sattva, and Shanti. The pack is attractive, and, as with others I've had, opens up to reveal the samples inside in little packs, glued to the pack. The pack is a little difficult to open - I find the best way is to slip a sharp knife or scissors into the bottom to cut it open. I picked up what I thought were three different packs, though it turns out that two are the same, though with different coloured packs - orange and blue, and with the list of scents in a different order. 

All the sticks are composed of a charcoal paste hand-rolled onto a plain bamboo splint, and then rolled in a melnoorva or masala powder. There is a sheet of paper inside which states that the sticks are "made by the traditional masala method whereby all the ingredients for a fragrance are mixed together in a paste which is then rolled by hand onto sticks". The scents on the sticks are variable in the amount of liquid volatiles (essential oils or perfumes) detected. The scent on some sticks feels to be more propelled by dry ingredients, and there are notes of lambs wool present on a few, to varying degrees. The pack when opened releases a  pleasant, flowery  scent more reminiscent of a modern perfume shop than an incense shop.  

Sattva is one of the three guna in Hindu philosophy.  It relates to honesty, goodness, and positivity. If you feel that such a concept is somehow represented by a flowery and modern scent, then the name will resonate with you. The rest of us will just see it as a name given to this particular incense. I find the names given to products (especially cars!) somewhat interesting, but given that I am rationale enough to know that it is just marketing (says the man who while at university wrote the astrology column for the international travel magazine Utopia), I tend not to look more deeply into the names of products beyond a healthy curiosity. 

The scent is flowery, sweet, pleasant. Quite modern and perfumey. It is a light, modern, polite scent - nothing to get excited about, but certainly quite attractive to have around. The weight of the scent appears to rely on a liquid fragrance, either an essential oil or a fragrance oil of some sort. There are citric notes: soft orange and tangerine, hints of melon, some St Julien tobacco, supported by sweet sandalwood, and fresh beech. 

Date: April 2022   Score: 32/50

First review

There's a clear tobacco scent about this, and a particular tobacco - St Julien Empire Blend, a Virginia tobacco grown in South Africa - it is a sweet, juicy scent with enough spice to contrast the sweetness and keep up the interest. There are hints of chocolate and cedarwood, and moments of sweet musk - quite a masculine smell. I really like this. It is a scent that is a pleasure to inhale - like a good wine or brandy. I'm not sure that it creates a mood for me - it seems mood neutral, and I'm not sure how it could be best used to enhance the house. It seems, really, to be a scent on its own. A scent just for itself - like a pipe tobacco scent. You wouldn't use a pipe tobacco scent for any reason other than to smell it.

Sattva is one of three key states in Hindu philosophy - there is a neutral state, an imbalanced state, and a balanced, creative, positive state. The positive state is sattva. Greater Goods (importers of the incense into the UK)  describe the scent as "woody and floral" - they feel it is "a modern fragrance, bold and confident yet balanced and pure."

I like it, though feel it perhaps has a limited attraction as it doesn't take me out of myself, and it doesn't lift me. This is one that is perhaps best suited to be burned in short spells just for the pleasure of the scent. Maybe it is for moments in a favourite old chair in the garden shed with a dark beer and a moody detective novel.


Date: Aug 2017   Score: 32/50

***

The Mother's India Fragrances

Gokula Prabhupada Special

I really like this. It has a nostalgic old fashioned feel about the scent. It's woody and musky, yet with gentle floral notes. Some warm prickly moments - the envelopment of wool - the freshness of grass - the excitement of closeness - a summer evening bonfire..... This is a good scent - it is not aggressive, but does have a clear and profound presence that informs and warms a room, lingering perceptibly for some time afterwards in a cleansing and healing manner.  This is my sort of scent, and is one I am marking down to buy again from Gokula. It perhaps doesn't have the range, depth or interest of some of the big scents in my Heavenly category, but it is, for me, very, very likeable, so that's where it is going. It is in many ways quite similar to Panchavati, a long time favourite of mine - and I'll be interested to do a side by side comparison later.

It is named after Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the man who formed the Hare Krishna Movement. and introduced the Western world to the Krishna aspect of Hinduism.  As I've recently been exploring some incenses mainly made for those interested in magick, witchcraft, the occult, the ancient ways, etc, I've been thinking more closely about the spiritual aspects of burning incense. People burn incense for all sorts of reasons: to freshen up a room, remove bad odours, deter flying insects, create a mood or atmosphere,  or simply for the pleasant aroma. Some folks, though, burn incense for more profound reasons - spiritual or religious. They would be burning the incense for the impact the aroma or the burning materials would have upon their body or spirit - and perhaps with how they connect to the world (or nature or the divine). When burning incense for occult or spiritual reasons the aesthetic aroma may not be a priority - the ingredients, and the purity of those ingredients would be more important. It seems to me with some of the ancient incense makers, like the Indians, there is a beautiful blending of the aesthetic and the spiritual.  Gokula incense is made, I understand, by Haridas Madhavdas Sugandhi of Pune, who follow the ancient methods of Indian incense making.


Date: July 2017   Score: 42

Gokula-incense

D'Las Aura Jasmine

Huge charcoal sticks which are clearly intended for use in the garden (which is where we use them).  I picked up this and one other from a charity shop in London when visiting my son and his girlfriend. They are from Sri Lanka - made and distributed by D'Las, which is the incense branch of HDDES, a Sri Lankan company dealing in spices and essential oils.  Here is a commercial I found on YouTube for Aura incense.

They are very long and thick (they take a long while to light). They are perfume dipped on deep charcoal, and give off a fair bit of oily smoke - unsuitable for indoors, but fine for outdoors, where the smoke can detract insects, and also create attractive swirls. The scent is a musky, sandalwood base, some pine, and then a distinct "floral" character on top. It is pleasant, though not refined or clearly defined - I wouldn't say it is clearly jasmine, it is just a sort of decent enough floral, that drifts around us as we eat outside. We like it. It's not profound or interesting, but does the job it is intended to, and I'd be happy enough to buy them again if I knew where to get them!

Date: July 2017   Score: 30

***

Incense by Country

Best jasmine incense

Sifcon 100 Incense Sticks With Holder Cinnamon Cedarwood

Fourth review - scroll down for earlier

This is the same pack I bought in 2017, over six years ago, so is not fresh; however, it does still have a delightful woody aroma flavoured with spice. The aroma, though, is quite mild, so I am burning two at once to help put body to the fragrance. Oh, I do like this fragrance - it works for me: it's woody and Christmassy. It has, though, lost something over the years. Perfumed incense doesn't keep as long or as well as masala incense, so it's not a surprise that it isn't having the same impact on me as it did when fresh six years ago. This will now be moved out into the outhouse to keep the cats warm, and I'll have a hunt to see if anyone else does a cinnamon and cedarwood style incense. 

Date: Nov 2023    Score: 28    (Average of the four reviews:  33) 

Third review

Sometimes what I fancy is some woody, serious incense. Something a bit dark and sombre, outdoorsy, a little masculine. Cedarwood is the sort of thing. I've burned a few One Aromatics Cedarwood recently, and find I quite like them when a sombre, woodsy sort of scent is called for.  I was burning one recently, and recalled a couple of other cedarwood incense I had, and dug them out. One is Sifcon Cinnamon Cedarwood, which is remarkably similar, though in our household we felt the Sifcon to be the more woodsy. However, the girls preferred the One Aromatics as it was more smoky and friendly.   We also compared the Nippon Morning Star Cedarwood, something I hadn't been that kind to when I first reviewed it,  and found it to be a remarkably pleasant scent, if not exactly cedarwood or even that woodsy - there is wood present, but there's also oranges and tea, and seaweed and jasmine. I am more inclined to the Morning Star than on previous visits, but not necessarily as a cedarwood scent.  All in all I'm moving One Aromatics Cedarwood up out of the top end of the Everyday Incense group to just nudge into our Decent Stuff group. And, to be fair, moving this Sifcon Cinnamon Cedarwood slightly down. I still like it, but comparing it with other cedarwoods, I think I've been a little overgenerous in the past.

Date: June 2018  Score:  33

Second review

I've been burning this a fair bit over Christmas. To be fair it's more wood than cinnamon, but whatever it is, it's a divine woody scent. Sexy and warm and calming. It creates a soothing and sensual atmosphere. And it's very divine. It is heavenly. And such great value. Score pushed up.

Date: Jan 2018   Score: 40

First review

The full name is 100 Incense Sticks With Holder Cinnamon Cedarwood.

I've been burning some interesting but challenging incense recently, so it's good to review something fairly straightforward. I have been pleased to see incense becoming more and more accepted as an alternative room freshener to sprays and assorted plug-in and other gadgets. While not all the everyday incense that is available is strictly pure and natural, being sometimes partly composed of synthetic odours and scents, it is still a lot closer to nature, and to the ways we have enhanced our homes with fragrant aromas for thousands of years, than the chemicals sold to be plugged into the electric sockets in our houses.  And sometimes, even cheap everyday incense IS purely natural. While the main supermarkets have yet to introduce incense to their shelves, some of the budget stores (such as Poundland with their Coley & Gill range) and various corner shops and hardware stores, are now selling cheap everyday incense on a regular basis. Sifcon International are one of the companies who are driving this, with a range of appealing incenses. This current range I spotted in my local budget hardware shop in Woolston is typical of what Poundland offer - a lot of sticks and an attractive wooden burner for a rock bottom price - in this case £1.49.

New selection of incense at my local store Beamans

The sticks are hand rolled with a sandalwood based masala and then dipped in an attractive perfume giving deep and rich woody tones - a blend of sandalwood and cedarwood, and then given extra warmth with a hint of cinnamon. It's actually really, really good.  This is probably one of the best value incense I have come across. The scent is not just better than the stuff at the top end of my everyday incense, it is firmly into the decent (though sometimes challenging) incense I have listed at the bottom of my heavenly category. And you get a 100 sticks, and a nice looking wooden burner, for a penny less than £1.50. That's crazy!  OK, this isn't a complex scent - it's not doing anything remarkable, and it's not creating an authentic mood, but it is damned attractive, and it's doing exactly what I want it to, when I want it to. I don't have to work at it, or worry about it. I can just light a few sticks, spread them around the house, and I have a warm, woody slightly spicy scent throughout my home, making me feel good, and keeping away flying insects.  Job done. Nice one.

Date: July 2017    Score: 37

***

Sifcon International

100 Incense Sticks With Holder

A cedarwood sampling

Best cinnamon incense

Top Ten 
Perfume-Dipped Incense

Kemet Design Hathor incense (business closed)

This is my third powder incense from Kemet Design [closed in 2019] - as with the others this has an Egyptian theme, and is named after Hathor, the goddess of the sky.  This one is working better for me. It's a woody smell. Not heavenly, but pleasant enough. I put water in my hotter burner, and put the incense powder into that.  There is a cedar wood quality to it. The description says "A rich myrrh incense with a hint of sandalwood and frankincense. This is a warm and sweet intoxicating scent." But I get nothing like that at all. It looks and smells more like cedar wood, and seems to fit better the description for Set: "A spicy, woody blend of juniper, cassia, benzoin and cedar. The aroma is very masculine with a spicy hint of citrus from the juniper and cedar, a warm rich scent from the cassia and a clean balsamic vanilla aroma from the benzoin."

I've not really been hugely impressed with any of the powders I've had from Kemet Design. It's probably me not being able to work out how to burn them properly, and I'll be happy to hear some advice. In the meanwhile I think it's unlikely I'll be burning any of them again. I didn't completely hate them - there are elements I found intriguing in each of them, and I think I liked this one the most, as it had some cedar wood notes that were warm and spicy. But all in all, with the difficulty in burning them, and the unpleasant burning smell if you get it wrong, I don't think the reasonably pleasant and mildly intriguing aroma I get when I find a method that works for me, is really worth the effort, or the cost.


Date: July 2017    Score: 19

***

Kemet Design

Loose or home-made incense

 Incense Ratings - Top of the Dhoops!

Kemet Design Bast Incense (business closed)

 

Based on my previous experiences experiences with this incense, I put some water on the foil before tipping on the incense, this prevented the incense from getting scorched. The scent while burning is modest and mildly spicy with a leaning more toward fenugreek and saffron than rose and resin, though there are wood notes and a general sweetness amongst the general gastronomic savouriness.  

A not unattractive scent. Though it's a casual blend - the scents don't really work together, and there's no interesting journey. But it is moderately interesting. I've enjoyed it more this time than when I reviewed it back in 2017. 

Date: Sept 2025   Score: 21

First review

Another powder or granular incense from  Kemet Design [closed in 2019]  - this one is named after the Egyptian goddess Bast or Bastet, who has the body of a woman, but the head of a cat. She was originally a war goddess (the cat head then was more that of a lion) but became a goddess of perfume, so it seems appropriate that an incense should be named after her. I am becoming aware of a large and significant sub-culture of incense makers who are interested in magick and the ancient mystic arts. Or, perhaps, it's more that there is a magick sub-culture which is interested in making incense, as that is part of the ancient arts. Anyway, there are a number of such incense makers who make granular incense, and a Bast incense seems quite popular. I'm intrigued by this one by Star Child, who are based in Glastonbury. I might pop up to their shop to get a few incenses.

Anyway, this one by Kemet Design is advertised as "A rich blend of rose, orris root, sandalwood and myrrh. The scent is rich and inviting."  As with the Kyphi, this is not a strong incense, and is a little dry, so there is more burning going on than actual fragrancing. To avoid scorching I tried the trick suggested by Mermade Magickal Arts of putting the incense on some foil in the burner, as this reduces the direct heat. This does work to an extent at first, though the aroma is very slight, and there is a curious damp aroma, same as I found when using foil to protect my myrrh resin. But I tried it in my hotter burner, so it didn't take long before the powder got scorched again. However, before it did I got an aroma reminiscent of burning tea leaves, and I know about the aroma of burning tea leaves because when I was a young and curious teenager, that is one of the things we used to do. Roll some tea leaves in cigarette paper and smoke it.

Anyway, again... I am curious about this incense, and I would like to try it without a burning smell. So I put a little water in my burner, and scatter the powdered incense into the water. Yes! This has the desired effect - I can smell the incense, and it's not burning or scorching! Eureka!

Yes, there is a tea smell - not burning this time, but a delicate light scent of green tea, and a hint of rose. It's quite herby, but also a bit fatty or buttery, but I'm not getting sandalwood or myrrh.  I'm not getting on with this. If somebody has a suggestion of how I can burn this incense without scorching it, please let me know. If not I think I might chuck it away - I've had complaints from my two girls upstairs about the burning smell....


Date: July 2017   Score: 15

***

Kemet Design

Loose or home-made incense

The Scenter Tree Resin Myrrh

I bought this resin from The Scenter about a year or so ago. I absolutely loved it when I first had it, and burned it quite often, often in raptures. Then it got put away in my drawer and there it stayed as I explored other incense. Well, I got it out again recently, and tried it in my two burners, as well as on some charcoal, and I wasn't impressed. It was hot and smoky, with reduced myrrh fragrance. I just read this advice today on Mermade Magickal Arts on how to burn frankincense in a burner by using foil to slow down the burn so you got more of the fragrance, and less of the smoke. Well, it's true that you get less smoke (I have none at all), and there is a myrrh aroma, but it is very, very slight, and also a little bit damp and mouldy. I like the idea, but perhaps my burners are not quite hot enough to really energise the resin, or maybe the resin really is too old now, and I should give up and wait till some fresh arrives. What intrigues me is that I am still getting a very evocative and yummy aroma from the resin in the bag, but it turns into something a little crude and less pleasant when burned.


Date: July 2017   Score: 25

Myrrh scent test

We compared two myrrh scented masala incenses, the leading masala manufacturer Satya and the legendary cult importer Paul Eagle of the Happy Hari brand, one thin Japanese dhoop by the most popular brand Morning Star, with some resin, which I suspect is not the best quality. 

Unfortunately Paul Eagle's King of Myrrh is not one of his best imports. It has been a while since I last burned any, and I thought that it had dried out because there was so little scent, but in my 2017 review, which I did the year after Paul had given it to me to review, I note that I had the same feeling back then. Perhaps it was a poor batch, or had been poorly stored, and Paul hadn't noticed when he gave it to me. It has an initial fruit aroma, I felt it to be quite orangey. Then some mild sandalwood, and eventually some myrrh-like scents do emerge. This was not placed first or last by the three of us.

The Morning Star Myrrh was liked and disliked - and over the test was sometimes placed first and sometimes placed last. As with Paul's King of Myrrh it was regarded to have few actual myrrh scents, being mostly fruit and woods. Well, myrrh does has fruity and woody components to its scent, which myrrh has, however, generally the fruits are lemony, and the woods a little, well, more musky and sensual. And the combination of the components produce that "churchy" aroma, which we found somewhat lacking in the Morning Star Myrrh.  However, at times it came back in favour as the scents were compared. It can be difficult to be consistent with appreciation of something as elusive and emotionally engaging as scent. 

The Scenter's Tree Resin Myrrh also had a mixed reaction as it burned, but was more consistently the one that was less appreciated yet was the truest to myrrh, having lemony balsamic notes and some of those "churchy" aromas - but it could also be a bit acrid and smoky.  

The one most consistently liked by all three of us, and acknowledged to be the one most appreciated was Satya's Myrrh. Sweet, dreamy, lemony, balsamic, woody, and very evocative of church incense. An assured winner. 

Date: Sept 2021  Score: 25

***

Myrrh

Resins

Kemet Design Kyphi Incense (business closed)

A little while ago I read about Egyptian incense, and in particular an incense called kapet (or kyphi in Greek).  The exact recipe is not known, and it is generally thought to be a broad type rather than a specific style. Of the documentation available, there are some common ingredients, but that would be true of most incense. As such, it appears makers are free to use their own interpretations of what kyphi would be like.

This is the first example I have bought, and I am intrigued by it, though not overwhelmed.  I bought it from  Kemet Design [closed in 2019] at £4.50 for a 50ml "jar" (actually a black plastic container).  It  does not contain some of the common ingredients as listed on Wikipedia.  It clearly does not have honey, wine, or raisins, and is in a powder form, rather than the traditional ball shape.  I get some pine and spices - when burned the nearest approximation to the scent is mild curry. There is also some burning herbs - the sort one finds on Tibetan (or Himalayan) incense. There's a hint of lemon-grass, cardamom, and coriander. I have burned this in small, medium and large sized amounts to see the differences. The scent is always fairly mild, though at its strongest when a thin powder is scattered over the burner so a lot of the incense is burned quickly at the same time. The fragrance is not consistent because the ingredients are roughly mixed, so it can give off different scents at different times.  The incense is more agreeable when it is just the powder that is burned - when there are organic pieces mixed in, there is a burning and/or scorched odour added in which I don't find pleasant. Because it is in powder form rather than a ball, even when a big mound is placed in the burner, it burns quickly, and is soon gone.

So I then mixed some of the powder with honey, and rolled it into a ball, and burned that to see what difference it made. It makes a big difference - the spices are balanced by a honey sweetness, and the whole burns a lot slower, so I got more of a chance to explore the aromas. I like it a lot more with the honey, though I am still not excited by it - more intrigued than blessed. I feel the scent is closer to spicy food than to incense, but a food that is slightly charred, and lacks the ingredients, I suppose, of the food, so it's not actually yummy. The honey helps toward it being more yummy, but there still seems to be a heart and soul missing.

Because my burners burn at different temperatures, I tried the powder in the slower burner. I found that experience slightly more pleasurable than the faster burner, but the impression was still that of food spices and curry rather than incense. It's OK stuff, and I'm keen to explore further, but it's not quite the heavenly aroma I guess I was expecting.


Date: July 2017   Score:  18

***

Kemet Design

Loose or home-made incense

 Incense Ratings - Top of the Dhoops!

HEM Patchouli

Third review - scroll down for earlier

Machine extruded joss-stick. Volatile chemical aroma on the stick with some earthy patchouli notes. The scent on the burn is solid. It's a little smoky, but does have the earthy patchouli notes of the scent on the stick. It works. It's likeable, though doesn't elevate. 

Date: May 2024    Score: 32/50

Second review

We did a little scent comparison involving a range of high quality masala incense, and, as a control and out of curiosity, I added this HEM perfumed incense. Perfumed incense, and HEM in particular, tend to be looked down on by some incense connoisseurs. Perfumed incense is, though, India and the world's most popular incense, and HEM are one of the market leaders. Most popular, though, doesn't always mean the most significant, most interesting, most refined, most enriching, etc. It tends to mean: broadly acceptable to most people; instantly appealing, simple, non-threatening, non-challenging, non-demanding, easily assimilated and understood. I find perfumed incense reviews are by far the easiest to do. They often require no effort at all. And you can generally get the whole incense in a few seconds. A top class incense may take a while to work out - not just minutes or hours, but sometimes days. Most people haven't got the time, patience, or interest for that.  And something like HEM Patchouli fits the bill. When doing long beer tasting sessions, us beer enthusiasts will sometimes cleanse our palates with water or a plain lager. Perfumed incense can also serve that purpose. Clear the nose, refocus the senses, move away from masala saturation.   But also, intriguingly, a decent perfumed incense can offer a scent experience a little different. And this is a decent one. The scent on the stick is clean, fresh, floral, moving toward a newly opened plastic toy on Christmas, toward a mature woman's everyday perfume, to the lobby of a theatre - little glimpses of another world - a world away from nature and plants and woods, into a more modern, more vibrant, more complex world. Both the scent and the reminiscences it brings forth are not as simple as one generally expects of an everyday perfumed incense. This IS interesting. On burning, as is often the case with both natural and perfumed incense, the scent is somewhat less interesting - it becomes simpler. The consensus is that it is pleasant, sweet, lightly musky, and delivers an attractive scent but without any accompanying emotional impact. A pleasant enough room freshener. The promise of the stick has not been delivered in the burn.  

Date:  Nov  2021   Score: 35/50

First review

I'm an old hippy, so I like patchouli. I used to wear it as a scent - I made up my own special scent from essential oils - three parts musk, two parts patchouli, and one part civet. Loved it!

Anyway, this a machine made charcoal blank, dipped into a patchouli scent created by HEM. I have been dismissive of HEM in the past. But this is a reasonable everyday scent. It does smell of patchouli - it is warm and soft and inoffensive. I like it.


Date: July 2017   Score:  33/50 

***

HEM Corporation

Pick Your Perfect Patchouli

A little scent comparison

The Scenter Tree Resin Frankincense

Bought from the UK online store TheScenter about a year or two ago. I thought I would review this now, along with two other resins from that store, as yesterday I was burning HEM Frankincense-Myrrh and thought it would be interesting to do a side by side comparison.  At the same time I thought I would try out a new burner I had bought. I then made a mistake: I chucked the incense straight into the new burner, without first allowing it to burn off the manufacturing oils. Smoky and oily and soapy notes. OK. So after allowing the resin to burn away, and leaving the burner on for long enough to bed in, I tried again. But this still wasn't the smell I got when I burned the resin after first getting it. I then warmed up my other burner, and tried some resin in there. I noticed something interesting. My new burner heats up quicker and to a higher temperature than my original. My original burns more slowly and gently. Useful information! Anyway, again, not quite the scent I remembered. As with the other burner, a bit smoky and oddly soapy.

Lots of smoke

Then I wondered what would happen if I burned the resin in a charcoal disc, as I had originally.  Hmmmm. Again, smoky and a bit soapy. So, it's not the burners, but the resin itself. Perhaps something has happened to my resin since I bought it.  It smells great in the packet, but not so great when burned.  I am a little deflated.  I have now burned my myrrh and amber, which gave me so much delight when I first got them, to see what they are like; but they also are not performing as they once did.  So I have now ordered some fresh, in order to compare, and will report again when I have burned them.


Date: July 2017  Score: 19

***

Frankincense

Resins

 Incense Ratings - Top of the Dhoops!