Hari Om Divine Incense Gulab

A hugely floral bouquet of heady rose perfume. Quite dreamy and old-fashioned. There's an awareness of chemicals in the construction, but that seems quite acceptable as that is so common in these old fashioned perfume-dipped rose perfumes. They are all generally quite strong and heady, and are quite likely to divide opinion. If I'm in the mood, I quite like them, and this one is jolly good, retaining its fresh impact nearly a year after being opened.

Date: July 2018  Score: 31

A fairly floral and attractive everyday perfume-dipped rose incense. Gulab means rose, and this has the essence of roses scent that the older generation like. It is a little old fashioned and stuffy, but not offensive. I'm not hugely attracted to floral scents, rose in particular, but this works well enough. There's nothing off or offensive about it - indeed, it seems a clean scent. It is, though, a little too neutral, bringing no divine joy, and not creating any sort of mood. It perfumes the air though, and does it well.

It put me in mind of Swarna Gulab by Moksh, so I burned a stick of each and invited my family to compare them. They found them very similar, with the Moksh being the more subtle and interesting, and the Hari Om being the more direct. It's each to their own, and opinions will vary, but I also found them very similar.

Date: Oct 2017  Score: 29

***

Hari Om Fragrance

Top Ten 
Perfume-Dipped Incense

Best rose incense

Hari Om Divine Incense Butmogra

Machine extruded perfume-dipped everyday incense done in the style of Moksh.  Sticks are 9 inches, with 7 inches of synthetic jasmine perfume impregnated charcoal. It is what it is. I was sent a large selection of Hari Om incense to review back in 2017. I found them to be a decent average Indian incense company, aimed mostly at the domestic market, with both masala and perfumed incense. Re-reviews over the years have held their scores, or moved slightly up, though a few have moved down. This is one of those 2017 packs, so is over six years old, yet the perfume mostly still feels fresh, though has lost some strength and impact. The company, who have been going since 1990, appear to be going through some changes or challenges - the website is down, and their shop or premises in Bangalore is shown by Google to be temporarily closed. 

This is a fairly average everyday perfumed incense. It's not a scent to study, but it does the job of cleansing and refreshing the room. It gentles informs and warms the space, giving it something of a floral uplift. An OK room freshener.  If I was scoring this as it is now, I'd mark it as around 25 for  being a bit weak, but taking into account the age, I feel that a score of 29 is appropriate. It is a fairly decent but average jasmine scent. 


Date: Oct 2023   Score: 29 

I like this. It's a perfume-dipped charcoal stick, jasmine scented - one of the most common (or popular) incense sticks. I think there is a reason why jasmine scent works as an everyday scent - it's clean, crisp, and reminiscent of fresh linen sheets. Jasmine incense rarely creates transcendental moments, but also is rarely foul, so it makes an ideal everyday incense.  This is a particularly fine everyday perfume-dipped jasmine incense.  The scent is clean and refined. It is both refreshing and relaxing, like slipping into freshly laundered sheets.

The box is part of Hari Om's Divine Incense series The box designs are similar to Moksh incense - not direct copies, but there is a similarity about them. And the incense quality is about the same.

Date: Oct 2017  Score: 32

This is a useful everyday incense. It has a light, clean, refreshing and uplifting scent. It is ideal for mornings, bringing a spring flowers feel to the house. It is a decent everyday scent, one to keep at hand.

Date: June 2018   Score: 32

***

Hari Om Fragrance

Best jasmine incense

Top Ten 
Perfume-Dipped Incense

Jasmine v Jasmine (a burn off)

Hari Om 12/- Mangala Jyothi 3 in 1 Flora Sticks

We finished off the pack in the outhouse. The sticks give the appearance of masala, though present more as softly perfumed when burned. The sticks are extruded rather than hand rolled. The scent while burning is modest, mildly attractive, and gives a sense of perfume. There is a modestly likeable after scent. These are decent everyday sticks. The "Flora" in the name tends to indicate a masala incense - I am assuming these are perfumed masala. 

Date: May 2023 - Score:  27  

Re-reviewing this Hari Om mixed masala pack, and I'm enjoying it more than I did last year. I think that's perhaps because I'm appreciating masala incense more this year than last, and this is a decent everyday masala incense that is quite pleasant to burn at any time. It is softer than some masala incense aimed at the West, with a softer, more subtle use of halmaddi. The white pack has the least halmaddi, while the green seems to have the most.

Yeah, this is OK.

Date: July 2018   Score:  32

This is part of the 12 Rupee series, but unlike the others this is not perfume dipped, but proper job masala incense. There are three fragrances - all of them marked as "Flora" and then a colour: Purple, Green, and Red. But the packets inside are coloured green, yellow and white. The sticks are colour dyed: green, orange, and the yellow pack is undyed, apart from the tips which are orange. Ha! None of it makes sense - what random, delicious fun!

The green pack has a lot of volatile scent on the stick - quite tickly! There's orange peel and beech wood - very interesting and promising! It burns well - nice and slowly with a decent enough woody scent. I'm not picking up much in the way of floral notes, and the wood scent feels a little cheap and crude - think beech chips rather than cedarwood or agarwood, but is certainly quite acceptable.
   Score; 29

The white pack (orange dyed sticks) appear to be machine made from a masala type paste which had dried hard. The scent on this is not volatile, and is quite  restrained compared to the other two. It has a faint, but pleasant perfume which is a little old fashioned, like Yardley. It's OK.
   Score: 26

The yellow pack like the green has a volatile aroma, quite woody, perfumed, but also slightly fruity. The scent when burned is slightly smoky, and reasonably pleasant, with musky and sandalwood notes. This is an OK everyday room freshener; it's not special, but it's OK, and I'll be happy to burn it to clean up a room and give it some warmth. .
   Score: 29

There is a similarity between this pack and Mahendra Sai Jyoti, which is also a 3 in 1 pack of floral incense, and uses the same name - Jyothi or Jyoti (which means "divine light"). This Hari Om, however, is a better quality pack than the Mahendra.

Date: Oct 2017   Overall score: 28

***

Hari Om Fragrance

Best floral incense

Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme

Hari Om Black Current

Revisiting again as part of a random sampling. Hmmm. The mineral/chemical notes are fairly plain and mildly sharp. And there's a fusty sense of old ladies perfumed knickers. I'm kind of up and down with this incense. It's not exactly terrible, but it's not exactly great either.

Date: Oct 2018   Score: 23

Machine made perfume-dipped charcoal. Spicy slightly sharp rolling tobacco. Lots of top notes, some citric, some benzoin, moth balls, stale rose perfume, etc. I'm not sure this is a misspelling of blackcurrant - there is something sombre and almost spooky about this. Other than the top citric notes, I'm not getting much in the way of fruit or sweetness, though I could be persuaded into thinking there was a sense of warm Ribena present in the mix. There is a mineral quality, such as you get with benzoin. This is a black incense indeed. Kinda interesting.

Date: June 2018   Score:  30

This is sold with the "from the makers of Sai Bhajan" mark on the box, but is not marked as being part of the Premium 12 Rupee series. It is, as with the other 12 Rupee scents, a perfume-dipped charcoal, proving an acceptable everyday incense.  I didn't like it at first, finding the scent a little too much like ready rubbed tobacco - a little crude and serious. Trying it again now I am finding it a little more likeable. I can pick up the fruit notes, which I can be persuaded are reminiscent of blackcurrant (if that is the intention - there is an image of currants or other fruit on the pack, but the spelling is for an energy force such as a tidal current or electric current) , but on the whole this is not a scent that excites or lifts me.


Date: Oct 2017 Score: 20

***

Hari Om Fragrance

Fruit Fragrances
That'll Make You Drool

Hari Om 12/- Lovely

Pleasant floral notes. Mostly unremarkable, but pleasant enough as an everyday perfumed incense. 

Date: Dec 2023    Score: 27    [Average score: 27]

Second review

This has a sharp chemical freshness that is quite uplifting. It's a floral scent - clearly perfume-dipped on charcoal, but it works well enough on its own terms. Not Heavenly, and almost but not quite Decent Stuff, but top end of  Everyday Incense - an acceptably pleasant room freshener. .

Date: June 2018   Score: 29

First review

Decent enough Everyday Incense. These perfume dipped charcoal sticks in the Premium 12 Rupee range are OK. As with the others they "have a from the makers of Sai Bhajan" mark on the box. Some of the 12 Rupee scents really work for me, and given the price, they offer excellent value for money everyday scents - even the least attractive 12/- scents are no worse than the average everyday perfume dipped incense, so would be worth trying out. This one didn't do anything for me - I didn't, a-hem, find it "lovely", but it works fine as a general room freshener.

Date: Oct 2017  Score: 25

***

Top Ten 
Perfume-Dipped Incense

Hari Om Fragrance

Hari Om 12/- Sandalrol

It's a pleasant, obviously chemical, scent. Slightly better than just a toilet cleaner, but not one of the top everyday scents. There's the hint of sandalwood about it, but there's also a sort of pine and sort of sort scent as well. All of it quite artificial, yet acceptable, with no off notes. But it's not that interesting. It's just a sort of workable everyday scent that betrays its chemical origin, but manages not to offend while doing so.

Date: July 2018  Score:  20

Part of Hari Om's Premium 12 Rupee range with a "from the makers of Sai Bhajan" mark on the box, this is perfume dipped charcoal stick. The scent is quite floral and feels quite chemical, hinting a bit at toilet cleaners. It's a fairly average everyday stick of no particular interest. It works well enough - it's not offensive, and it provides a perfume (which some will like more than me - it's all a matter of taste), but it's not scent that gets my interest. I'll be quite happy, though to burn this as an everyday scent or room freshener.

Date: Oct 2017   Score: 25

***

Hari Om Fragrance

Sandalwood