(Happy Hari) Cultures of Eden Kerala Flower

During my hunt to collect together as many Happy Hari incense before they all vanish, I acquired this one from Holly Paige, and it's still available on her Food For Consciousness website for £1.99. Kerala is a state on the Malabar Coast of India, which produces a variety of flowers.

This is a charcoal incense with a light dusting of masala (a fine powder of dried fragrant ingredients such as flower petals, herbs and tree bark). The stick is quite long and has been dipped in a light green dye. There is a volatile aromatic note which suggests this has been dipped in a liquid perfume. There are touches of vanilla and honey, and some gentle sweet balsamic notes with an underlying woody feel, faintly sandalwood and cedarwood. The aroma is gentle and mild, and it doesn't linger, so is OK for when you want something light and elusive. A bit of background incense which is going to be pleasant but unobtrusive.  This is a decent enough everyday incense.


Date: Aug 2018  Score: 30

Happy Hari Incense

Hari Om The Club

The Club is a pack of four different perfume-dipped sticks made under licence from K R Vishwanath. The scents are  "Cleopatra", "Bouquet", "Lovely", and "Uoodh".

I started with the Cleopatra, which is a pleasant everyday floral scent, quite bright and sharp, with suggestions of rose, always remaining quite clean. It's quite a traditional scent, and done to a decent standard for such perfume-dipped incense.

Bouquet is another floral scent but with the chemical base showing through more obviously, so I liked it a little less.

I have already reviewed Lovely twice,  it's a chemical based fruity aroma with a bit of fresh sharpness that can be appealing. It's not hugely attractive, but there is some appeal in the sharp fruitiness of the aroma, and it's an honest everyday perfume-dipped incense. Nothing fancy. Just does a job of freshening a room. I like it a little more than the Bouquet, but less than the Cleopatra.

The Uoodh is a little more interesting. It is a masala incense - there is a charcoal base onto which has been rolled a masala of fragrant ingredients, and has then been dipped in a perfume solvent which is quite sharp and alcoholic on the nose. There is a pleasant woody tone to this, quite sweet, and rather more sandalwood than the agarwood (oud) of the name, but still quite attractive.  It stands out as a much better incense than the others - particularly the Lovely and the Bouquet - and I would be quite happy to burn this again.

On the whole this is an OK collection - though the three perfume-dipped are simply everyday incense, they are done to a decent standard, and the scents remain fresh and attractive even though I've had this box for nearly a year now. The Uoodh is very nice, and is really in a class of its own. It doesn't belong in this collection. It's a decent masala incense with a sweet woody scent. Nothing heavenly, but decent stuff all the same.

Date:  Aug 2018   Score: 30

As of 2018 this incense is not available in the UK or US - I was sent it as a sample by Hari Om.

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Website and contact details:
 Hari Om The Club.

More reviews
Hari Om Fragrance

Goloka Sri Tulsi

Another beautiful incense from Goloka.  As far as masala incense goes, I could burn Goloka and Satya incense all day long and never get tired. They both do a wide and constantly expanding and shifting range of proper job masala incense, so there always seems something new to explore. The standard is consistently high, and the prices are always decently low - which can't be said of all masala incense. On our way back from holidaying in Somerset we dropped into Glastonbury, and wandered around the shops. Some masala incense there can go very high - over £10 a packet, while Satya masala incense is available for around £1.25 - £1.50. One shop concentrated on unbranded masala incense that had clearly been bought loose by the kilo from India, and were selling them off in small sealed plastic packets. Not only does the buyer not know the provenance (as with incense by, say, Happy Hari and Gokula, where I have encountered incense from the same producer), but using plastic bags when we know so much these days about how that harms the environment seems to me to be unwise.  Goloka incense is always packaged in an environmentally friendly way. It looks good, feels good, and doesn't destroy our planet.  And 100% of the profit goes back into good causes like providing meals to poor children.

This Sri Tulsi starts off vanilla sweet and then becomes herby, though still remaining sweet and fresh.  It's a mint or basil aroma. Tulsi or tulasi is the Indian name for Holy Basil, which is commonly used in India for religious and therapeutic purposes. Basil has a long folk tradition in many cultures around the world, with a variety of therapeutic or magical uses (this product claims that cancer patients should use it - and according to science that may be helpful).

As the scent develops some fruity aromas emerge - mostly dark like blackcurrant and plum, and then hints of liquorice, aniseed and clove, along with some lemon. It is a cleansing and refreshing scent, yet also calming,  welcoming and restful. It's not a scent that makes me go Oooh, but it is one that I enjoy and also feel has positive therapeutic value. While I'm not a big fan of therapeutic incense such as Tibetan or Himalayan incense, for example Dr. Yonten’s Tibetan Healing Incense, or of Spiritual/Ritual Incense in which the primary aim is to invoke a charm rather than produce a pleasant fragrance, this incense shows that therapeutic incense can be done very pleasantly.

I like it.

Date: Aug 2018    Score: 35

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Goloka

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