Yadalam Vaastu Gugal Thick Dhoop (out of business)

Gugal is the resin from commiphora wightii, a plant in the torchwood family which includes frankincense and myrrh; it is burned directly on charcoal in India, and used to chase away evil spirits.

I've been burning these Vaastu dhoops for a little while now, and only just noticed the wording on the box: "Use vaastu dhoop to cure all inherent vaastu faults to remove all ill effects". Curious I looked up vaastu, and found that it is normally written vastu or vaastu shastra, and is an ancient Vedic science of place or direction, similar to feng shui, and was used to guide the architecture of buildings. If there are disturbances in one's life, this may be caused by disharmony within a building - a vastu dosh. Using Vedic principles, harmony can be restored through use of the appropriate elements, which includes the ritual burning of certain incenses such as gugal.

It has woody and herbal notes and leans more toward ritual incense than fun incense. This is not really an incense to burn for the joys of the scent (unless you like herbal type incenses, such as Tibetan). That's not to say that the scent is unattractive, but it is a little arid and sombre, and is clearly intended for function rather than aesthetics.

Date: Nov 2018   Score: 20*

[*Score is over five years old so may not be reliable] 

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Yadalam / Gomaathaa
(out of business)