Moksh Swarna Kasturi (Musk)

Moksh are a relatively new incense company, but already they are one of the best sellers in India. This is a machine made, perfumed (perfume-dipped as it is mainly called in the West) stick. As far as perfumed incense goes, machine made is a better method of making sticks in my experience - the sticks are more consistent and burn more evenly, and the scent tends to be stronger and lasts longer on the stick - perhaps because it is impregnated rather than dipped. The quality of the scent, though, is a different matter.  The actual scent or perfume is distinct from the manufacturing method when considering perfumed incense. All things being equal, machine made is a better way of making perfumed incense, but you can get a machine made incense with a cheap and nasty scent as much as with a hand-rolled, and vice versa.

Kasturi is Hindi for musk

The stick betrays its solvent origins, and when lit it takes a little while to settle down to pick up the musk, and even then the solvent origin can still be detected as a soapy alcohol aroma that remains throughout the burning. While there are some traces of musk in this scent, it feels very floral. It's a decent enough scent; as an everyday perfumed incense, it's OK. I can quite happily light up several of these to refresh the house. It's not heavenly, and will not transcend you to another time and place, but it's not intended to do that. Take it for what it is - a pretty decent everyday room freshener, and it works well enough as that.

Date: Dec  2018     Score: 27 

 

I'm revisiting a random perfumed incense as recently I've been burning a number of masala incenses aimed at New Age shops which come across more like perfumed incense than masala incense. I suspect they are a form of perfumed incense, mostly made as private labels by FairTradeIncense (but that is just speculation, and probably outrageous speculation at that)

This is clearly perfumed. It's a machine made charcoal stick which has been impregnated (sprayed or dipped) with a perfumed solvent. It's a little crude to be honest, and not quite how I recall Moksh incenses. I'm not sure when I acquired this packet - it was unopened, so is not the same packet I reviewed just over three years ago in 2018. Perhaps I was sent it as part of a sample bundle. There is a vague solvent perfume scent, quite crisp, floral, fruity, with citric notes leaning toward lemon, some faint smoke notes. It's OK, but clearly synthetic. Which is odd as the packet says: "Natural Musk Fragrance", and shows an image of a female deer. 

I'm not as comfortable with this as I once was. I'm finding it a little sharp and intrusive in the nostrils. It's not crude and nasty as some cheap perfumed incenses tend to be, and it can serve the purpose of brightening up the home before a visit without creating a sort of church or Indian temple atmosphere, which may be inappropriate. It's bright, clean, modern, lemony. But too much like a room freshener for comfort. Moved down a few points.  


Date: Jan 2022   Score: 25 

***

Moksh Agarbatti

Musk