HEM Tangerine Incense Cones

Another basic incense from HEM. There's a fruity blast at the start, quite citric; and I could be persuaded it was tangerine, though I'm not entirely convinced. But it doesn't last long - the woody smell from the core material soon dominates.  Not a very successful HEM.  While there are some HEM scents that work for me, most are quite poor. This is a company who have marketed themselves very successfully on a largely indifferent product.


Date: Jan 2019  Score:  20

***

HEM Corporation

Fruit Fragrances
That'll Make You Drool

HEM Myrrh Incense Cones

I like myrrh, so I like this, even though it's a HEM incense, and HEM is generally not one of my favourite producers. Some scents just work for me. This is warm and musky with attractive woody tones. Yes, it is held down by cheap core ingredients which can sometimes come to the fore so its not always the myrrh fragrance that is being detected. So, not a great incense, but one that I'm quite happy to burn as a cheap and cheerful everyday incense.


Date: Jan 2019  Score:  31

HEM Corporation

Myrrh

HEM Precious Chandan Incense Cones

I like this. Quite a soft, creamy, sexy, musky sandalwood. I burn a bunch of cheap and nasty HEM, which is suitable only as a toilet air freshener, then this pops up. I wonder if the branding "Precious" is significant, as not only is the scent decent quality, the cone itself seems better made.


Date: Jan 2019   Score: 33

***

HEM Corporation

Sandalwood

HEM Milflores Incense Cones

Sort of old fashioned granny flowers scent which wanders around mostly rose but also vaguely magnolia and then jasmine. Base material is cheap and tends to come through. One of the problems with these HEM cones is that they leave a vaguely unpleasant burnt aroma in the room. Most masala and decent perfumed incense leaves a pleasant aroma, and most masala incense will leave a pleasant aroma for a long time. These cheap cones are just for the moment.


Date: Jan 2019   Score:  19

***

HEM Corporation

HEM Cinnamon Incense Cones

Cinnamon is a pleasant scent, sort of woody and masculine with a cleansing quality. It is sometimes used with cedarwood. I've not had many incense with a cinnamon scent, and those I've had, rather like vanilla, tend to be at the cheaper end of the incense spectrum - part of unbranded gift packs, or simply poorly made from low quality ingredients. This is fairly typical. It has a sense of woody cinnamon, but it's not good quality. I quite like it because I like cinnamon, but the quality is just not here to produce an impressive scent.


Date: Jan 2019   Score:  23

***

HEM Corporation

Best cinnamon incense

HEM Anti-Stress Incense Cones

A perfumed cone, using solvents rather than essential oils, so it's a little crude, but as a lower end everyday incense or a top end toilet freshener it's OK. It starts with a fairly sweet musky undertone that gradually develops into higher, sharper and poorly defined floral and fruit notes hovering around plum and magnolia accompanied by some vague burning notes from cheap sandalwood.


Date: Jan 2019   Score:  21

***

HEM Corporation

HEM Gold Rain Incense Cones

This is rather chemical smelling. The scent is possibly based on jasmine, and there are other aspects I find familiar, but it's too chemical sharp to really enjoy and get close to. It's not hugely offensive, but is best suited as a toilet cleaner, which is what it mostly smells like.


Date: Jan 2019   Score:  19

***

HEM Corporation

Vanilla

One of the most popular and recognisable scents in the world, vanilla is a fairly recent scent. It was known locally in the Gulf of Mexico where the Totonac people have harvested it since the 12th century; but other peoples did not experience it until the Aztecs started raiding the Totanac lands in the 15th century, and found that vanilla made cocoa palatable, and so developed "xocolatl", the forerunner of hot chocolate. Cortes took chocolate and vanilla back to Europe in the 16thg century, where people began to explore its potential, and Europeans fell in love with it.  

The scent comes from a liquid inside the seed pods of vanilla orchids, the main one being vanilla planifolia, and the main producers of vanilla being Indonesia and Madagascar. There are several hundred flavour compounds in vanilla, though the main one is vanillin, which is successfully synthesised; and it is synthetic vanillin that is mainly used in perfumes and incense because true vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world due to rarity of the vanilla orchid, which has to be pollinated by hand. In 2001, the global sales of vanillin was 12,000 tons, but only 1,800 tons of that came from natural vanillin. 

The scent of vanilla is distinctive - it is smooth, sweet, rich, creamy, subtle and delicate yet intense and lingering.  

Reviews

* = Review is over 5 years ago and may not be reliable 

One Aromatics Vanilla
May 2018  - Score: 35↑*

Balarama Wicked Dragon Vanilla (P)
Dec 2024 - Score: 34 

Bhagwan Incense Vanilla Joy (PM) 
May 2024 - Score: 33

Sifcon Vanilla Frost
Nov 2023 - Score: 32↓

Darshan Kanishka
May 2015 - Score 31↑*

Emporium Impressions Premiere Vanilla
May 2015 - Score: 29*

Hari Darshan Vanilla Incense Cones (P)
Sept 2023 - Score: 29 

Sifcon Buddha Incense Vanilla
June 2017 - Score: 29*

HEM Vanilla Incense Cones
January 2019 - Score: 28*

Aargee Stamford Moods Vanilla
June 2015 - Score: 28*

Aasha Aromatics Vanilla Orange
Oct 2018 - Score 27*

Poundland Coley & Gill French Vanilla
April 2017 - Score: 27*

Match Incense Vanilla cones
Feb 2020 - Score: 23

 

Padmini Vanilla Incense Sticks
Aug 2023 - Score 22

Divine Spirit Vanilla
May 2013 - Score 18*

Tulasi Meditation
June 2018 - Score: 18=*

Scents: 12 

Top score: 36

Bottom score: 18

Average: 

***

Best Scents

HEM Vanilla Incense Cones

Vanilla makes for a pleasant incense scent. We liked this. Enjoyable vanilla aroma. It's not dreamy or anything - it's just a pleasant vanilla aroma. It's not particularly strong, but it does inform the room. A gentle, pleasant everyday vanilla incense. If you like vanilla you should like this.


Date: Jan 2019   Score:  28

***

HEM Corporation

Vanilla

Tree of Life Nag Champa (discontinued)

Warm, woody and spicy. This is on a par with some of the Sifcon budget incense. These are cheap, crude sticks coated in what appears to be a masala with essential oils. The scent on the stick is actually off-putting - somewhat damp, sharp and mouldy; but when burning there is an attractive scent that informs the room with a warm and gentle sensuality. Forget the "Nag Champa" name, these are decent everyday sticks if you want to spice up a room with a warm, woody scent. These are OK.


Date: May 2019   Score: 32

The first couple of these that I burned I wasn't impressed.  There was a sort of crude earthy quality such as I find with Tibetan and Vietnamese incense where no essential oils are used, and the ingredients are perhaps a little too rustic and crude. If anything it smelled old, stale, and sort of damp. But burning another one, I am changing my mind. No, it's not a quality incense, but it's not as crude and dismissive as I originally thought. There is a woody and spicy warmth to this that is quite pleasant. The Nag Champa name appears to be purely for marketing, as I'm not getting an aroma that resembles nag champa.


Date: Jan 2019   Score: 31

***

Tree of Life

Nag Champa

Vintage Incense
(Incense not available from
this brand for over a year)

Tree of Life (out of business)

Tree of Life is a brand of hand made bamboo stick incense created in the UK in 1992 by Geoffrey Davies. They used to be available direct from Tree of Life for 99p a packet, plus postage, as well as being distributed by Cha Cha Dum Dum, an ethnic gifts company founded in Kensington in 1968. Eventually Cha Cha Dum Dum took over the brand themselves, closing down the Tree of Life website, but Cha Cha possibly ceased trading in 2018, though as of Jan 2019, the Tree of Life brand was still in negotiation, and Cha Cha posted new shop hours on their Facebook page. By 2020 the company had ceased trading. 

Tree of Life are generally available at a low price from a few internet and high street incense shops. The design of the packets reminds me of Spiritual Sky incense from the Seventies, and I don't think that's a coincidence. The packs have always said "Made in UK", but I'm dubious about that claim. Cost of production is so cheap in Asia - it's transport that costs, so it wouldn't make sense to import the raw material (such as the bamboo sticks) which would cost pretty much the same as the price of importing the finished product, and then pay someone UK labour charges to make them here. My feeling is that due to the low quality and style of the sticks, that they are made in Vietnam or Thailand.

Reviews

* = Score over five years old, so may not be reliable

Tree of Life Nag Champa
May 2019 - Score: 31*

  

Tree of Life Shalimar
Oct 2023 - Score: 28↓

Tree of Life Jasmine
Oct 2023 - Score: 20↓

Tree of Life Cannabis
Oct 2023  Score: 20↓

Tree of Life Opium
Oct 2023 - Score: 20=

Incense reviewed: 5
High score: 31
Low score: 20
Average:  28

Conclusion: Modest UK import brand, no longer in business. 

***

Own Brand / Private Label

Vintage Incense
(Incense not available from
this brand for over a year)