Ah! Now, I have not had favourable experiences with Tibetan incense in the past - finding them to be a little earthy or rough for my taste, and inclined more toward the herbal ritual end of the incense spectrum rather than the aesthetic and pleasant. But this one has pleased me. Yes, it's a little sharp and spicy, but in a gently cleansing and invigorating way, and that sharpness is balanced by some rather sexy and warm sandalwood. Now, I adore sandalwood. And this is pretty decent sandalwood. There are also notes of cedarwood here, just for variation and interest.
I shall return to this tomorrow, and look up the ingredients.
I bought this from the Bosen store on Amazon, and paid £10.95. They're out of stock at the moment, and it's likely that they will charge a lot more when it does come back into stock. I paid £11.95 for Bosen's Pythoncidere in June 2017 - they are selling the same stuff currently for £48.71 including postage. And people are paying for it. Each to their own. But there is a lot of profit being made there. I know some people actually take pleasure and satisfaction from paying a lot for a product they enjoy, because the high price emotionally reinforces for them the value of the item, but they are fools, and they are pushing up the price for the rest of us who prefer companies to make an honest profit, and to offer value for money. The cost of something does not equal its true value.
Date: April 2019 Score: 35 (for the moment)
Ingredients:
Agalloch Eaglewood (10%)
Eaglewood is another name for agarwood; Agalloch is short for Aquilaria agalloch, another name for Aquilaria malaccensis, the main tree used for producing agarwood. Agarwood (or oud), also known as aloeswood, and as agura in Sanskrit, is a traditional fragrance made from tree resin. It comes from the infected heartwood of a small range of now endangered trees - the Aquilaria trees, large evergreens native to southeast Asia. The trees occasionally become infected with mould and produce an aromatic resin in response. As the infection develops, a rich, dark resin grows inside the heartwood. Agar was once such a common incense ingredient that in India the word "agar" is used for "incense". Also known as "oud", the perfume made from the heartwood is so beautiful, and now so rare, that the fragrant wood is the most expensive in the world - averaging 18,000 euros for one kilo. Good articles at Fragrantica: Agarwood (Oud), and Why is oud so popular?
White Sandalwood (5%)
White Sandalwood (5%)
***
 |
| Spiritual/Ritual Incense |
I have heard allot about this company they have a cult following very curious about them
ReplyDeleteThere are some Asian companies who market themselves in the West very well. Bosen are by far the most pleasant of the Tibetan incense companies I have yet tried, and the finished product and packaging are done to a high standard. Would I pay £10.95 again for this incense? Absolutely not. Would I pay £40 for it? Come on! There's so much truly great incense that costs only a £1.
ReplyDeleteIf you live in the UK I'll send you a few sticks of both the Bosen incense I have, so you can judge for yourself if you feel they are worth the money. And if you are in the UK, and you haven't tried yet, go to https://www.gokula-incense.co.uk/ Mukunda is a Hare Krishna monk who sells some of the finest incense in the world at honest prices. There's no fancy brand names or boxes, just high quality incense made by some of India's most respected craftsmen.
You can email me your address: silktork@gmail.com
ReplyDeletehttp://incenseinthewind.blogspot.com/2013/05/gokula-incense.html
ReplyDelete