Sifcon Golden Buddha Sandalwood

Another cheap as chips good value everyday incense from Sifcon bought in my local hardware shop. This is rather flowery for a supposed sandalwood - there's nothing woody or musky here, and the scent is impelled by chemicals, so it smells rather cheap and false, but it's a decent scent, not offensive, and will quickly cover up bad smells and cheer up a room.

Date: Dec 2019    Score: 20

***

Sifcon International

Sandalwood

(Wonder Incense) New Moon Aromas Pagan Spell

This is a pleasantly fragrant masala incense. A careful blend of masala ingredients and essential oils create a heady, musky scent, softened by sweet sandalwood. It is fairly modern and easy to like. A very good everyday incense that I would be quite happy to buy again.


Date: Dec 2019    Score:  37 

 

New Moon Aromas is possibly made for Wonder Imports by Fair Trade Incense, though that is just speculation. [Navan Shah from Wonder Incense has been in touch to tell me they have their own manufacturing premises in India.] 

The sticks consist of a very firm and dry wood paste machine-extruded on a machine cut bamboo stick. There is a masala or finishing powder on the paste along with a sharp what appears to be a solvent based fragrant oil. The scent on the stick is quite medicinal, like TCP - it is crisp, clean, acidic, with a menthol coolness. There are also floral notes supported by slightly musky sandalwood. The burn is modest, slightly smoky, likable, leaning on the wood paste so there is a generic burning wood aspect, though there are also mildly pleasant floral and musk tones. 

I'm not liking this as much as I did previously. Indeed, I am wondering at how different my response has been over the past two days to this Pagan Spell considering how much I liked it when I initially burned it just a month ago. The incense wouldn't have changed in such a short time. I suppose the atmospherics in the room have altered, and the dynamics of the moment of burning: what I burned just before, my own state of mind and state of health, etc. I think my attitude to the incense has changed also - previously I was perhaps inclined to be positive toward the incense, seeing it as a masala, and seeking out the positive aspects in a non-critical manner. Indeed, my previous review is slight, off-hand, superficial. This time I have examined the incense more closely as my curiosity has been aroused by encountering over the past week or so, a number of incenses which are masala, but where the majority of the scent has been carried by a fragrant oil with a solvent aroma, suggesting that the oil has been cut with a solvent such as diethyl phthalate (DEP) - something that I have discovered is common in Indian incense. Fair Trade Incense Works claim that 98% of Indian incense dilutes fragrant oil with DEP, also known as agarbatti oil. A Chinese study concluded that DEP in incense was harmful to the health, though this has been disputed in The Daily Guardian by the chairman of the Khadi & Village Industries Commission, a government body. The closer examination has revealed flaws I hadn't detected previously. Of course, what is needed is another review in a month's time when circumstances have changed. Meanwhile, I have lowered the score. 

Date: Jan 2022   Score:  28 

 

Well, more than a month later. This is over a year later.  The scent on the stick has a sharp, volatile edge, carrying a sense of cat's pee, sandalwood, vanilla, leather, teak oil, pulses, old dry pease pudding. It's fairly neutral, leaning toward unattractive, though moderately interesting.  The scent on the burn is smoky, dry wood burning, modestly pleasant, uninteresting. I can see how I might have felt this was a decent everyday scent, perhaps somewhere in the lower 30s, though I am more in agreement with my second review, that this is actually a modest everyday incense. I can only assume that I put it in the high 30s because when the pack was first opened the perfume was still fresh, and that the perfume had dried out a month later.  Now and again, as this burns, I get more awareness of the perfume than the burning wood. It is an incense that is best burned at a distance and appreciated on the wind. I don't dislike it, and at times even like it quite warmly.  I think this is fairly borderline between average and decent everyday incense. I'm pushing it up to 30, which is bottom end decent everyday incense, and putting the last few sticks in the outhouse as a treat for the cats.


Date: July 2023    Score:  30   

***

 

New Moon Aromas

Satya (BNG) Myrrh

Lovely.  Sensual woody scent. Deep and delicious. I really like this. 

The new Satya BNG logo, created in 2018

This is a clean and beautiful scent, just lightly informed by halmaddi. It creates a warm, woody scent that feels completely natural and evokes memories of classic incense from the Seventies.

Date: Dec 2019   Score: 41

Myrrh scent test

We compared two myrrh scented masala incenses, the leading masala manufacturer Satya and the legendary cult importer Paul Eagle of the Happy Hari brand, one thin Japanese dhoop by the most popular brand Morning Star, with some resin, which I suspect is not the best quality. 

Unfortunately Paul Eagle's King of Myrrh is not one of his best imports. It has been a while since I last burned any, and I thought that it had dried out because there was so little scent, but looking back at my 2017 review, which I did the year after Paul had given it to me to review, I note that I had the same feeling back then. Perhaps it was a poor batch, or had been poorly stored, and Paul hadn't noticed when he gave it to me. It has an initial fruit aroma, I felt it to be quite orangey. Then some mild sandalwood, and eventually some myrrh-like scents do emerge. This was not placed first or last by the three of us.

The Morning Star Myrrh was liked and disliked - and over the test was sometimes placed first and sometimes placed last. As with Paul's King of Myrrh it was regarded to have few actual myrrh scents, being mostly fruit and woods. Well, myrrh does has fruity and woody components to its scent, which myrrh has, however, generally the fruits are lemony, and the woods a little, well, more musky and sensual. And the combination of the components produce that "churchy" aroma, which we found somewhat lacking in the Morning Star Myrrh.  However, at times it came back in favour as the scents were compared. It can be difficult to be consistent with appreciation of something as elusive and emotionally engaging as scent. 

The Scenter's Tree Resin Myrrh also had a mixed reaction as it burned, but was more consistently the one that was less appreciated yet was the truest to myrrh, having lemony balsamic notes and some of those "churchy" aromas - but it could also be a bit acrid and smoky. 

The one most consistently liked by all three of us, and acknowledged to be the one most appreciated was Satya's Myrrh. Sweet, dreamy, lemony, balsamic, woody, and very evocative of church incense. An assured winner. 

Date: Sept 2021  Score: 42 

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Myrrh

(Wonder Incense) New Moon Aromas Mandala

  

Having a clear out of one of my drawers, and I come upon this. A machine extruded 8 inch stick with 6 inches of fine powder-covered firm brown crumbly paste. The aroma on the stick is pleasantly warm, with a woody base, somewhat mineral and neutral midrange, and little in the way of top notes. Very low volatility. 

When lit it burns eagerly, producing some black smoke, and when the flame is blown out it produces a soft silvery grey smoke. The scent feels a little old, and is mostly neutral, a little cold, with metallic, wood, and mineral notes. It's an OK scent, though not that exciting.  It has not survived since 2019, which underlines that this is a perfumed incense rather than a masala style. This is acceptable rather than decent, and rating as it is now, I would put it at 25. Clearly it is better fresh, though I somehow doubt that even fresh I would today rate this as high as 37.  I will compromise and list this at 30 on my Top of The Dhoops chart. 

Date: Sept 2023   Score: 25

This is a pleasant, slightly sweet, slightly musky, edging to patchouli,  traditional masala incense. There is a wood based core coated with a soft brown  powder and dipped in a fragrant solution. The solution is quite volatile and smells sharply of pine toilet cleaner on the stick, but when burned works in harmony with the rest of the ingredients to produce a very decent, though unexciting, scent. It's not too sharp or overpowering, so works well as an everyday scent, and that's what  I have been doing with this. It creates a pleasing scent that lingers and informs a room. While not excited enough to go seek it out, I'd be quite happy to buy these again.

I know little about the company. I reviewed New Moon Aromas Black Rose a few months ago (September 2019), and looked for info at that time, finding a website  (newmoonaromas.net) which is  not fully active, and a number of UK internet shops, including the wholesale site Wonder Incense, listing them. They can be bought for less than £2 a box on Amazon. But they don't appear to be available outside the UK, so New Moon Aromas is presumably a British distributor importing from India.  [Navan Shah from Wonder Incense has been in touch to tell me they make New Moon Aromas, and they have their own manufacturing premises in India.]


Date: Dec 2019    Score:  37

***

 

New Moon Aromas

Satya (BNG) Dragon's Blood

This is a modest Satya incense. It has a dragon's blood minerally aroma. Mostly neutral, with some sense of a traditional masala incense. Works fine as a cleansing background incense. Not great, but OK.


Date: Dec 2019   Score: 28

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Dragon's blood

Satya (BNG - 2016) Patchouli

This is lovely. Proper traditional masala incense, but not too heavy on the halmaddi. It has a gentle woody sweetness. An oily muskiness. It's gorgeous and sexy, but not overbearing. Nice one. Use it as an aphrodisiac.

Made by Balkrishna Setty, the brother who has the original Satya factory in Bangalore, and uses the original Satya production methods and recipes,

Date: Dec 2019   Score: 40

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Patchouli

Nandita Organic Patchouli

I like Nandita, and I like patchouli so I am inclined to like this. But I have an issue with the claim to be organic and "ozone friendly". This feels like a claim created to make Westerners buy the incense without giving serious regard to what is being said. The incense stick is composed largely of charcoal, which does harm the ozone layer. Goloka use roasted coconut shells in place of charcoal so it is possible. But what is used here is definitely charcoal - and cheap charcoal at that - you can smell it when it is burned, and if you crush it beneath your fingers it stains.  I am used to manufacturers of all sorts making extravagant claims for their products, but this one is a little underhand as it relates to damaging the planet. Be honest when it comes to stuff like that.

OK. This is a little sharp and cheap smelling - as I say, the smell of the charcoal base intrudes.  I had another of the company's "organic" range a few years ago - their Organic Nag Champa, and I wasn't impressed with that either. This is thin, prickly, sharp and not very satisfying. There isn't the sweet, slightly musky warmth I associate with patchouli.

Date: Dec 2019   Score: 27

***

Nandita of Mumbai

Patchouli

Ranga Rao Manmohak Oudh

This is delightful - a proper sweet and dreamy agarwood scent. The sticks are 9 inches with 7 1/2 inches of neatly hand-rolled black paste coated with a fine brown wood powder. The scent on the stick is fresh and volatile, despite being over three years old. It is rich and woodsy, and quite compelling, though with a touch of cool menthol and shoe polish. On lighting the flame burns brightly, with a modicum of black smoke, then, when blown out, the stick smoulders gently producing a pale grey ghost column of smoke. The burn lasts for around 70 minutes. The scent gently but firmly warms the room with a very reassuring and seductive agarwood. Quite a solid, clean scent. Very yummy. Quite divine. Moved up a few points into Heavenly. This is gorgeous stuff. 

Date: Sept 2023    Score: 40 

Another brand by N.Ranga Rao & Sons, who have enlarged their operations under the umbrella of NR Group to cover marketing and manufacturing. Rao's most famous incense brands are Cycle and Flute. The group tends to prefer perfumed incense, though do offer some masala incense, such as this Manmohak brand Oudh.

It's a decent woody scent, quite traditional masala with some sense of the wooly scent of halmaddi. The scent on the stick is quite gorgeous, and does have the subtle, sweet, oily, musky tones of agarwood. And there is a cleansing aura in the room afterwards. A subtle vibration that underlies the sweet masala incense aroma. It's less impressive when being burned. Not to say that it is in anyway unpleasant or disappointing, merely that it simply does the job without creating any sense of wonder.

I like this. A very decent masala incense with an oudh awareness.

Date: Dec 2019 Score: 35

***

Ranga Rao 

The best agarwood incense

Satya/Stamford (2014) Laxmi's Lotus

This is the last of the Satya/Stamford collaboration produced in 2014 that I have. All the scents have been somewhat acceptable, with Knowledge being the one I liked the most, though none have impressed, and it has become increasingly clear as I worked through them that they have been made on a low budget. They are also, to be fair, around five years old, and as the fragrance is delivered mostly by perfume-dipping rather than using masala ingredients, perfume-dipped incense tends to degrade over time as the volatiles evaporate.

This is the weakest of the four I've burned. Occasionally there is a sort of Stamford sweet candy perfume, but than that drifts away and I'm left with something vaguely sandalwood. There may be some sense of lotus about this, but it is really weak and fleeting.

Hmmmm. I'm getting into this. It's not anything special, but it does an OK job once it gets going. Laxmi is a Hindu goddess of  wealth and good fortune who is typically depicted with a lotus in her hand.  The lotus has religious significance in India.


Date: Nov 2019   Score: 25

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Aargee / Stamford brand

Satya/Stamford (2014) Freedom

There is a mint and cucumber edge to this rather nondescript incense which is more perfume-dipped than masala. I'm not hugely impressed. This was made in 2014 as part of the series produced in collaboration between Satya and Aargee in 2011 for Aargee's incense brand Stamford.  It appears to have been produced with a low budget in mind as the ingredients are not quality.


Date: Nov 2019   Score: 20

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Satya/Stamford (2014) Meditating Shiva

Another of the Satya/Stamford co-operations. I note that all of the sticks in the series have a larger proportion of charcoal than is standard for Satya. Satya tens to use a significant proportion of wood in the core mix, which gives a pleasing brown colour, and offers a cooler more fragrant burn.  I am assuming that the blend used here is cheaper, and was done as a result of the deal arranged with Aargee, the owners of the Stanford brand.

The scent is fairly perfumed and mainstream. And there is a volatile scent on the sticks which indicates a liquid scent was applied.  While there are clearly perfume-dipped sticks which are  charcoal blanks dipped in a liquid scent, and there are clearly masala sticks which are composed almost entirely of finely ground dried fragrant ingredients (such as Tibetan/Himalayan sticks), there is a blurry area in between in which the fragrant ingredient of sticks is a combination of dried (masala) ingredients and essential oils and/or liquid scents. This stick appears to lean very close to perfumed, with only a small amount of masala.

It's an OK scent, but there's nothing distinctive about it. 

Date: Nov 2019   Score: 27

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Satya/Stamford (2014) Knowledge

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Satya Knowledge is a scent developed by Satya for Aargee/Stamford in 2011. Aargee/Stamford - now under the name Stamford London - still distribute the scent in the UK, where 15g boxes can be picked up for £1.50: Holistic Emporium, Bazzar Pixie, etc. This is the same 2014 pack I reviewed five years ago in 2019. 

The scent on the stick is sweet and huge. It pops out as soon as the box is opened. Fruity, sweet, clean, floral, soapy, somewhat heady, a bit Indian, a bit modern car/room freshener. Very approachable, though not profound. This is more of a simple enjoyment, like a fun cocktail rather than a thoughtful wine. This is more Coldplay than Radiohead. But I like it. 

On the burn this is bright, fresh, uplifting; more balanced than the scent on the stick, so - for me - somewhat more satisfying. There's some quirky cabbage water elements which add interest. Yes, rather likeable. 

Date: Nov 2024    Score: 35

First review

I have four packs of Satya incense made for Aargee in 2014 under an agreement made in 2011. The scents were developed in collaboration, and are exclusive to Aargee, being sold in association with the Stamford brand. It was in 2014 that the brothers split up, so this may be one of the last batches made by the original company.

It is a sweet and heady incense, the sort that Aargee's Stamford brand tends to focus on. Highly perfumed yet with a candy sweetness. There are flowery notes, slightly herbal, like lavender and a hint of Parma Violets.  It's not a subtle or refined scent. It's a little crude and blunt, and can smother the senses if the smoke drifts in your direction, but it does give a cool scented feel to a room, like a dusting of baby talc, so is an incense that is best burned in advance to create a sense of calm. Burn in a room before having a difficult discussion that could become tense.


Date: Nov 2019   Score: 32

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Other ratings of incense by Aargee

Satya (BNG) Frankincense

This is very pleasant. Sweet, slightly vanilla like, and with a mild sense of halmaddi. It is a traditional masala incense, so if you like traditional masala, you'll like this. It's fairly middle of the road, there's nothing special about it, but nothing bad either. Some masala halmaddi enthusiasts may find it a little bland, but nobody should actively dislike it. It has a pleasant oily quality - a warm sensual essential oil scent, sweet, woody, and more toward sandalwood than frankincense, though it has some orange oil and church incense notes as well, which for me are key ingredients in frankincense. It smells better on the stick than it does when burned, though I find this is fairly common to most incenses. On the whole I find this "very nice" rather than "wow!", and while a pleasant example of frankincense,  not for me a defining example, which tends to be the resin itself.

This is made by Balkrishna Setty, the brother who has the original Satya factory in Bangalore, and uses the original Satya production methods and recipes,


Date: July 2019    Score:   39

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Frankincense

Satya (BNG - pre 2017) Namaste

Decent quality Satya incense, but not quite heavenly. Good stuff that lingers pleasantly for hours afterwards, and gives off a traditional masala incense scent. Anyone who likes traditional old skool masala will like this, it follows a steady course and does what it's supposed to do, giving off a warm woolly scent that gently informs a room in a neutral to sombre manner. It's not an evocative or attention seeking scent, but rather one that gets on with it in a manner that, as my nan used to say, wouldn't offend anyone.

The date on the logo is 2016, and the logo is the old style that was used before 2017, while the address is (BNG), which was introduced in 2014. This is Balkrishna Setty's incense made in the original factory to the original recipe, and would have been made sometime in 2016/2017, so is around two to three years old as I write this. A lot of the incense powder has collected at the bottom of the inner bag which suggests that it has dried out a little, but there is still plenty left on the stick. The design on the box is the same as Satya Reiki, and it appears likely they were made at the same, but where I was blown away by the Reiki, here I am just quietly satisfied. Sure this is a good incense worth buying, and offers excellent value for money (Satya incenses are never expensive - you can generally get them for a £1 per 15g box, or cheaper if buying in bulk online, if someone is asking for a lot more than that, then walk away, and find a cheaper source), but it's sending me to the heights of pleasure - either that is down to the individual fragrance ingredients, or the fact that this box is likely to be over a year older than the Reiki when I reviewed it. 

Namaste is an Asian greeting where the hands are brought together as though in prayer -  Aargee have also used it as an incense name: Aagree Namaste.  Anyway. Nice job. Happy to buy again.


Date: Nov 2019    Score: 35

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Pal-Ji Honey Suckle

There's no  actual honeysuckle aroma in this bargain bin incense, but it does have a decent enough cleansing woody scent that is very useful for covering up cat odours (we have three kittens who are not yet allowed outside) as well as simply freshening up the house. Not offensive - quite an acceptable scent, but fairly basic and more utilitarian than transcendental.


Date: Oct 2019    Score: 23


I've reviewed this previously - see Pal-Ji Honey Suckle May 2013 (score 22)

***

 

Pal-Ji Incense Sticks

Pal-Ji Bouqet

As with this company's Frenk Insence, I'm sure Bouqet is a misspelling of bouquet. Anyway. The same standard of quality that has been applied to the design of the packet has been used in the making of the incense. Yes. It's crap. There is no  bouquet - there's just the core material that was used in the making of the paste without any pleasant fragrance. This is a bit like Tibetan incense - herbal, grassy, like burning garden waste. There's a bit of wood in there, which is likely to come from the powdered wood that was used in the making of the paste. It's kind of like the smell you get when using an electric saw on hardboard.


Date: Sept 2019   Score:  16

***

Pal-Ji Incense Sticks