Incense In The Wind

Radiating Incense In The Wind - a painting by Hai Linh Le

Sunday 13 September 2020

Satya (Mumbai) Natural Sandal




Dense oily perfume on the stick - quite damp and weighty, fairly floral. Not really a sandalwood aroma, though some comes through deep inside - as with the Satya Mumbai Sandalwood, there is some cedar wood quality to the wood scent.  There is a lot of fragrant dust on the stick - rather more than on the Mumbai - and a fair amount of this drifts off on handling. The scent is a little soapy, and a little herbal, some fruit, some floral, not a lot of wood, let alone sandalwood. There is an odd touch of stale washed clothing - that scent when clothing has been washed, but not aired properly. It sounds bad, but it's not. It's curious. The scent is on the whole sort of interesting or intriguing rather than pleasant or unpleasant.

Comparing Satya (Mumbai) Sandalwood with this sandalwood it's difficult to compare like for like as neither of them seem to have tackled the sandalwood straight on. This "natural" version is certainly more interesting, while the Sandalwood is more conventional and pleasant, but somewhat modest and inconsistent. Neither of them are good examples of sandalwood. Indeed, neither of them are good examples of incense, but are kind of acceptable everyday incenses in their own right. You can burn them in your house as a standard daytime room freshener, they are not unpleasant, but don't expect more than that from them.


Date: Sept 2020  Score: 25
***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)


Sandalwood



Satya (Mumbai) Sandalwood




Sweet almost cedar wood like scent on the stick, with a touch of vanilla. It's very pleasant, though lacks depth. On burning the scent is quite modest and inclines toward being smokey rather than pure. Variable - at times it becomes precious sandalwood then wanders off into cheap sawdust. On the whole this is an OK everyday incense, it smells better on the stick than when burned.  Inconsistency and modesty when being burned holds it back.


Date: Sept 2020  Score: 25


I think I was a little mean when first reviewing this. As we've gone through the pack (now, sadly, finished, we've grown to appreciate it more and more. It's a sweet and delicious sandalwood. OK, not quite heavenly, but certainly a tad more than everyday. 

Date: March  2021    Score: 33