Just a note to readers that backflow cones look attractive, and you might want to try one, but they do leave an unpleasant smell afterwards, the smoke will stain surrounding furniture, so take care where you are burning them, the burners are difficult and unpleasant to clean (use gloves!), and there are health concerns because of the amount of tar they produce.
Popped into our local hardware shop, and took a look at their incense selection. They have been stocking SifCon for a while now, and have added Satya to their list. SifCon frequently rings the changes with their incense to keep customers interested. We were selecting a range of scents, when I noticed one packet said "Backflow", and got it to try it out. I have a backflow stand and some cones, but while the cones look lovely, the scent is more of the core material than the actual scent, so we don't burn them. I thought it was worth giving a SifCon pack a go, especially as - like the other cones - it was only £1. On getting home we discovered that almost all the packs we bought were backflow! Oh well.
The first one we tried (inside our recently built summerhouse - or summershed as Phocea calls it) worked quite well, and I was pleased to see that there is a little stand inside. We tried the stand, and it does work, but is very limited. It doesn't really show the backflow smoke to its proper effect. Anyway, it worked. But the next three I tried did not work. And then one worked, but went out. They go out a lot. And when they do work, it takes a long while before the smoke stands flowing downwards as it is supposed to. I compared it to my existing cones, which light easily and start flowing backwards straightaway.
In the picture the stand you get with the packs is on the right. My own, slightly bigger, stand is on the left.
The scents we bought are Patchouli. On the cone they smell slightly of pine - toilet cleaner pine, and faintly of sandalwood and cedar. When burning there is a hint of sandalwood, but mostly it's of ash. The lingering scent afterwards is of damp ash - like someone has thrown water over a fire. Not great.
The Golden Buddha cones are darker in colour. The scent on the cone is flowery - gardenia? - with a hint of licorice. When burning the scent is modest, mostly burning core material, but not offensive.
Lavender Field has a modest and run of the mill scent of lavender on the cone. Smells of the core material when burning.
Sandalwood has a lacklustre sandalwood aroma on the cone, which is barely detectable when burned as the core material takes over.
The smoke settles heavily on whatever the stand is resting on and can and does stain - so take care. After burning a few cones I noticed an unpleasant smell in the room like old ashtrays - then I noticed that the stand was thick with a tar like substance. Avoid getting it on anything as it clings and stains. Remove carefully with an old wet cloth or damp tissue paper. Dispose of carefully.
All in all not a great product. As incense they pretty much fail, leaving behind both an unpleasant smell and a particularly unpleasant mess; and as a backflow they don't always work. Very low score for this. I think we'll end up just throwing them away as they are not worth the hassle.
Date: Nov 2020 Score: 2
The more we burn these the more I hate them. The lingering smell afterwards is like a dirty ashtray. And the tar is really hard to remove. It stains very easily. We have thrown them away. They are worse than useless, they are anti-incense.
Date: Dec 2020 Score: -2
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