Aromatika Sandalwood Incense Cones

Quite a floral volatile scent on the cone - quite sweet and jammy. Not sandalwood, more like rose though with mineral notes, something like the sea. It's more reminiscent of a toilet cleaner than an incense. Many of the chemical scents used in these Aromatika cones have been quite pleasant and almost natural, but this one shamelessly displays its artificiality and its lack of coincidence with the scent it is meant to represent. There is, however, a little more awareness of sandalwood when the cone is burned, but there is also an acrid smoky quality from the core material. This is not a good one. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score:  13

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  Aromatika

Aromatika Lavender incense Cones

 

You can't get too close to the cones as they are burning otherwise all you get is smoke and heat and base rubbishy sawdust burning. But little wisps in the corner of the room catch the scent. The base notes fall, while the more delicate perfume notes carry on. These Aromatika cones are very modest, but are not offensive. The perfume is sweet and modestly pleasant. There is lavender in the scent (mostly on the cone - it vanishes quickly when burned) which at times comes over as fresh and authentic, and other times a little bit too dull and reminiscent of old ladies knickers. It's a mainly OK scent, but fairly weak and indifferent. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score:  19

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  Aromatika

Best of Lavender

Aromatika Rose Incense Cones

 

Powdery sweet with jammy yet acidic raspberry presence. As with the other Aromatika cones this is moderately pleasant, but has little impact and the cone burns fairly quickly and the core material of poor quality sawdust is often a little bit too strong in the aroma. 

Essentially, a rather low quality product, but not offensive. Indeed, the actual perfume is reasonably pleasant. Works fine as a low grade room freshener, or as something to use in the toilet. On the whole, though, not something I would recommend, unless buying fairly cheap. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score:  24

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  Aromatika

Aromatika Dragons Blood incense Cones

Powdery sweet with mineral and sea water aroma tones. Mildly sexual. A pleasant everyday scent, but as with others in this Aromatika "vedic" incense cones range, the cones don't last long, and the perfume is not strong, so produces a soft background scent that is at times slightly dominated by the core burning material, which is a basic, un-aromatic, sawdust. The scent, while not heavenly, is of a decent everyday quality, but is limited by the ungenerous use in the dipping procedure. Not quality, but certainly very acceptable in the bathroom. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score:  24

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  Aromatika

How incense is made

 Forms of incense. Major forms of incense are shown, including powder, coil, cone, joss stick (or dhoop), and incense stick (with bamboo core). (photo by T. C. Lin).

[These are notes toward an article...]

The present day mass production of Agarbathies involves:

i) Making un-perfumed Agarbathies, hereinafter called "Raw Bathies" using

Bamboo stick as the back bone, wood powder & charcoal powder as absorbent & burning matter & a suitable natural adhesive material as a binder. This may be done completely manually, partially by machines or by fully machanised process.

ii) Coating liquid perfume on the "Raw Bathies" by manually dipping or sprinkling. This process slow and highly labour intensive.

Ingredients:


Typical:

MATERIAL BREAKDOWN: INCENSE STICKS - 29% 
CEDARWOOD POWDER, 1% SODIUM BENZOATE, 15% GUAR 
GUM, 15% LAHAM BARK EXTRACT, 10% JIGGIT FRAGRANCE, 
30% BAMBOO STICK
HOLDER - 100% MANGO WOOD

MATERIAL BREAKDOWN: 29% WHITE CHIP POWDER, 1% SODIUM 
BENZOATE, 15% GUAR GUM, 15% LAHAM BARK EXTRACT, 10% 
FRAGRANCE, 30% BAMBOO STICK

Cones:

MATERIAL BREAKDOWN: 55% WHITE CHIP POWDER, 1% SODIUM 
BENZOATE, 4% GUAR GUM, 25% LAHAM BARK EXTRACT, 15% 
FRAGRANCE


Quality incense ingredients:


Ingredients: Distilled Water, Pure Ultra Ground Charcoal, Clear White Bamboo, Flower Petals, Flower Essences, Amber Resins, Sandalwood (santalum album), Cedar (cedrus deodora), Vanilla Powder (vanilla planafolia), Gum Elemi (canarium luzonicum), Gum Opoponax (opoponnax chironium koch), Gum Labdanum (cistus ladaniferus), Gum Copal (bursera ordorata), Mastic (pistacia lentiscus), Gum Dammar (shorea wiesneri), Gum Myrrh (commiphora myrrha), Makko Powder (machillus thunbergil), Tragacanth Gum (astragalus species), Gum Olibanum-Frankincense (boswellia spp.), Gum Arabic (acacia nilotica)

Combustible agent

Charcoal and/or a sawdust, particularly of sandalwood

Binding agent

 

Jigat powder

*Jigat or jigat powder, made from the bark of Litsea chinensis, Machilus macrantha, or Persea macrantha

*Makko or makko powder, made from the bark of  Machillus Thunbergii.

*Halmaddi,  an aromatic gum resin from Ailanthus triphysa / Ailanthus malabarica. A traditional ingredient in Indian incense, though usage declined after the Indian government banned extraction of the resin from trees in Indian forests due to extensive damage to the trees. Though soft when first extracted, the resin becomes brittle as it dries, so an ingredient, such as honey, may be added to assist in working the resin during incense making.  Used in incense by Mother's Fragrances, Aargee's Imperial range, and Dhuni - all of whom are UK based companies who have their incense made in India. Dhuni's incense maker has stopped supplying the company, so when Dhuni's incense stocks are exhausted, they will close their incense shop.  Mattipal is a similar aromatic gum resin, from the Peepal or "Bodhi" tree. 

*Kai kou. Used in Japanese incense as a fixative. It is unclear what it is made from - possibly a type of snail. 

Fragrance

Herbs, spices, flowers, essential oils, etc.

The Book of Incense: Enjoying the Traditional Art of Japanese Scents:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dQ6KQMLQ_rEC&pg=PA63&dq=joss+stick&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LHpFUaSrF8HsOqvmgegL&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=joss%20stick&f=false 

Making incense cones


Cutting the bamboo into sticks

http://www.fragrantica.com/news/What-is-Incense--2503.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_8099327_make-incense-resin.html

http://www.incensemaking.com/

http://www.japanese-incense.com/incense-making.htm

http://www.scents-of-earth.com/makyourownna.html

http://www.soywaxcandles.org/incense.htm

http://www.templeoftheola.org/incense-making.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-Incense-sticks/

http://www.makeincense.com/

http://www.officepromosi.com/incense/making.shtml

The ends of incense bamboo sticks are dipped in red dye in the factory after the incense paste has been added. This saves wasting red dye on the part of the stick that is not seen.

http://www.sarathi.com/index.php?page=gallery_list&id=11

Privi Organics - an Indian synthetic fragrance company used by a number of incense companies.

http://www.privi.com/overview.asp

GANDHARAJ the KING of Fragrances

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JmVNKNA250


YouTube videos of Indian incense stick making machines:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3GWnrLQCjA


YouTube videos of Indian incense sticks rolled by hand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Mxzo-4O5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOPRTn4_6Mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgi9jycrh98

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB1nR_S1qi4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgYyHPVJmV8

Women making incense sticks in India

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgYyHPVJmV8

Baieido incense factory in Japan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WgDi5jYTdc

Chinese incense factory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is5JyxXyPMc

Vietnam incense making

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPzZcX9Pfg

Tourists visiting a Vietnam family making incense

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4cdU1G3k4s


United Nations  Development Programme on helping people make incense in Nepal

http://www.undp.org.np/success-stories/incense-making-enterprise-sees-huge-success......-155.html


Tibetan incense making

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQy9QUhHUFU

Tibetan incense making in Nepal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1WhC5tDJB0

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzigbWmKkME

Incense making at Prinknash Abbey

The Benedictine monks of Prinknash Abbey have been blending incense to a secret recipe since 1906, when the community was on Caldey Island.

Today they are not only the oldest, but the biggest manufacturer of incense in Europe, and Abbot Francis offers an insight into the process.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-20770270

Incense smoke: clinical, structural and molecular effects on airway disease

" A typical composition of stick incense consists of 21% (by weight) of herbal and wood powder, 35% of fragrance material, 11% of adhesive powder, and 33% of bamboo stick"

 "There are various forms of incenses, including sticks, joss sticks, cones, coils, powders, rope, rocks/charcoal, and smudge bundles [13]. The main difference between the first two forms is that the former has a slender bamboo base, onto which the mixture of incense ingredients is attached, while the latter is without a central base."

http://www.clinicalmolecularallergy.com/content/6/1/3


Make your own incense:

http://www.theherbboat.co.uk/blog/read_146820/how-to-make-and-burn-incense.html

 Incense Ratings - Top of the Dhoops!

Aromatika White Sage Incense Cones

 

White Sage, or Salvia apiana, is a plant that is burnt by a number of native American tribes as part of purification rites, and is more common as an incense fragrance in America than it is in India or Europe as the plant grows in America and Mexico. It produces an attractive mild sage aroma, quite warming, spicy, gentle, and softly seductive. 

This white sage has a soft musk underpinning the sage notes. Very attractive. However, as with the other Aromatica cones in this "Vedic - Natural Masala" (it's not masala, it's perfume-dipped) range, when burned, the smell of core material tends to come through, and at times dominate, so the sage is sometimes replaced by the cheap, rough notes of  sawdust and jigat. Apart from that, this is otherwise an attractive incense. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score:  26

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  Aromatika

Aromatika Spiritual Love Incense Cones

 

A bit of floral rose, powdery, and a bit of red berry, perhaps strawberry, with some pine, some soap. Sort of average and typical perfumed incense scent. Sadly, as with others in this range, it's also quite weak, so when burned there is tendency for the core wood dust burning material to come through.  

On the whole not very satisfactory. Acceptable indifferent perfume on the cone, but less than average when burned. Poor quality really. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score: 25

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  Aromatika

Aromatika Benzoin Incense Cones

 

I like benzoin (also called loban and sambrani). As with frankincense and myrrh, it is a tree resin; it comes from the sap of the Sal tree. 

There is a warm and pleasant musk and mineral scent both on the cone and while burning. Unfortunately, the scent is quite soft so the core burning material (wood dust) comes through and disturbs the harmony of the scent. However, while not being the most successful benzoin scent I have tried, it is an acceptable everyday incense, cleansing and invigorating the room, and lifting the spirits. 

Date: Feb 2021   Score:  32

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Benzoin / Loban / Sambrani

  Aromatika