New Moon Aromas (Wonder Incense)

 

New Moon Aromas is a relatively recent brand.  A number of internet shops around the world list New Moon incense, and they can be bought for less than £2 a box on Amazon.  The website for the brand is newmoonaromas.net. The brand is owned by Wonder Imports a wholesale distributor run by the Shah family in Australia and the UK (Wonder Incense).  Navan Shah from the UK branch has been in touch to tell me they have their own manufacturing premises in India, so Wonder Incense can be classed as producers rather than just distributors.  But I've seen so address of these premises, and I've heard stories about who is making what for whom. It's difficult to know anything for sure. But, certainly, the lack of a base in India doesn't give good optics. Until I am shown evidence to the contrary, I'm listing New Moon Aromas as a commissioner of incense, rather than a maker.  

The incenses are machine made masalas which have been perfumed with fragrant oils, which seems to be a type of incense I have been encountering a lot recently, and which I am identifying on my Incense List as perfumed masala (PM). Navan is unable to tell me what proportion of "agarbatti oil"  (DEP) is blended with essential oils. 

New Moon Aromas are distributed in India, Europe, and Australia.  

When I first encountered New Moon Aromas I liked them. They are a perfumed masala brand aimed at the West by Wonder Imports (Australia) and Wonder Incense Ltd (UK). The packets - standard 15g masala cardboard box - are attractively designed, and would sit well in a New Age shop, which is probably New Moon's main market.  As I got more familiar with them, and tried new ones, and went back and reviewed older ones, I liked them less. They are presented as masala, though the main thrust of the scent component is chemical. That is, either the scent is synthetic, or it is an essential oil that has been blended with DEP - a diluting fluid that can cause headaches and eye sting.  I feel that New Moon use DEP, and they use too much of it. They can gush great bouts of smoke and irritation into the room causing possible harm to health. 

^ = Review that needs to be revisited

Reviews

 

New Moon Aromas Black Rose (PM)
 Oct 2024 - Score: 41↑

   

New Moon Aromas Shree Frankincense (PM)
Nov 2024 - Score: 37

New Moon Aromas Fruit Planet 

Feb 2022 - Score: 31^

New Moon Aromas Mandala
Sept 2023 - Score: 25↑↓

 

New Moon Aromas Pagan Spell
January 2022 - Score: 28↓

New Moon Aromas Shree Musk

Jan 2022 - Score: 25

New Moon Aromas Sensing Spirit 
May 2022 - Score: 25

New Moon Aromas Arabian Wood 
Jan 2024 - Score: 19 

Incense reviewed: 8

Highest: 41

Lowest: 19  

Average: 27

Conclusion: Difficult to know for certain, but without an address or other evidence, I am listing New Moon Aromas as a commissioner rather than a producer of incense. The incense is perfumed masala. The actual maker is not known, but I've heard private rumours and stories.  I have liked (a lot) some individual scents. However, I'm not that keen on the ambiance of the brand because of the detachment between company and product when someone simply buys or orders an incense rather than making it themselves. There is no pride in the creation, just in the purchase. Sure someone can feel pride in owning Starry Night, but that's not quite the same as the pride in having created it. Having said that, I do think New Moon Aromas can be very decent room fresheners, indeed, even more than that, they can be something a little bit special. They are easily available in the West, and offer great value for money.

Navin Shah of Wonder Incense has been in touch to say "New Moon Aromas range of Incense is manufactured by us in India. All the incense are Masala Incense. Our aim is to bring the best quality fragrance to the market."

***

Own brand distributors

(Wonder Incense) New Moon Aromas Shree Musk Premium Masala Incense

 

I've been seeing New Moon Aromas around a fair bit recently. I first encountered them in 2019, and they now seem well established in the UK. There's not much info on them, and I have written to Wonder Incense, who import them into the UK, for information. My speculation is that they are made for Wonder Imports, as it's Wonder's name on the New Moon website.  [Navan Shah from
Wonder Incense has been in touch to tell me they have their own manufacturing premises in India.]

This incense falls into a type of incense which I have been burning a lot these past few days (purely by chance). A well made masala type incense which has been enhanced with perfume, but is not quite a flora/fluxo/durbar (a rich masala incense infused with essential oils). I am sort of loosely grouping them as perfumed masalas. They work for me. They feel quite light and modern, but with the depth and richness of the Indian masala tradition. They are available in the UK from JustAromatherapy for £1.25, and in Oz from CarpeDiem for $2.50. I'm not sure if they are available in other countries yet. 

This is a machine made wood paste masala. It is quite firm and dry on the stick, which looks like a machine cut bamboo stick. The scent on the stick is quite a volatile like perfume with crisp fresh notes of a room freshener. Pine, some citrus, some floral. Quite light, and not really musk related. Shree is a Hindu word for wealth or richness, so the notion of the name would be that this is a resplendent musk aroma. I'm not getting that from the sticks I have burned. a real sense of musk. On the burn the aroma is like that of a stale perfume. It's a bit blurry , but hovers around old rose and moth balls, perhaps a touch of benzoin. It's not my thing at all. I like the other New Moon incenses, but I'm not getting on with this one. I shall revisit the others at some point as I recall I was quite impressed with them as decent top end everyday masalas. But this one is not for me - too perfumed. 

Date: Jan 2022   Score: 25 

***

New Moon Aromas

Musk

R. Expo / Song of India Bodhi Sultra Premium Masala Incense

 

My previous experience with Song of India has been their perfumed incense. This one is termed a "Premium Masala", which appears to me to be a modest everyday masala in which the main scent comes from a perfume into which the stick has been dipped, rather like the Green Tree Call Of The Shaman and Tulasi Nag Champa & Rose masala sticks which I have reviewed today, and which holds a faint relationship with the Shroff wet masala I burned yesterday. A charcoal paste has been hand rolled onto a slim pink dyed bamboo stick, then rolled in a finishing powder and dipped in a perfume or oil. The volatility feels more like a perfume than an oil. It is a pleasant perfume with light, candy sweet, floral notes. But it is not profound. It's simply pleasant. 

There has been a certain similarity in the incense I have burned today, which appear to me to be  a sort of style of "masala" incense (which may be geared more to the Western than Asian market) rather like a perfumed masala, or an upmarket perfume-dipped incense. These have not been traditional masalas where the fragrance comes from a selection of dried and finely crushed plant and resin ingredients, nor are they the heady or rich or alluring moist masalas to which are added a blend of essential oils, and which are known as floras or fluxos or durbars; these sticks appear to be modest masalas in which the main fragrance, rather like standard perfume-dipped sticks, come from the liquid perfume. But, this is just speculation. 

The end result of whichever method has been used to make these sticks is a pleasant everyday incense which burns for a reasonable length of time, giving the room a decent coating of light, playful, floral scent - a little bit jasmine, a little bit rose. Sometimes the stick burns a little hot and smoky, and sometimes the scent wander to woody, but mostly it is a moderately pleasant light floral hinting at baby powder or talc. It's decent stuff. Not top end. but decent enough.  Available in the UK from Just Aromatherapy at £1.45 for 15g, or from Spirit-Raeucherwerk in Germany, or SunDrops in Australia.

Date: Jan 2022    Score: 30 

***

R. Expo / Song Of India

R. Expo / Song Of India

R. Expo / Song Of India is an Indian company based in Noida,  a new city just outside of Delhi, with a branch in America.  They started out in 1932 as an independent business called Mathur Perfumery Works hand-making traditional incense, then branched out in 1972 to create a sales outlet in America. Aroma Temple is Song of India's main brand, and is a machine extruded and perfume-dipped incense.  In 2017 they created the hippy-chic brand The Great Indian Caravan making low cost perfume-dipped incense. They also make decent everyday masala incense. 

Visitor traffic on IncenseInTheWind is eight times more for Aroma Temple than any other incense by R. Expo / Song of India. 

Reviews

 

R. Expo / Song of India Moksha Bliss 
Feb 2022 - Score: 38

  

R-Expo / Song Of India
Organic Goodness Frankincense (PM)
 Nov 2024 - Score: 35↑ 

R. Expo / Song of India Organic Jasmine (M)
Oct 2022 - Score: 35

Bodhi Sultra Premium Masala Incense 

Jan 2022 - Score: 30 

 

The Great Indian Caravan
Ganesha Cedarwood & Redwood
Aug 2021 - Score: 22

The Great Indian Caravan
Yoga Mountain Breeze
Aug 2021 - Score: 21

Aroma Temple
Jan 2024 - Score:  20↓↓ 

 

Sweetness
Oct 2021 - Score: 20

The Great Indian Caravan
Karma Jasmine & Honeysuckle
Aug 2021 - Score: 20

The Great Indian Caravan Om Shanti Nag Champa
April 2021 - Score: 19

The Great Indian Caravan
Namaste Neroli & Basil
April 2021 - Score: 19

Incense reviewed: 11 

Highest: 38 

Lowest: 19 

Average: 23 (Everyday Incense)

Conclusion: Not a quality incense house. Appears to aim for the Western market with Westernised Indian imagery. More common in America than the UK. Does decent great value everyday masala. 

***

The Best Incense Makers

Tulasi Nag Champa & Rose Incense Sticks

 

Sarathi International of Bangalore, are a major incense manufacturer using the brand name Tulasi, and export all over the world - Australia, France, America, etc. I got this from JustAromatherapy, who are currently selling these 15g packs for £1.49. 

I primarily knew Tulasi as a brand for decent quality everyday perfumed incense. Nothing remarkable, but decently made, and usually pleasant enough. Then I discovered their proper job masala, Vidwan, and I was impressed, so I have been looking at their other masala incense, which is just starting to creep into the UK. I've not yet met anything which approaches the delights of Vidwan, but this masala incense is pleasant enough. It's not really proper job masala - these sticks are very similar to the Green Tree incense I burned earlier today, Call Of The Shaman, in which the scent is mainly carried by a perfume which the stick has been dipped in, rather than mainly or solely by a blend of resins and dried flowers and herbs. A charcoal paste has been thinly hand rolled around a thin pink dyed bamboo stick, then rolled into a finishing powder, and dipped into a perfume or essential oil. The amount of ingredients is not huge, so the stick burns fairly quickly. Sometimes a short burn is what one wants, so that is not a complaint, just a fact. Given the price, and the overall quality, the short burn doesn't prevent this from being a good value incense. 

The scent is very light, pretty, engaging, jolly, floral, feminine, summery, and uplifting. I like it. I like it a lot. It's the sort of scent which catches people's attention and makes them remark - Oh, that's a nice scent, as my daughter did just now as she walked through the room.  

I intend at some point doing a rereview and comparison of the whole series. Meanwhile, I'm marking this, and all the other Nag Champa Delights, as 35 - midway in my "Enjoyable, decent quality scents" ranking. 


Date: Jan 2022   Score: 35 

***

More Tulasi reviews

Green Tree Call Of The Shaman Premium Masala Sticks

 

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Pleasant floral cologne scent on the stick. Modestly attractive generic "sandalwood incense" scent on the burn. Makes for an acceptable modest everyday generic room freshener sandalwood incense. I think the score of 20 back in Jan 2022 seems a little harsh, and perhaps I mistyped it. This is not a special incense, but it works fine. There's no off notes, and it produces a gentle and warm sandalwood  scent. 

Date: Dec 2024    Score: 30 

First review

Masala incense made in India for Green Tree Candle, a Dutch company based in Rotterdam who deal in typical hippy items - scented candles, gemstones, tarot cards, beads, and incense. There are a number of Indian companies who make incense for other companies to brand as their own. The incense is usually decently and professionally, though not lusciously, made; as is the case here. This is sold in the UK, 15g for £2.50, by ScentedAndMore, who are an aroma focused shop, and in various mystic or New Age shops around the world, such as Mystical Moon Store in America, NewAgeWinkel in the Netherlands, and WickedCrystals in Oz.  

A thin to medium charcoal masala paste has been hand rolled around a thin bamboo stick with the tip dyed pink, then rolled in a melnoorva wood powder which has been dipped or coated in a perfume. The volatile notes of the perfume are prominent on the stick. It's a mildly floral scent, backed by alcohol fumes. It burns quite quickly. It's not an expensive incense, but considering what can be bought for the same or a lower price, it's not value for money either. There isn't a huge scent on the burn, nor does it inform the room as widely and deeply as a quality masala would. But the scent is pleasant, and is noticeable if a little vague. It is clear that it is using the perfume to carry most of the scent - there is a ghost of cologne in the air, with little of substance behind that, and most lovers of proper job masala wouldn't find much here to interest them. 

On the whole a quite pleasant budget masala which doesn't offer value for money, nor an impressive scent, but has nothing disagreeable about it. 

Date: Jan 2022    Score: 20

***

Green Tree (distribution company)

Shroff Channabasappa Pearl

 

Ah! This is my sort of incense: sweet, sensual, playful, beautiful - a blend of woods, musks, florals and resins. The scent on the stick is divine. There is so much happening. It is highly perfumed (more like a top end perfumed incense than a traditional herbs and barks incense) and quite gorgeous. I now understand the term "wet" as Shroff's descriptor for this group of their incenses. I am more familiar with flora/fluxo incenses being moist with oils, so I expected Shroff's "wet" incenses to be similarly moist. However, they don't need to be moist to be perfumed. Indeed, most perfumed incense (or "perfume-dipped", the common term used in the West) is quite dry, because the charcoal absorbs the liquid of the perfume. So my speculation is that Shroff's "wet" incenses are perfumed masala - in addition to the dried ingredients - the finely crushed flower petals, roots, resins, tree bark, etc, there appears to be a delicate and subtle use of oils and perfumes. Not heavy as in a flora/fluxo style incense like Sri Sai Flora, but lighter, more playful. 

The stick is a standard bamboo stick, hand rolled with a generous fragrant charcoal paste, and then rolled in a finishing powder. With some flora/fluxo type incenses it can be detected that the finished stick is dipped in fragrance oil, as the outside of the stick is glossy and moist; I suspect with this stick, the perfumes and/or oils were mixed into the charcoal paste before being rolled onto the stick. The benefit of that is there are less of the volatile ingredients on the outside of the stick,  so there is less of the petrol or neat alcohol scent, and much more of the fragrant perfume/oil ingredients. The scent on the stick is predominantly baby powder or talc. There is some rose, some jasmine, some clay, some benzoin, and a touch of spicy red cedarwood. I love it. 

The burn is a little more woody and spicy than the stick. Certainly less sweet. I often find that the heavier scent elements, such as the woods and musks, are more prominent during burns than the lighter, generally sweeter and more floral scents which are more prominent on the stick. This scent is not powerful, though it does spread and inform a room. I tend to like this sort of incense. I am usually not after noise and intrusion - I want a scent that I can detect, for sure, but I don't want it to swamp out all else.  In this case, though, because I liked the scent on the stick so much, I want more of it on the burn than I am getting. As it burns, some prickly warm wool comes forth, suggestive of a relatively modest amount of halmaddi. 

I like this incense. I find it quite modern in its perfume, and quite modern in its discrete dispersal through the room. The balance here seems more tipped toward flexible and beautiful oils and perfumes, giving a light, sweet, and sensual feel, than to dried plants and resins, which tend to be more woody, dark, serious, insistent and prickly. This feels delightfully feminine. 

I would like the lighter scents which I found on the stick to make themselves more known during the burn, and, though I like the gentle dispersal, I would like a tad more presence. But, all in all, along with the Orange Blossom, this is my favourite Shroff so far. It costs 7.95 Euros (about £6.65) for 50g from Padma Store in Germany.  Shroff incense can be bought in America from EssenceOfTheAges. 

Date: Jan 2020   Score: 39 

***

Shroff Incense

Reviewed on ORS

Cottage Industries No. 14 Sandalwood

A one stick sample from Padma Store in Germany.  Cottage Industries are part of the Pondicherry Ashram. I am fascinated by the Pondicherry community, and the range of incenses that come from there. I am aware, though, that I have developed something of a negative attitude toward incense from Pondicherry, and that I am perhaps not treating them in a neutral manner. I think there are a complex of reasons for this - partly my sensitivity toward strong use of halmaddi (it prickles and stings my eyes and soft palates), partly my own perception that the Pondicherry incenses are geared more toward Western tourists than to the domestic market (even though I have no basis for this negative perception), partly that my experience so far is that the style of incense from Pondicherry tends to be dry and serious, and perhaps narrowly focused, rather than the light, playful, sensual, sweet, or complex incenses that are my favourites. I shall be exploring more Pondicherry incenses, and revisiting previously tried ones, with a more neutral attitude and see if I can get a bit closer to understanding them. 

This stick has a wood based fragrant paste tightly and thinly rolled around a plain medium sized bamboo stick. It is quite dry, and there is no finishing powder. The scent on the stick is pine toilet cleaner, band-aid, table polish (perhaps a hint of beeswax), soap, perhaps a hint of rose petal, and clay.  It's actually more pleasant and inviting than it sounds. At the same time, it is not a scent that fills me with pleasure or excitement. So, at this point, the scent and the stick appearance are mostly neutral. 

On the burn it is woody, dry, serious, prickly, peppery, a little smoky, some touches of spearmint, hints of cedarwood (which I tend to find with Pondicherry incenses), and suggestions of Tibetan incense herbs. Indeed, in some respects this is closer to Tibetan incense than most Indian incenses.  I am not detecting halmaddi.

It is not an incense that gives me much pleasure, but it is not offensive. It feels like a modest incense - modest by design and intention. The history of the Cottage Industries brand is that it was started in 1949 by Mirra Alfassa, The Mother, to provide the ashram with incense. So the aim was for this to be a modest low cost product for their own use. Surplus was sold to visitors, and by 1973 was being exported. It is sold under both the Cottage Industries brand name and the name of the ashram: Sri Aurobindo. I have not yet researched fully into the ashram or the incense brand, but I suspect that this is likely to be one of the original recipes, and that they were known by the numbers, so 14 is sandalwood, 13 is musk, 12 is jasmine, etc. But that is speculation. 

Date:  Jan 2022    Score: 23  

***

Cottage Industries

Sandalwood

Shroff Channabasappa Super Star

 

Another incense from Shroff classed as "wet", but is actually quite dry. On the stick this has a delicate sweet floral scent, a bit rose, a bit jasmine, a bit sherbet (sweet lemon). The scent on the burn is similar, though more woody, and a little smoky. As with the other Shroff the scent does not over power, but does engage with and inform a room. Also, as with the other Shroff, this is more a background scent rather than something I'd want to study. The scent is attractive and pleasing, and works great as an incense to perfume a room and to cleanse it and lift it. The scent, as with most decent job masala, lingers for hours afterwards. It costs 7.95 Euros (about £6.65) for 50g from Padma Store in Germany.  Shroff incense, including this Super Star, can be bought in America from EssenceOfTheAges. 

Date: Jan 2022    Score:  35 

***

Shroff Incense

Reviewed on ORS

Shroff Channabasappa Orange Blossom

 

Continuing my exploration of Shroff, a traditional Indian incense company who tend to get a varying  response from people, with some loving them a lot, while most find their output a bit variable. I tried Shroff Channabasappa Amber 707, one of their most popular scents, though found it too dry and smoky for my taste. I had read that Shroff's wet masala incense was more appreciated than the dry, and found a European supplier, Padma Store in Germany, which sells the wet masala. This is the first of the wet Shroff that I have tried, and I am very impressed! 

The scent on the stick is heavenly - warm sandalwood, halmaddi (warm wool), touches of cedar - this is a warm, spicy, enveloping, seductive scent. I don't get much in the way of orange or fruit from it, and not much in the way of blossom, though I did get a rush of orange essential oil when I first opened the pack (a couple of days ago), which seems to have faded now.  This smells of India. I love it. 

It's a reasonably fat stick, not quite a juicy thick flora or fluxo incense, but heading that way. It's not actually wet or soft, certainly not in the way that flora and fluxo sticks tend to be, or wet dhoops are, and it sort of reminds me of  the Cycle Brand Parampara that I reviewed yesterday.  There's a fragrant paste hand rolled around a red dyed bamboo stick, and then rolled in a finishing powder. 

I'm wondering if the sticks are not wet because they may be old. Looking at the sticks, they do remind me of flora incenses which tend to be moist from essentials oils. I have some floras which are quite old - I have very old stocks of Happy Hari Meena Supreme, and this is kinda similar to that. Not Meena Supreme when it was fresh, but Meena Supreme as it is now - mature, aged, settled. Actually no - I just pulled a Meena Supreme out of a packet, and the Meena is sweeter, richer, deeper. 

On the burn this is an attractive, mature, "masala incense" scent. It is better as a background incense rather than one studied, or used for therapy. As a background incense it gently but firmly informs a room, the scent lingering long after the burn, leaving a distinct "Indian masala incense" scent.  Not quite Top Drawer, but right at the top of Decent Stuff, and certainly an incense I have been happy to burn over and over for the past few days. At just over £6 for 50gms I'd be happy to buy this again. 

Date: Jan 2022 Score: 39

***

Shroff Incense

Reviewed on ORS

Ranga Rao Cycle Brand Parampara Pure Masala Bathi

Rango Rao are one of India's most successful and revered incense companies, though are not as well known in the West, particularly the UK, as Satya or HEM or Goloka. The history and legacy of the company is detailed on their website: nrrs.com/legacy. The Cycle Brand is Ranga Rao's best known and most successful brand. 
 

Founder N. Ranga Rao with his first van

Supplies of Ranga Rao incense are random and inconsistent in the UK. This incense was recommended to me by reader Vid, who also pointed me to where it could be sourced: qualityfoodsonline. At £1.39 for 50g, this is a good value incense. It's a proper job masala with an intense fragrance hit! Parampara means tradition, and this Parampara is certainly in the tradition of good value masala. 

The bamboo sticks are fairly chunky, though the incense fragrance is strong and solid enough so that there is no awareness of  the core material - what you get is clearly what is intended you should smell. A fragrant paste is hand rolled around the bamboo, and then rolled in a finishing fragrant dust. The scent on the stick is quite floral and "scented" - there are suggestions of baby powder or talcum powder - a clean, engaging and attractive scent hovering around jasmine, vanilla, fresh clay, and sweet biscuits. Lovely. 

On burning the scent is strong enough for one stick to engage with the whole house, yet it doesn't overpower me when sitting close to it. There is halmaddi in the mix, enough to depart from sweet floral or frangipani notes and to become like warm wool, with some of the sharp pricks that tend to irritate my eyes and throat, though not so much as to annoy me. I can handle this, though my personal preference would be for a tad less halmaddi.

Parampara is a pleasing and familiar/reassuring/comforting everyday incense at an excellent value for money price. A decent, proper job, everyday, good value masala - the sort of incense that is the backbone of traditional Indian masala incense. It is not an incense that is going to excite or intoxicate - and I suspect that is not the intention. This is an incense that is likely intended to be simple and everyday - something to light to cleanse and purify and perfume the house.  And the more one comes to terms with that, the more welcoming and comforting it becomes. I suspect that this will become an integral part of my basic stock, and will be the everyday incense I reach for most often. Nice one. 

Date: Jan 2022   Score: 38 

***

Ranga Rao 

Ranga Rao Cycle Brand Vasu Kewda incense Sticks

 

Kewda or kewra or ketaki is the distilled essence of the screw pine or pandanus plant, which is used as a flavouring in Asian and Indian cooking, particularly biryani. It is sometimes used as a fragrance in Indian incense. I love the packaging on this - it's real old school, and reminds me of my young hippy days, when much incense was sold in round tubes sealed with metal caps at the end. I think Spiritual Sky was the first incense I remember being sold in modern flat packs. 

Anyway. Again old school, this is a perfume dipped incense. I'm OK with perfume dipped incense. It works well as an everyday incense, used just to freshen a room, to hide a bad smell, or keep flies away. And it's great when the perfume is also pleasant, as it is here. This is not an incense to use for meditation, aromatherapy, magic spells, to impress guests, to seduce someone you fancy, or to ponder and think about. Like a pint of lager or fish and chips on the beach it serves a simple purpose, and is not to be examined too closely.  

This pack was 99p from QualityFoodsOnline.  They sell a small quantity of incense, notably including Cycle Brand, are well meaning people, but I had a bad time with them as they messed up my order. They did try to sort it out, but we ended up agreeing to let things rest as they were because it starting getting too complicated....

Anyway. The incense. Well, it's OK. The scent on the stick is interesting - a bit of solvent and polish, but also something like sticky rice, sweet corn, and wood shavings. Yeah, OK. It burns well, with little off scents. It's a machine made stick. Well made with decent quality bamboo and charcoal. The scent is modest, faintly floral, some leather, and echoes of the scents picked up on the stick. Yeah, I like it. It's not hugely impressive, but at 99p for 50gm, it's not bad at all. It's carbon neutral, so I assume the charcoal is coconut rather than wood. And it's made by Ranga Rao, one of India's biggest and most experienced incense manufacturers. Yeah. I like it. 


Date: Jan 2022   Score: 35 

***

Ranga Rao