Goloka Nature's Patchouli

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Perfumed, oily scent on the stick. Quite masculine, like a men's cologne. Like an old fashioned oud based hair oil. Some spice. It's interesting and likeable, though perhaps a tad too old fashioned and masculine for my taste. I'd like more balance and range. And perhaps a little less oil, which is coming over as greasy. 

A fairly woody start to the burn - white sandalwood. Then it settles into a more rounded wood, with elements of musk, but like the scent on the stick it remains focused on the base notes. I'd like more balance, more range, some counterpointing top notes. Some greenery, some sweetness, some joy. This is a little too dry and peppery for my taste.  

And then, after I had been burning a stick in the kitchen while I was cooking a chowder for our evening meal, I walked out of the kitchen into a cloud of perfumed smoke in the corridor. Ooh - very nice. Not really patchouli, albeit heading in that direction, more a sweet, spicy, powdery sandalwood type of scent. Very engaging - polite, delicate, though not shy, I found it very charming. 

Date: March 2025    Score: 32

First review

 

Yesterday I randomly picked up a stick of Goloka Nature's Lavender, which I had first reviewed in 2017, just to burn in the kitchen while I was cooking, and I was impressed by it - enough to re-review it and nudge up the score (or, rather, to restore the score I had given in 2017, but lowered in 2018). So I thought it was worth digging out my stock of the Goloka Nature's Collection. I had started reviewing the whole collection in 2017, after first discovering some of the Nature's range in 2016. But - as is often the case with me, had not got around to finishing it off, so there are a number of scents in the collection that I haven't yet reviewed. 

I reviewed Goloka's Patchouli back in 2015. I am not sure if this is the same incense  with a slightly different name. While I can see other scents in the Nature's Collection range being sold on the internet, I can't find any Nature's Patchouli. Hmm. 

The scent is quite earthy for my taste, and smells closer to the rugged plant based Tibetan incense than the sweeter, resin based incense which tends to attract my attention.  The stick is a soft, moist fragrant charcoal paste hand-rolled around a machine-cut and green dyed bamboo splint, and then rolled in a finishing powder. The scent on the stick is a little peppery and manly  with a cologne and floral scent. Quite nice, but without buzzing my button. 

The stick burns a little hot, and the scent is just a tad assertive for my taste, but that's probably because I'm not attuned to it - if it was sweeter or muskier or richer, then its strength would likely not bother me. The scent is quite green and earthy; and though it leans toward Tibetan plant based incense, it isn't that crude. 

On the whole I'm not getting into this incense. And I'm not seeing anywhere that sells it. My assumption is either that it has been discontinued, or that it is now sold simply as Goloka Patchouli. 

Date: Feb 2022   Score: 28

***

Goloka

Patchouli