Fair Trade Om Nagchampa

 

A single stick sample of Om Nagchampa by Fair Trade Incense Works of Mumbai. It's a pleasant charcoal paste perfumed masala (the scent is a combination of dried fragrant ingredients and fragrance oils mixed into a charcoal paste and then machine extruded onto a bamboo stick). 

It's an acceptable everyday incense. There's some vibrant and earthy plant like qualities to this - a rough edge, combined with a pleasant, slightly sweet and moderately floral perfume oil based scent. 

Nothing special, but nothing offensive either. Not an incense I'm impelled to go out and buy, but I find it pleasant enough to burn. There are some earthy halmaddi notes.   

Date: April 2022    Score: 33 

***

Fair Trade Incense Works

Nag Champa

Hari Darshan Rasta Incense Cones

 

A standard everyday perfumed cone from Hari Darshan, part of a box of 12 different fragrances from Amazon for £14. All the cones in  the range are a decent size and burn slowly and consistently. The cones are hand made from a charcoal and wood paste. 

The name, Rasta, and the reference to Bob Marley with the words "One Love, one Heart" on the packet, suggest that the aroma on this cone will be cannabis - a fairly common scent for incense aimed at the Western market. It's quite a green scent - quite wet, bright, fresh, slightly acidic, but green like fresh cannabis, along with sweet spots of cannabis resin. There's something distinctly outdoorsy and a bit wild about the scent - elements of the farmyard, or a children's zoo. 

The scent is pleasantly woody and musky with notes of chocolate and coffee. Quite mild and attractive. 

Date: April 2022    Score: 32 

***

Hari Darshan

Fair Trade/Bombay Om Amber

 

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Machine made stick. Semi hard coconut-charcoal paste on a machine-cut bamboo splint. The paste has been lightly covered in a fine clay coloured powder. The scent on the stick is perfumed. I'd call this a perfumed incense, though the initial appearance is of a masala style stick. Perhaps a perfumed masala? I like the scent on the stick - it is light, modern, playful, slightly sweet with notes of sherbet, some musk, and the warmth of amber. 

The scent on the burn is initially a little disappointing. The delightful perfume on the stick does not initially come through - it is mostly  the core material. The burn is very weak, though after a while the perfume scent  does start to make itself known, and then it becomes moderately pleasant, the scent wavers, and sometimes it is the core material that dominates. Eventually, it does emerge as a decent incense - the pleasant, warm, sweet amber scent gently informing the room. 

Available from the UK based ScentedAndMore for £2.50.  Or from CosmicUnicorn for £1.15. 

Date: Jan 2023   Score: 30 

First review

A two stick sample, labelled as Bombay Om, though as far as I'm aware, the Bombay Incense Company is no longer an active brand. Regardless of the branding, this incense was always made by Fair Trade, a private label incense company based just outside Mumbai (Bombay) who also own the Nitiraj brand.  

A dry crumbly charcoal paste machine-extruded onto a plain machine cut bamboo splint and then coated in a fine, white or pale grey finishing powder (melnoorva). There is a gentle, modern scent on the stick which comes from a perfume rather than an essential oil or from the any masala ingredients in the charcoal paste. It's cute, feminine, vanilla and soft floral. 

The scent on the burn is more woody. Quite soft or faint, but it does gently inform the room. The stick burns evenly with moderate smoke. 

Overall a pleasant, though modest everyday perfumed masala incense. There's nothing here to object to, but at the same time nothing to get excited about. It's OK, but not an incense I'd pick out over others, though I'd buy again if there was little choice. 

Date: April 2022    Score: 29 

 ***

Fair Trade Incense Works

Amber

Hari Darshan Coconut Incense Cones

 

A standard everyday perfumed cone from Hari Darshan, part of a box of 12 different fragrances from Amazon for £14. All the cones in  the range are a decent size and burn slowly and consistently. The cones are hand made from a charcoal and wood paste. 

Smells of coconut, but more a sort of incense coconut. Coconut incense is not really my thing. This is OK, nothing wrong with it, but I'm not really a fan of coconut incense. 

Date: April 2022    Score: 28   

***

Hari Darshan

Coconut incense

Hari Darshan Red Apple Cinnamon

 

A standard everyday perfumed cone from Hari Darshan, part of a box of 12 different fragrances from Amazon for £14. All the cones in  the range are a decent size and burn slowly and consistently. The cones are hand made from a charcoal and wood paste. 

Ooh. Positive apple and cinnamon scent on the cone - quite sweet and fresh, also some faint petrol, furniture polish, and chimney soot (for those of us who remember such a thing). The burn is a little less positive - it still has the apple and cinnamon, though weaker, and blurred with vague perfumes.  It's an OK everyday incense, but not really my thing. 

Date: April 2022    Score: 28   

***

Hari Darshan

Best cinnamon incense

Hari Darshan Lavender

 

A standard everyday perfumed cone from Hari Darshan, part of a box of 12 different fragrances from Amazon for £14. All the cones in  the range are a decent size and burn slowly and consistently. The cones are hand made from a charcoal and wood paste. 

Fair do, this does have the relaxing, earthy, refreshing zing of lavender. A decent everyday cone that I'd be quite happy to have around the house for a variety of uses. No off scents. All good. Well made. Nice one. 

Date: April 2022    Score: 31   

***

Hari Darshan

Best of Lavender

Hari Darshan Patchouli Incense Cones

 

A standard everyday perfumed cone from Hari Darshan, part of a box of 12 different fragrances from Amazon for £14. All the cones in  the range are a decent size and burn slowly and consistently. The cones are hand made from a charcoal and wood paste. 

There is a distinct "perfumed incense" aroma on opening the pack - powdery old ladies scent, volatile, heady, flowery, touches of alcohol. The scent on the cone is peppery, prickly, floral. All quite acceptable for what it is  - an everyday incense. The scent on the burn is pleasingly deep and musky. A seductive sweetness. There's some greenery in here as well, and as the burn settles and comes together, there is a growing sense of earthy, minty, sensual patchouli. Indeed, a decent patchouli scent. 

This is a decent, enjoyable everyday incense I'd be happy to buy again. 

Date: April 2022    Score: 33   

***

Hari Darshan

Patchouli