Date: Oct 2023 Score: 29
First review |
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 21
Balaji Agarbatti Company |
First review |
Balaji Agarbatti Company |
First review |
HEM Corporation |
A typical square box perfumed-charcoal incense containing 8 sticks by Tulasi. I've just noticed that the recent incense reviews I have done have been for Indian incense version of Persian incense, which is based on agarwood, also called oud/oudh and bakhoor.
The scent on the stick is a little crude and chemical, but on the burn it has a pleasant mildly sweet perfume which is reminiscent of oud or agarwood. Modestly acceptable middle to top end everyday perfumed incense.
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 27
***
More Tulasi reviews |
The best agarwood incense |
Oooh! Deliciously sherbet sweet on the stick, which is a proper job masala. Charcoal dust blended with fragrant ingredients, and then coated in a fragrant pale melnoorva powder. It's a lively scent, a little acidic, which gives it a sharp freshness preventing the delicious sweetness from becoming cloying. Herbal notes, some cucumber, musky undertones, touches of fresh cedar shavings. Damn good.
The scent on the burn is very similar to that on the stick, though not as bright and lively. The burn is slow and even, and the scent informs the room, leaving a residual fragrance that lingers pleasantly for a considerable time. All in all a very decent incense.
Available in the UK from Amazon in packs of 12 for £20.99 with free postage. Single packs from ScentedAndMore for £3.50. Available in the US from StoutMonk for $3.99.
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 38
Ranga Rao |
Parimal Mandir are a well established Indian incense company, founded in 1942 in Bangalore by Sunku Gundaiah Setty as the “Gandhi Flour Mills & Perfumery Works”. The company is domestically successful with some exports to Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Africa, and there is at least one family member still on the executive board. They have a useful video detailing both their history and their production methods: Documentary Release (2014). They mainly use the "Parimal" brand name, but also have a "Shubh Labh" brand name for use on at least one incense.
IndiaMart video report on the company |
Parimal Yatra Natural Incense Cones Oct 2022 - Score: 47 |
Parimal Shubh Labh Vedanta incense Sticks Oct 2021 - Score: 40 |
Parimal Cosmic Scents Floral Petals Natural Incense Oct 2021 - Score: 37 |
Parimal Golden Oudh Premium Incense Sticks Oct 2022 - Score: 25 |
Machine-made perfumed-charcoal incense. Pleasant sweet flowery scent on the stick - a blend of rose and violets. It's the same scent on the burn, which is uncommon, especially for perfumed incense. The stick burns evenly and slowly with a moderately pleasant scent. This is a decently made, professional, everyday perfumed incense. Nothing remarkably good, but nothing remarkably bad either. The scent gently informs the room with a modestly bright, uplifting scent - quite acceptable to gently cheer up the house in the morning, or to discreetly refresh the house for casual visitors.
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 25
***
Parimal Mandir |
The best agarwood incense |
To be finished.....
***
The Mother's India Fragrances |
Benzoin / Loban / Sambrani |
On the whole we've not been that impressed with this one. It's OK, a sort of lower end everyday incense. The packaging is attractive and well made. The sticks are kept inside an inner paper packet placed inside a stiff card box which slides open. It gives a feel of a quality product.
Available in the UK from DMRLS for £1.80; WitchesSage for £2.00; OMGI for £2.69; or ScentedAndMore for £3.50; and in the US from PrabhujisGifts for $3.38.
Hari Darshan |
First review |
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 17
Fruit Fragrances That'll Make You Drool |
Best jasmine incense |
Tatty box with the original porcelain holder missing bought for £1 from Little Dorrit in Rochester, my former incense shop. Contains 20 short sticks roughly made with some variation - some thin, some thick, some stiff, some bendy. Made in Thailand. Faint scent on the stick - fairly neutral. Faint scent on the stick, quite organic, rather like grass burning. This is quite humble, rustic incense. I can find little info on the Asoke company - the website doesn't work (as of Oct 2022), though was active from 2002 to 2017, as shown on WayBack. And there is a (barely active) Facebook page.
If you like rustic, earthy, simple incense rather like Tibetan incense, then this may appeal. But if you like something more refined and aesthetic, then this may be a little too crude. It's not for me.
It's available online, with the incense holder, for £1.99 from ShivaOnline.
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 18
Incense by country |
Hari Darshan |
An incense cone gift pack made in China by the Guangzhou Indian Style Trading Company - and bought off Amazon for £6.99. The perfumed cones are a decent size with a fairly robust, though generic, perfume. The six fragrances are fairly standard: Red Rose, Super Sandal, Jasmine, White Musk, Meditation, and Lavender. They burn for a decent length of time, but are not great quality. The burns are variable - some tend to be a little smoky, and keep little of the promise on the cone of the fragrance, though others are moderately acceptable. This is a lower end everyday incense. They are pretty much what you'd expect them to be - something modest to burn to cover up a bad smell, or to introduce a moderately pleasant scent into the house. Nothing interesting or profound, but they do what it says on the tin.
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 22
Incense by country |
A colourful box of cheap perfumed cones made in China. Imported into Europe by SHHT GmbH, a Frankfurt based import and export company. Bought from an Amazon shop for £8.
There are eight colour-coded little packs of small cones. There are gentle scents on each cone which relate to the intended aroma - Rainforest does smell kinda fresh and green, Cinnamon does resemble a sweet cinnamon, etc. There are 120 cones plus two modest though attractive ceramic burners. The cost works out to around 6p a cone, with two free holders (free holders are fairly standard). As kinda expected, the cones burn very rapidly, and don't have a robust fragrance - the smells can be pleasant, but all too often the main scent develops into that of the core material. It just smells of burning leaves. Regardless of which one I light, they all tend to end up smelling the same. There is a brief moment when first lit of some sense of the named fragrance, which - to be fair -can be quite pleasant, but sadly that doesn't last long (though that varies by cone), and then I usually get the generic burning leaves of cheap perfumed cones. To be fair, as long as the perfume holds, the scents are quite reasonable. It's just that you can't always rely on the perfume holding.
The set looks attractive, and it's tempting to give it as a gift (which is what I imagine a number of people will do), but these are not good quality nor good value incense cones. I'd recommend something like Stamford's Black Incense Collection as an everyday gift to give someone. Great fun, widely appealing, and good scents.
These Chinese cones are not quite toilet cleaners - some of the scents, like Cinnamon, are actually quite decent, and can hold well all the way through the burn, but they are at the bottom end of everyday incense.
Date: Oct 2022 Score: 22
Incense by country |