The Mother's India Fragrances Sample Pack: Ganesh, Meera, Amrita, Rishi, Sattva, Shanti

 

Sample pack of short sticks - two of each scent, with six scents in the pack. Bought quite cheap from a hippy shop in Hitchin, Herts: Harvest Moon. I've had a few Mother's sample packs over the years, and the content does vary. This one contains samples of Amrita, Ganesh, Meera, Rishi, Sattva, and Shanti. The pack is attractive, and as with other's I've had, opens up to reveal the samples inside in little packs, glued to the pack. The pack is a little difficult to open - I find the best way is to slip a sharp knife or scissors into the bottom to cut it open. I picked up what I thought were three different packs, though it turns out that two are the same, though with different coloured packs - orange and blue, and with the list of scents in a different order. 

All the sticks are composed of a fragrant charcoal paste hand-rolled onto a plain bamboo splint, and then rolled in a finishing or melnoorva powder which prevents the sticks from gluing together while the paste is still moist. The scents on the sticks are variable in the amount of liquid volatiles (essential oils or perfumes) detected. The scents on some sticks feels to be more propelled by dry ingredients, and there are notes of halmaddi present on a few, to varying degrees. The pack when opened releases a  pleasant, flowery  scent more reminiscent of a modern perfume shop than an incense shop.  

Sattva

The scent is flowery, sweet, pleasant. Quite modern and perfumey. It is a light, modern, polite scent - nothing to get excited about, but certainly quite attractive to have around. The weight of the scent appears to rely on a liquid fragrance, either an essential oil or a fragrance oil of some sort. There are citric notes: soft orange and tangerine, hints of melon, some St Julien tobacco, supported by sweet sandalwood, and fresh beech. 

Sattva is one of the three guna in Hindu philosophy.  It relates to honesty, goodness, and positivity. If you feel that such a concept is somehow represented by a flowery and modern scent, then the name will resonate with you. The rest of us will just see it as a name given to this particular incense. I find the names given to products (especially cars!) somewhat interesting, but given that I am rationale enough to know that it is just marketing (says the man who while at university wrote the astrology column for the international travel magazine Utopia), I tend not to look more deeply into the names of products beyond a healthy curiosity. 

I like this scent. Here's what the maker, Greater Goods, says:  Sattva. 

Date: April 2022   Score: 39  

To be finished.....

***

The Mother's India Fragrances