Prabhuji's Gifts Ajna Chakra Third Eye Energy Center Concentration & Intuition Jasmine & Tulasi

 

Floral notes on the stick - some awareness of a fragrant or essential oil. Faint herb. Some sandalwood. Stick is composed of a soft charcoal paste hand rolled onto a plain hand cut bamboo splint  and coated in a woody powder - either a melnoorva (unscented) or a noorva (scented). I suspect it is unscented, and that the scent mainly comes from the oils. 

I like the scent on the stick - it is a decent standard masala incense scent, and there's a prickly lamb's wool warmth which may indicate halmaddi.  The burn is somewhat disappointing, and has been for all the others in this Chakra series from Prabhuji's Gifts, an American based organisation who source their incense from an unrevealed manufacturer in India. The incense is one of a number of products the organisation sell in order to found their Hindi temple in the Catskill Mountains, and assist their mission to help the local people in Upstate New York.  The burn is a little hot and smoky, with a little more spice than floral or woody notes. It stings my eyes a little - something I find when there's a little too much halmaddi in the mix. 

  

On the whole, I find this a sort of decent enough everyday masala incense composed of fragrant/essential oils and some halmaddi, and aimed at those in West who enjoy masala incense with halmaddi. I am not a fan of halmaddi (it is, for me, one of the least attractive wood resins, and I find it too spicy and prickly), so this is not for me.  The scent is Jasmine & Tulasi (holy basil), and there is some awareness of those scents on the stick and (more vaguely, especially the herb) on the burn, though they are not the defining aspects of the stick that I take away from this. All comments, of course, have to be weighed in mind with my own negativity toward halmaddi, which appears to be fairly unusual among those who have an interest in Indian masala incense.  

Date: Jan 2023   Score: 25