Incense in The Wind: Shoyeido Daily Incense Kin-kaku (Golden Pavilion)

Second review - for earlier scroll down

Tidying up my desk for Christmas and I found this packet with a couple of sticks left, so just finishing them off. I'm not getting what I got earlier in the year. At this moment I'm getting more smoke than perfume. There is no discernible scent on the stick, and when lit I'm getting smoke and a certain prickly sharpness. There's a general aroma of burning wood, but without any refinement to it. And at times there's more than a suggestion of scorching. Odd that I picked up so much from this in March, and now I'm getting nothing but the sort of scorched sawdust nonsense I get from bargain basement perfume-dipped incense. I was not expecting these sort of off-notes from a Japanese incense. This is really presenting as a cheap perfumed incense where the perfume has evaporated. Ah, eventually it has settled down, and I am getting the perfume. But it's all too little too late.

Date: Dec 2023 Score: 27

First review

This is a modest but attractive little incense. Basic though pleasant sandalwood enriched with the modest sweet spice of cinnamon and a warm, sexy hint of patchouli. The combination works for me. As there is no agarwood in the mix, this is more reasonably priced than the White Cloud I just burned. This is perhaps the first Japanese incense I can see myself burning for pleasure rather than just to review, and I could be tempted to buy a pack of this (the sample was sent to me by Samsa Spoon, who has the Plume of Smoke blog). Not heavenly, but certainly a pleasing incense that lifts the spirits and cleanses the room. It has a lilting charm and a chiming character.