SamsaSpoon Homemade Swiss Stone Pine

 

I have returned to Swiss Stone Pine (it took a little longer than expected, because I put it somewhere "safe", and only recently found it again). This is an astonishingly profound incense. I've had various homemade incenses over the past few years, and nothing has come anywhere near as close as this for sheer pleasure. It helps, of course, that this is my sort of scent - woody and spicy. It has a solid feel of church incense, a big whacking hit of frankincense and myrrh, and I'm always going to love that. And for such a tiny wee stick (so thin that I think I ought to call social services because this stick is clearly anorexic) it packs a big dollop of scent. It's warm, playful, sensual, sexy, and oh so wholesome. I waft the smoke in my face and feel absolutely no impurities at all (yeah, yeah, inhaling incense smoke is physically harmful, but this feels so natural, like inhaling cannabis as opposed to inhaling car fumes). I love this to bits, and burning it again now (down to my last stick) I can see no reason not to give it top spot. My only complaint would be that there's not enough of it, and it's gone all too soon. And, of course, that it's not commercially available (yet?).  Awesome stuff. 


Date: Oct 2023   Score: 50  

Another homemade incense from SamsaSpoon of Rauchfahne.  I've reviewed her Frankincense & Cardamom, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and now I'm trying her Swiss Stone Pine. 

This is a very profound incense. And though the scent is delicate and balanced, there is an intensity to it I was not expecting, both from the size of the sticks (tiny, and Oh so fragile!) and from what I understand of Irene's taste in incense, which tends to the delicate and subtle. There is a lot packed in these sticks, and the scents are happy to explore and spread around the room, making themselves at home. There's a genuine fresh citric scent, oily and exciting and redolent with atmosphere - this is orange groves on a hot evening in Cyprus, sticky pine resin in a camp fire, and flint stones clashed together to form sparks in the rain. 

The sticks are possibly the smallest I've encountered. Fragile, light things that break ever so easily. If there is a scent on the sticks, I've not detected it. They are very neutral. But this is not a bad thing. All too often I come upon incense which is made more for the scent on the stick than for the scent on the burn. And liquid scents - from essential oils to synthetic perfumes, work well on the stick, releasing their scent on contact with the air, without the need for burning. So an incense maker who wants to impress, can dip their incense stick in a volatile perfume which will burst out at the consumer as soon as it is exposed to the air. But when the incense is burned, the volatile perfume is consumed quickly, leaving nothing in the air but the base flammable material. The best incenses release their best scents when they are lit. And this Swiss Stone Pine is one of those incenses.  


 

The ingredients

And when it is burned, the only scents in the air are the fragrant ingredients. The flammable ingredients and binders are not spoiling the show. This is a perfectly judged formulation. It burns at the right speed, and releases just the fragrant scents. Brilliant. 

And the fragrant scents are so mighty, they are positively overwhelming. To be smothered by such delicate scents is quite a joy. I loved this. 

Date: June 2023   Score: 48

I'm putting this in Purgatory for at least a month, then giving it another burn. If it impresses again, it goes in my World Class Top Drawer. 

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