Ashok of the excellent Padma Store has a large supply of Corey Topels' Absolute Bliss Queen of Roses, which is believed by Corey and Ashok to be made by the same maker of Paul Eagle's Happy Hari Queen of Roses. Ashok has Paul's original label template, so the labels (minus the barcode) are exactly the same as used on Paul's incense. Available from Padma Store at 4.24 Euro for 10g.
The stick is 8 inches with 7 inches of firm black paste that has been hand rolled onto a plain machine-cut bamboo splint. The paste has been lightly covered with a pinkish fine wood powder. There is a wonderful scent on the stick. Silky smooth and sweet with distinct floral notes. Much more attractive than both the Absolute Bliss Queen of Roses and the original Happy Hari Queen of Roses, though less fascinating than the original.
The stick is 8 inches with 7 inches of firm black paste that has been hand rolled onto a plain machine-cut bamboo splint. The paste has been lightly covered with a pinkish fine wood powder. There is a wonderful scent on the stick. Silky smooth and sweet with distinct floral notes. Much more attractive than both the Absolute Bliss Queen of Roses and the original Happy Hari Queen of Roses, though less fascinating than the original.
On being lit the flame catches and burns greedily, producing black smoke. When the flame was blown out the stick initially settled into a steady burn producing a soft grey smoke, though at times reducing down to a thin blueish smoke, similar to the Absolute Bliss stick, and three times went out. The scent is quite cool, ashy, with variable pleasant notes - sometimes moderately sweet with floral hints, though soon returning to the cool ashy grey aroma that I perceive as neutral to negative. The three of us varied in what we picked up, with scents ranging from peach to old socks. None of us favoured it over the AB stick. At this point I suspect I have a poor stick, and that is the problem when only working from a one stick sample. Difficult to rate this one sample highly.
My sample went out too. 7x. Even burning it uside down did not help.
ReplyDeleteAnd I did not like the scent either.
Interesting that yours also went out. It's not the same as Paul's Queen of Roses that is for sure. I find it highly unlikely that it is made by the same source. It is possible that it is made by the same source as Corey's Queen, though to a different recipe.
DeletePaul did not use one source, he used several (of varying quality). From discussions with Corey, and recently with Ashok, I feel that what Paul gave Corey (in return for 10% of each order) was the contact details of a retailer in India, not the producer (or producers). It's possible that the retailer, for some reason, was no longer dealing with the original maker of Paul's Queen, so he asked another maker to supply a rose incense. The sample that Corey sent me was from an early trial batch, which he noted as being of "better" quality than Paul's (a subjective opinion which some would agree with, and others not - though I don't doubt that it was a batch using more expensive ingredients). It's possible that Corey found that batch to be too expensive, and so asked for a more commercial batch, which is what Ashok now has. Our impression is Corey's Queen and Ashok's Queen come from the same producer, though are different formulations, while Paul's Queen was from a different producer.