A heady oil-rich masala style incense from BIC. This is the sort of thing I should like because it's a generous, enveloping scent, but the quality of the scent is not quite there. It's a little harsh, ugly, and feels way too chemical. There is possibly a decent lavender essential oil in here, but if so it seems to have been swamped by a dilution in too much carrier oil and DEP or other product. There's some woody elements, but they are melded with a stale sweat in wool jumper aroma that doesn't endear me to the product.
The box is one of the large, impressive looking luxury oblong boxes that are becoming more popular, especially for export. This packet is marked as "Export Quality". The sticks are 9 inches long with 7 inches of reasonably generous paste hand-rolled onto a fairly chunky hand-cut bamboo splint tip dyed in beetroot red. The paste, which looks to be moist as in a flora/fluxo, has dried hard; it has a dusting of brown wood powder. The finished stick looks kinda messy and rustic - a marked contrast to the neat sticks which are machine extruded; though I don't find it appealing. The scent on the stick is very volatile and chemical, which assault and chill the receptors in the nose - it presents more as a lavender floor cleaner than an incense, but I am finding this more common, especially in this luxury box format.
When lit, the flame flares up in an alarming manner, producing a copious amount of back smoke - the flame is actually hard to blow out, yet if done too soon, the stick doesn't catch, and so it has to be lit again, releasing more of that black smoke. When blown out, it burns at a steady rate for around 60 minutes, releasing a splendid amount of swirling grey smoke. I do like to see a generous amount of twirling, swirling incense smoke. It does fill the room with smoke and scent - this is generally something I like, but this one is perhaps a tad too overbearing, so should not be used in a small room without adequate ventilation. This incense is not shy, and so delivers its scent without the need for wafting. Indeed, this is one where I found it best to move away from. The accord does have lavender and other herby, slightly Mediterranean summer citric scents in the top notes, though the middle notes have that sweaty wool which is not my thing. I have in the past associated sweaty wool scents with halmaddi, though more recently I am finding the vanilla that others report. But here, I am finding sweaty wool. It may not be halmaddi, but I have found this scent in halmaddi when I burned it. Lower down the accord there is some sandalwood, which is nice. On the whole though I have not enjoyed this; I have burned two sticks to be sure, and now have something of a headache because this is a stick that really is best burned either outside, or in an empty room to cleanse it.
Date: Oct 2023 Score: 23
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