Incense in The Wind: Blue Pearl Incense

Sunday, 8 October 2023

Blue Pearl Incense

Blue Pearl Incense is an American brand distributed by Lotus Brands, which is a "majority woman-owned company" marketing products "in harmony with the planet". I like that idea. The Blue Pearl brand itself is licensed to the Syda Foundation, which was set up in New York in 1974 by the Indian guru Muktananda. There is a website for the brand: BluePearl, but that gives little information about who actually owns the brand, or who makes the incense, other than the incense is made in India. Some of the incense is perfumed-charcoal, some is masala. Quality of scent in the range is variable, though the Champa is delightful.

It is not known who makes the incense for Blue Pearl; however, some of the incenses are similar to those made by HMS of Pune. For example, the Blue Pearl Patchouli looks and smells remarkably like HMS Patchouli. It is plausible that Blue Pearl is made by HMS or another of the incense houses in Pune.

On the whole I have found the Blue Pearl incense to follow a similar route of vanilla and wood with musk and florals. Generally they are fairly light and easily approachable, though there are exceptions like the Golden Champa which presents like a strong flora in the style of Sai Flora. The single scent woods, Sandalwood and Cedarwood, are acceptable, but not as balanced as the others. Some of the fragrances are quite dreamy with a compelling blend of instantly attractive vanilla with darker elements, such as musk and patchouli. That intriguing and beguiling blend of the naughty and the nice is what keeps bringing me back to Blue Pearl. The champas are, on the whole, the most attractive, though in a familiar Nag Champa style. There is nothing I have seen so far that marks Blue Pearl out as special or interesting, but it is an acceptable and easily approachable everyday range. I'm content to burn them around the house as everyday room fresheners, and the champas I'd be happy to buy again at a reasonable price.

Blue Pearl are widely available in the US. In the UK they can be bought for around £2.95 for 10g, with free shipping for purchases over £25 from VitaminGrocer. And in the EU they can be bought from Dxdyl for around 4 Euro, and free shipping for orders over 25 Euros.

Temple of Incense v. Blue Pearl

I've reviewed 12 different Blue Pearl and 18 different ToI, and find a lot of similarity between the brands. Both are white label brands based in the West, but sourcing from India, both have a variety of hand-rolled and machine-extruded, both tend to have sweet, commercial, attractive fragrance blends, though both also have incense inclined to dry woods, both tend to have vanilla notes, both have a style and fragrance similar to incense made by HMS in Pune, a well known white label company.
ToI has better marketing and better packaging and better incense names, and a greater range which the girls update and keep fresh, though on a stick by stick comparison ToI are a tad more expensive.
The general impression I get is that ToI is more vibrant, modern, fresh, and upmarket. Blue Pearl feels a little casual, stuffy, and old fashioned. Yet when it comes to the scents, there's really not a lot of difference.