Jasmine v Jasmine (a burn off)

 

A quick gathering of jasmine/mogra incenses (mostly perfumed - jasmine doesn't appear to be a favoured scent for masala). We're having a burn off to see which we like the most from this bunch. Most have been reviewed, but a few haven't, which makes it interesting. There's one or two here which I've never even burned, let alone reviewed! 

What we were looking for a scent that had jasmine qualities. So we gave points for both the pleasant nature of the incense plus its jasmine qualities. Incenses, such as the Absolute Bliss Exotic Jasmine, which is an awesome incense, the best of the bunch, but which had few jasmine qualities, didn't score well. 

What are "jasmine qualities"? Well, the incense had to smell like jasmine - that is, it had to be floral, bright, uplifting, somewhat heady and sweet, fresh, light and delightful, yet also sensual and sexy. Jasmine is a popular ingredient in perfume - it is a key note in Chanel No. 5 (indeed, Chanel own fields of jasmine around Grasse in France). Jasmine has a range of notes from top (fruity), middle (floral) to base (warm, sensual, musky),  though is mostly used in perfumes for its floral middle notes, and its ability to blend with other scents. 

We bought a jasmine absolute to help us key in on the appropriate scent. 

 

We were looking for a waxy or creamy flower quality, heady or rich  floral notes, some sensual, musky warmth, some brightness with possible fruit or citric notes, and that despite the heady, creamy, warm sensual elements it had to convey a sense of feminine lightness, and be uplifting in some way. 

  
Each incense was burned on at least two different occasions and in at least two different rooms. Each incense had at least a wafting experience (the incense smoke wafted towards the nose), with the better incense also having a walk-in experience (burn the incense in the room for a while, then walk in to get the general impression). None had the day after experience (seeing how the scent lingers in the room/house the next day) because that would take too long. Not all three of us took part for each incense, but each incense had at least two of us. 

[The Pushkarini in the picture is floral, but not jasmine, so we didn't review that one. ]

Scores are for how pleasant the incenses are as jasmine incense. An incense may be very pleasant generally, but if it doesn't have much of a scent of jasmine, then it will be scored lower here than it would generally.  

Reviews

Shroff Incense Mogra (M).  Divided opinion a bit. Slightly underperformed, and didn't quite deliver the jasmine scent we wanted. I liked it the most. Score: 33  (General score: 45)

Aravinda's Mogra (P).  Light, pleasant, floral,  supported by a warm sensual base. Attractive. A fairly well rounded incense with decent elements of jasmine. Score: 30  

Goloka Nature's Jasmine (M). Very pleasant. Light and floral and delicate and fun. This is a masala incense, and has that natural feel to the scent, along with woody notes. There is a fragrant oil used in the stick, which delivers a moderate though attractive perfume. The scent, while attractive, is fairly limited, carrying neither the bright, uplifting aspects of jasmine, nor the sensual nature, though there is some warmth. The middle notes are floral, and slightly creamy, but don't quite stand out as jasmine. We liked this a lot as a generally attractive scent, though it is fairly limited as regards being jasmine. As a general incense we'd score it in the lower to mid 30s, but as a jasmine incense a little lower.  Score: 29

Hari Om Divine Incense Butmogra (P).  Quite soapy. More like a jasmine scented soap than an incense. But we liked it. We felt it smelled of jasmine and conveyed the warm sensual aspects, though was a bit lacking in the brighter, uplifting notes. Score: 29 

Bic Panchavati Gajra (PM).  Appears to be a flora incense. There is a strong volatile aroma on the stick, quite pungent, sharp, and chemical. There is a mild jasmine scent while burning, though somewhat obscured by a kind of olfactory fog of  various scents - rubber, chalk, licorice, among others. Truly an interesting incense, and it does centre on jasmine, but as a jasmine scent it perhaps riffs too much. As a general incense, great, but not so good as a jasmine incense. Score: 28  (General score: 33)

Satya Jasmine Blossom (P). Quite pleasant floral jasmine. Rather soft, not much impact, but does gently and attractively inform the room with a floral aroma. Score: 28

Goloka Nature's Parijatha (M). We felt this underperformed, and smelled a bit off. I got a fresh pack, and the scent did improve, but still underperformed. The scent was a little vague, and didn't convey jasmine. Score: 27  (General score: 35)

Aravinda's Parijata (P). Very pleasant. A blend of floral and musk. Sweet notes add to the depth and interest and appeal. Parijata is a night-flowering jasmine, which is not a true jasmine, though it has a similar scent.  This has vanilla elements, which add to the interest. Score: 26 

BIC Jasmim (P). Plain perfumed-charcoal incense. We had one stick that had a curious blend of faint burning hair with spray-can room-freshener jasmine, but other sticks have been fine - so I assume that a strand of hair got caught in the paste when rolling. It's kind of grassy and gassy. There are waxy floral jasmine notes. Quite an assertive and bold incense. Clearly on trend.  Score: 25

SAC Jasmine (P). A modest but pleasant background incense. Lacking in the bright uplifting top notes. Middle floral notes are there, but somewhat obscured slightly by smoke. Some warmth in the base, but more woody than musky.  Indeed, works well as a decent, light, pleasant, background scent. Quite happy to burn this simply as casual background incense.  Score: 24

Patanjali Aastha Agarbatti Jasmine (P).  Initially we found this attractive with a sweet, jammy, fun, bright floral scent.  But  after a while we found it a little soapy, and then a little vague. While floral, there isn't a distinctive jasmine aroma to it, and after it settles it just becomes a vague perfumed-charcoal scent. Faintly and vaguely pleasant, but not distinctive. Score: 24

Absolute Bliss Exotic Jasmine. Wow, I love this one. Lots going on. Cologne. Tobacco. Fine wine. Complex weaves of scent. Reminds me of Koya's and of EL Incenses. Not really a jasmine scent, so - for the purpose of this jasmine burn off, will be marked down, but as an incense, this is wonderful.  Score: 23  (General score: 40) 

Cottage No 12 Jasmine (M) Warm and woody. This gives the  sensual side to jasmine, though lacks the bright, uplifting floral side. It's a nice enough scent, but there's little here that is actually jasmine. Soft, milky, countryside. Underperforms, but is pleasant enough. Score: 23 

Auromere Aromatherapy Jasmine (P).  This has the standard perfumed charcoal jasmine incense scent. There's certainly a pleasant awareness of jasmine, though it's a little sharper than actual jasmine, and there's a cool sense of the charcoal. It's not bad, though.  Fairly pure. Originally we had this at 22, but on reburning it was moved down. Score: 22  

Surya Sampler Jasmine (M). Pleasant generic woody masala incense with some awareness of jasmine. Some hot, burning spots. Generally pleasant, but not easily identified as jasmine. Score as an incense is around 30, but score as  a jasmine incense is: 21  

Pocket Incense Jasmine (D).  Quite faint. Warm and comforting, and generally OK, though a tad smoky, and not really a jasmine scent.  Score: 20 

HEM Soham Mogra (D). This is quite coarse but reasonably mild and warm with elements of jasmine, but not enough to identify it as jasmine if you didn't know. I've had it for over three years, and perhaps the pleasant jasmine perfume has evaporated because we rated it higher back in 2019.  Score: 20  (General score: 33)

Tree of Life Jasmine (PM). Pleasant sweet perfumed scent on the stick. The scent wanders a bit, and can smell off, but mostly wanders around a woody scent with faint floral notes that may be jasmine. It's nice as a woody, warm, musky scent. But it's not really jasmine.  Score: 20  

Tulasi Jasmine Masala Incense (M). We were disappointed in this one. it doesn't do much, and has off-scents. Even though there is some awareness of jasmine, there are too many woody notes.  After it has settled it does present as a warm, pleasant scent, but it's not on target for jasmine (you'd struggle to guess it was jasmine on a blind test), and there are some off notes of cardboard.  Score: 19

Aanchal Mogra (P).  Standard bargain basement perfumed-dipped incense. There is the scent of chemical jasmine. It's not unacceptable, but it is not pleasant either. It exists. There is some warmth. There is some awareness of jasmine. It can burn casually in the outhouse to cover up bad smells. No problem. But it's not an incense to use for special occasions. Score: 18

Aastha Jasmine  (P) There is a sharp scent of artificial jasmine. It's not good. Borderline rubbish.  Score: 19 

Veer Sweet Mogra. (P). Starts off initially quite faint, and we were a little impatient with it. But left to itself and it imparts a gentle and pleasant perfumed jasmine.  Nothing great, but a soft, slightly smudgy middle note jasmine. Few uplifting bright notes, and few sensual base notes. But not offensive. Score: 18  

Aargee Stamford Moods - Jasmine (P). This is clearly too old now. It was actually unpleasant, smelling of rubber. I got out a recent sample. The recent sample looks better, but smells roughly the same - like balloons (light rubber).  None of us were impressed with this. Score: 05  (General score: 31)

 

Conclusion:

The perfumed-incense sticks were more on target for the jasmine scent and more closely matched our key of  a jasmine absolute essential oil. The masala incenses tended to be less on target, and perhaps as a consequence were the more interesting, and tended to score higher as a general incense. Jasmine seems suited as an everyday room freshener, and so it seems appropriate that it is the everyday perfumed-incense that use the scent the most, and are actually better at portraying it. 

***

Best jasmine incense

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