This is a
New Moon Aromas incense. And it's very pleasant. I've been burning the sticks steadily over the past three days, but finding it difficult to sit down and do a review. New Moon is a brand owned by the Shah family who operate the distribution company
Wonder Incense in Australia and the UK. Navin Shah has been in touch regarding production, and says they have their own facility, though there is no address. Other people, such as the late Corey of
Absolute Bliss, had sent Navin some
Happy Hari sticks to see if he could make copies, but that deal didn't happen. Then some unlabelled Happy Hari incense appeared in the UK market, before quickly vanishing when people found out how inferior they were. Corey suspected that Navin was behind that, and also behind making incense in Mumbai on behalf of
Nandita,
Goloka, and
Satya. A number of people over the years have been pointing out to me the inconsistent mess that is India incense production. Some companies operate under two different names - such as
SAC (Sandesh) and
GR International; and it is quite common for a company, such as
Ranga Rao in Mysore, to have multiple brands (Flute, Cycle, Manmohak, Clove, etc). Some companies come together to share transportation and other facilities, such as
Balaji and
BIC. India's largest fast moving goods company,
ITC (India Tobacco Company), decided to get into the incense game, and have quickly developed one of India's most successful incense brands,
Mangaldeep, without making a single stick themselves - instead they commission several small incense houses to make the sticks on their behalf. Added to this is the number of "white-label" incense houses, such as
Haridas Madhavdas Sugandhi (HMS) and
Fair Trade, who make incense for others - both inside and outside India. And I have been growing in my discomfort about the amount of rebranding that goes on - recently Irene of
Rauchfahne (my favourite incense blog) had recommended
Berks Ambrosia - an attractive incense, but it turned out to be a rebadged
HMS Blue Lotus, which I'd already bought and reviewed under the Primo brand, so it was a waste of my time and money. I prefer when everything is clear and above board. I like that ITC, no doubt confident in their commercial strength, name on the packets who makes the sticks for them. I like even more when the company that sells the incense also makes the incense. I guess I'm just an old hippy who was excited and inspired by things like the
Whole Earth Catalog, and forming a connection with the person who makes the product, rather than going through a series of middle-men, especially when the middle-men deliberately conceal who actually makes the product. Curiously, on a related side-note, when I reviewed
Soul Sticks Aztec Aromas Copal, and discovered that Aztec Aromas is an Indian copy of the South American
Inca Aromas, Irene - who makes her own incense, including the awesome
Swiss Stone Pine, without a doubt the finest home made incense I've encountered, said she'd prefer her incense to be rebadged and sold under a different name than to have someone copy her incense. It's interesting to see the different perspectives that maker, retailer, and consumer have in regard to the marketing of products. Me, I'd rather have a copy, with all the exciting developments that entails (think of all those
flora incenses that have copied and then developed on from
Sri Sai Flora - the original). As a consumer I'd rather have all those copies and developments rather than 100 packets of the same stuff under different brand names. What is the appeal of that to the consumer? But I absolutely understand Irene's perspective because she retains artistic control over her product, plus gets the money from each of the sales of those 100 brands; while with the copies she gets no financial compensation, and sees her incense formula sometimes badly mangled.
So, all these thoughts came at me as I burned the incense, so reducing its purity and essence. There was a little block in the way of my simple pleasure. At the same time, Alok, maker of the excellent
Malaan Gaudhoop Swarna Champa, was telling me that
Nandita, an incense brand I have been exploring a lot recently, as some of the Nandita scents are absolutely gorgeous, was actually owned by
Acharya Products, a retail chain store and major incense distributor in the Mumbai area, and that it is possible/likely that Acharya source their incense from white-label makers. Which is what Corey was telling me. And Corey was saying that it was Navin Shah, owner of the New Moon brand, who was likely behind the manufacture of Nandita incense. And then Alok was saying that, though Goloka have their own manufacturing premises, some production is done out of house. Which, again, is what Corey was saying a few years ago. And what Eugene of
Bhagwan told me recently, and which shook me a bit, as I had some faith in that brand because of their charity work. So, a number of brands I like - Satya, Goloka, and Nandita, have some kind of connection or relationship with Navin Shah, who is the person behind New Moon.
Eugene then got involved in the conversation, and essentially was pointing out that companies like Bhagwan, who sell incense under their own brand, but don't make the incense themselves, are actually little different from companies like Nandita, Goloka, and Satya, which may have some of their incense made for them by, quite possibly, the same (or similar) white-label incense companies. Was that
Spiritual Healing by Satya, which I reviewed recently, noting vanilla flavours, made by
HMS? Probably not, but all this incestuous incense sharing puts doubts in the mind. I have tried to identify who makes what, and have classed companies who buy and commission separately from those who make themselves. But it's clearly more difficult than I thought to clearly and consistently say: this company makes their own incense if we can't even rely on Satya and Goloka - two of the biggest and most reliable masala incense houses.
The incense stick is a conventional modern perfumed
masala. The thickness of the sticks varies considerably, and they are fairly crudely rolled. I kinda like the appearance of a crudely rolled stick. It feels more human and real. I suspect that most people who seriously like incense (rather than those who just want a convenient room freshener) would also warm to hand-made incense that shows signs of the human activity, so distancing it from the soulnessness of a machine made incense. The scent is perfumed, mildly volatile, woody, earthy, a little sharp, oily, resinous. It's quite warm and attractive, though the volatility pushes me away slightly.
Mysore
sandalwood oil has a history and tradition which has given it an elevated position as a prized form of sandalwood. It was
the first sandalwood oil produced in India, and access to the oil is controlled and restricted by the local government. Australian sandalwood is more economical to produce, so tends to have a lesser reputation (history and rarity often increase appeal). Difficult to know how much (if any) Mysore sandalwood oil has been used in this incense, or how much synthetic sandalwood oils has been used. From my reading on the subject, synthetic sandalwood oil has a good reputation, and it is widely considered best to combine synthetic and essential oils to give the best consumer experience, and I think that is the case here.
The scent on the burn is damn good. Bloody good. It is fairly fixed on sandalwood, and I'm generally one who prefers their scents to have a good range, with balances and counter-points, and interesting twiddles here and there. Essentially, I tend to prefer blends more than mono-scents. But this is bloody damn good. Ooooh. It's good. There is a range here - there are deep deep notes which reach down into the darkness and almost don't return - they give off the bitter singe of hell (or at least dark roasted coffee beans); and there are journeys and swirls through almonds and new leather up to quiet and sunlit moments of violets and pansies and fresh cut grass. It is a very calming and seductive and beautiful accord, moderately seductive - mostly reassuring and calming. This is a scent complex which is wonderfully relaxing. I love it. And all the turmoil regarding who made this, all the commercial nonsense just gets left behind in that sheer moment of bliss when enjoying a truly wonderful incense. Sigh. Yes, I loved this.
