From the moment I lit the stick I liked this. Warm, earthy, spicy, bright, sexy, herby. It's quite a light, chalky, camphor and benzoin influenced patchouli, without the musky sweetness I associate with the fragrance, and with some vanilla, fudge, coffee, candy notes sweetening the package, but in a lighter, younger, more sort of innocent or naïve way than is my particular favourite for serious incense (I do enjoy the light-hearted and fun in a more everyday incense, but when burning an incense purely for the fragrance pleasure, for the aesthetics of the moment - which, to be fair, is not how I approach most incense; mostly we burn incense here for the fun of it, to lift the house, to cover smells, etc; you know, for the many everyday reasons - but when burning for the aesthetics I do prefer my aesthetic incense to be more considered). This is a light, gentle incense (which I tend not to favour), and is dryer and more well behaved than is my wont, inclining a little toward Japanese incense; however, it does have a rich earthiness and sexuality, which I rarely encounter in Japanese incense, but I do often find in Indian incense. Yes, it's very likeable, and, though light, the fragrance is immediately noticeable, filling, and lingering. The room is very attractively and sweetly scented after the burn.
This sample was sent to me by SamsaSpoon of Rauchfahne, along with four others that I intend to burn this week. Elbenzauber (Elven magic) is the brand name of Indian incense imported and sold by a German couple who have an Indian goods shop, Koh-Do, in Berlin. They don't sell online themselves, but their incense is available from a handful of German webstores such as Sensatonics and HouseOfHealing, and eBay. The prices tend to be €4.50 for 15gm. In their history, they tell the familiar story of being in India and encountering a pleasant scent, and then doing a deal to import the incense they encountered into their home country under their own brand name. And the incense - from this one example so far - is the typical decent masala style incense that is good enough to import and sell under your own name. It is a decent and attractive incense. Solid stuff. Not one by itself that I would get excited about, but Samsa has told me that she is disappointed with it, and that it is her least favourite of the Elbenzauber she has tried. If this is the least of their offerings, then I'm really looking forward to the rest. There is something familiar about the incense - and the vanilla content will of course bring Primo/Madhavdas to mind, though I think it's more that this comes across as a kind of standard decent Indian masala incense. The sort that we are seeing more and more of in the West as more Indian companies start to export their masala incense as well as their perfumed incense, and export it under their own names rather than the names of resellers such as Elbenzauber, TOI, Happy Hari, Bhagwan, etc. Even HEM and Tulasi are selling decent masala in the West these days.
I am intrigued by the company's Ritual range, which they make themselves in Berlin, buying the recipes and the equipment from an incense maker who appears to have stopped making incense.
This sample was sent to me by SamsaSpoon of Rauchfahne, along with four others that I intend to burn this week. Elbenzauber (Elven magic) is the brand name of Indian incense imported and sold by a German couple who have an Indian goods shop, Koh-Do, in Berlin. They don't sell online themselves, but their incense is available from a handful of German webstores such as Sensatonics and HouseOfHealing, and eBay. The prices tend to be €4.50 for 15gm. In their history, they tell the familiar story of being in India and encountering a pleasant scent, and then doing a deal to import the incense they encountered into their home country under their own brand name. And the incense - from this one example so far - is the typical decent masala style incense that is good enough to import and sell under your own name. It is a decent and attractive incense. Solid stuff. Not one by itself that I would get excited about, but Samsa has told me that she is disappointed with it, and that it is her least favourite of the Elbenzauber she has tried. If this is the least of their offerings, then I'm really looking forward to the rest. There is something familiar about the incense - and the vanilla content will of course bring Primo/Madhavdas to mind, though I think it's more that this comes across as a kind of standard decent Indian masala incense. The sort that we are seeing more and more of in the West as more Indian companies start to export their masala incense as well as their perfumed incense, and export it under their own names rather than the names of resellers such as Elbenzauber, TOI, Happy Hari, Bhagwan, etc. Even HEM and Tulasi are selling decent masala in the West these days.
I am intrigued by the company's Ritual range, which they make themselves in Berlin, buying the recipes and the equipment from an incense maker who appears to have stopped making incense.
Date: Jan 2024 Score: 38
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It's so interesting that you pick up all that notes in Patchouli - for me (and Max) they smell really vague and almost dull. Not unpleasant but "meh" - and that while you say something quite similar about Mattipal, which smells perfectly normal and not weak at all to me.
ReplyDeleteI think I will gift the remaining Patchouli sticks away to some of my incense friends, to see what they think.
I will update my Review and link back to yours.
I reviewed an incense the other day and didn't notice any lavender - florals and herbs, etc, but not lavender. Then Chris Burns commented that for him it was very lavender. I went back and then I saw it. And it was bloody obvious!
DeleteI don't quite understand how our senses work. There's a lot to do with the time of day, the environment, how we are physically and emotionally feeling, all our history and experience, and all the suggestions around us.
The experience of the scent is going to be different for us as individuals pretty much every time we light up. Even when we are lighting up in the same place on the same day, because there are now different thoughts in our head.
But we will, of course mostly perceive exactly the same thing each time. But that will mainly be down to us not really caring or paying attention. Just listening to our head saying "This is a HEM perfumed musk. It's going to be simple. Synthetic. Unremarkable. Blah blah blah" or "This is Happy Hari Nag Champa Gold. It's going to be sublime." and what we get is an impression of the scent which fulfils our expectations. And, to be fair, that is exactly what happens most of the time when we do just about anything. Eat a McDonalds. Listen to The Faust Tapes. Play Abba. Drink champagne. We don't really pay attention. We just quietly consume our expectation.
As reviewers we actually pay more attention when we are reviewing, so our senses are more alert, and we try to put down some of our expectation and control the experience. However, that is really hard to do. I sometimes wonder who "we" really are. Most of what we do we do without "us" really controlling it. Whatever "us" actually is. We walk and breathe without thinking. Our heart beats faster or slower without our control. We digest food without our control. We fight infections and cuts without "our" input. Sometimes it's like "we" are in a AI vessel which carries us around and does most of the work for us with very little or no input from us at all.
Who decides we are going to fall in love with THAT person? Do "we" have any control over that? We may decide to get closer to THAT person, or not get involved if we think it's inappropriate. But we don't decide to fall in or out of love. Our emotions - those hormones released in our brain - decide that.
We can alter our perception of an experience. As Chris altered my perception of that lavender incense. And this happens a lot if we allow it to happen. But we need to sort of actively engage with the moment, not just let it pass us by. I've had more positive and negative impressions of an experience after getting input from someone or something else. I think most of us were pretty happy with synthetic incense until we discovered natural incense.
I don't think any of our experiences with an incense stick are "wrong" or "right". Our experiences are obviously individual and unique to us, so they can't be wrong. And what Foo gets from an incense is not necessarily what Woo will get from it, so it can't be 100% right. That's not to say that there aren't broad swathes of commonality. I think I'm meaning more that there are going to be more variations than we are aware of.
I'm always kind of pleasantly surprised when I review an incense I've reviewed previously and find pretty much the same things and have pretty much the same experience. I think there are food tasters and perfume sniffers who are trained to be consistent. I don't think I could do that. I'm way too sloppy!
I had typed out a lengthy reply to yours, but after I had hit publish, it seems to have disappeared in the abyss. :(
DeleteOh I hate when that happens!
Delete