"A divine fragrance for soul" is the blurb. I love that idea. This is a pleasant incense, though I'm perhaps not quite with the notion of it being divine. I used to love Goloka; though, returning to the brand now, I'm not quite as impressed as I once was. I like the availability. I like that the money and reputation goes to Goloka rather than a middle-man. I like that the profits go to help disadvantaged people. I like the low cost and excellent value for money. And the scents are always at least decent, and can be quite heavenly (or divine). But reviewing this and Goloka Nature's Sandalwood I find I'm not as impressed as I once was.
It's all standard good quality Goloka - well made, sweet smelling masala incense. But I'm just not finding the interest or excitement that I was expecting. Either this is because this and the Nature's Sandalwood are less than the usual Goloka, or I'm looking for something a little more these days. This strikes me as just a little too sweet and easy and trivial. There's little depth here. It feels too much like an everyday incense - a general, commercial, easy-going room freshener. There's nothing wrong with that at all - that's our go-to incense. We burn way more everyday room freshener incense than anything else. It's just that I had developed a sacred opinion of Goloka as a great incense house, and one of my favourites, and had somehow felt that these incenses I'd not burned before would be a divine incense for the soul.
So, what is here? There's a fruity quality to the scent on the stick - something similar to my experience with Nature's Sandalwood. It's not a woody scent. It's certainly not the agarwood scent promised in the subtitle. But it is an attractive and appealing scent. Sweet, honeyed, fruity, light, joyful.
The scent on the burn is initially fairly modest though does eventually spread and inform the room, and linger attractively afterwards. It is warmer and woodier than the scent on the stick, though still quite sticky sweet. It has an attractive balsamic quality which does edge in the direction of agarwood, though never quite gets there. Overall it's an attractive and relaxing and cleansing scent. But it is fairly limited and simple. Good enough, though.
This is readily available at a low cost in many places. It comes in a standard 15g cardboard box. Popat Stores in the UK sell it for 75p. IncenseWarehouse in the US sell it for $2.79. IncenseAustralia sell it for $3.50. Ephra World in Germany sell it for €1.65. And because I have a significant Russian readership: Wildberries sell it for ₽322 (approx £2.82).
So, what is here? There's a fruity quality to the scent on the stick - something similar to my experience with Nature's Sandalwood. It's not a woody scent. It's certainly not the agarwood scent promised in the subtitle. But it is an attractive and appealing scent. Sweet, honeyed, fruity, light, joyful.
The scent on the burn is initially fairly modest though does eventually spread and inform the room, and linger attractively afterwards. It is warmer and woodier than the scent on the stick, though still quite sticky sweet. It has an attractive balsamic quality which does edge in the direction of agarwood, though never quite gets there. Overall it's an attractive and relaxing and cleansing scent. But it is fairly limited and simple. Good enough, though.
This is readily available at a low cost in many places. It comes in a standard 15g cardboard box. Popat Stores in the UK sell it for 75p. IncenseWarehouse in the US sell it for $2.79. IncenseAustralia sell it for $3.50. Ephra World in Germany sell it for €1.65. And because I have a significant Russian readership: Wildberries sell it for ₽322 (approx £2.82).
I love most of the Goloka Premium Range, their Chandan and Parchouli are my favorite. I tried Premium goodearth and I can only get a slight agarwood hint in it, other than that I get mostly sweet fragrance from it.
ReplyDeleteThat reassures me Vid, as I have a huge fondness for Goloka. I have a backlog of incenses I want to review - I really want to finish reviewing the Elebenzauber incenses that SamsaSpoon sent me, for example - so I don't want to get side-tracked into re-reviewing Goloka. I will, of course. But not as a priority.
DeleteAnyway, to hear that you have had a similar response to this Agarwood is reassuring. Thanks!
I also love goloka, even though I don’t get it often here in Dubai because here it is very expensive. I usually get all of my Goloka incenses from India.
DeleteBut you can get a lot of bukhoor incense in Dubai.
DeleteYea you’re correct and Bakhoor is one of my most favorite forms of incense but being an Indian, I still prefer incense sticks. Bakhoor and Indian Incenses can be found a lot in Dubai and they are cheap but what I meant was Goloka incenses are expensive here. Here Goloka incenses retails for 15 dhs which is 3.22 pounds for 16g while some incenses like Cycle, Liberty, Nandita, Tulasi, Shalimar, Balaji retails for 1-10 dhs. I am in search of good bakhoors and so far I loved Nabeel nasaem, Nabeel Bakhoor, Bakhoor sandal from Oman, Bakhoor Amwaj , Bait Al Arab, Hamidi Qasr Al Amer, Hamidi Solo Bakhoor Al Majarrah, Al Areej and Hamidi Solo Bakhoor Al Mas. If you have tried bakhoor, can you plz give me recommendations. Btw I just started my incense blog and you were my inspiration behind it.
DeleteI absolutely fell in love with bakhoor when I discovered it some years ago, and fully intended to explore bakhoor. I got a bunch of samples, but as with so many of my enthusiasms, I got distracted, and have never actually settled down to do the study I wanted. So, I am not the person to seek recommendations from. I really want to get back to bakhoor, and I shall pledge here and now - as my New Years Resolution - that I will do a full study of bakhoor this year. (Well, get the backlog down a bit first.....)
DeleteGive us a link to your blog Vid. We need lots of incense blogs! The more the better.
DeleteSure here it is- https://ratnagandh.wordpress.com/
DeleteThanks. I'll activate the link:
DeleteRatnagandh
I liked them quite a bit initially but have fallen out of love with them since. I still find them nice, but not special. I would definitely rate them lower now than in my comparative review I did in 2022. And I now prefer the Organic Goodness Arabian Oudh I compared them with. They show more complexity.
ReplyDeleteI've added a link to your review
Delete