Rasbihari Lal Super Musk Hina

 

A heady and sharp incense from Rasbihari Lal & Sons of Vrindavan, whose sticks are sold by Padma Store.  The sticks appear to be machine extruded - quite thin charcoal paste on machine-cut bamboo splint dyed green. The paste has been hand-rolled in a dirty cream coloured melnoorva  powder, which appears simply as a thin and meagre dusting. Clearly purely cosmetic.  

Musk incense is usually synthetic as synthetic musk is very effective and reasonably priced. Traditionally Indian incense makers used the musk mallow plant; though may also have used the hina plant; and it is the hina plant that is referenced here in the name of the incense. Is this a true extract of the hina plant? 

Rasbihari Lal's shop in Vrindavan

It feels fresh and natural, though the scent on the stick is a little perfumed. It has the scent of something processed, sweet, commercial, rather than natural. But there's no sense of the chemical in this stick - it behaves like an essential oil. The scent on the burn is a little too dry and sombre for my taste. A little bit peppery and brittle. There may be some halmaddi in the mix, though it could be plants. I tend to find Tibetan incense also a little dry and sombre, and they just use dried plants. I'm not entirely convinced that using dried plants is the way to create an appealing and attractive scent. At least, not for someone like me. 

I like the scent on the stick - a little commercial and simple maybe, but a pleasant sweet musky fragrance. The scent on the burn is equally pleasant - warm, mildly sweet, musky in a musk mallow way. There's no deep or richness here, but it is very pleasant. And feels quite clean and pure. 

Date: March 2024   Score:  36

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Musk