Vanilla is a lovely scent, and is occasionally used in incense sticks, though it will mostly be a synthetic vanillin, as natural vanillin from the vanilla orchid is scarce and highly expensive. The problem with vanilla as a single scent in incense is that though pleasant it can be fairly limiting by itself, and too much of it can be both a little boring and a little satiating. It is, however, a common and popular room freshener because it is so undemanding, familiar, pleasant, and relaxing. It is a scent I note is not used much by top end incense makers, though I have come upon a number of everyday perfume-dipped incenses using the scent.
I love the bright, joyful yellow of the box - so fitting for vanilla, as I think most of us associate yellow with vanilla - not so much because the vanilla flower is yellow, but because vanilla flavoured ice-cream is yellow. The scent on the stick is heavenly. Really attractive and seductive and engaging. There's a fresh, light, slightly sharp, but young and uplifting volatility on the stick. There's sandalwood - and vanillin can be extracted from woods such as sandalwood, and there's herbs, and there's some rich, plump, slightly heady florals - red rose. It's a very perfumed scent - more like a feminine perfume than an incense, but attractive nonetheless.
I love the bright, joyful yellow of the box - so fitting for vanilla, as I think most of us associate yellow with vanilla - not so much because the vanilla flower is yellow, but because vanilla flavoured ice-cream is yellow. The scent on the stick is heavenly. Really attractive and seductive and engaging. There's a fresh, light, slightly sharp, but young and uplifting volatility on the stick. There's sandalwood - and vanillin can be extracted from woods such as sandalwood, and there's herbs, and there's some rich, plump, slightly heady florals - red rose. It's a very perfumed scent - more like a feminine perfume than an incense, but attractive nonetheless.
The burn is reasonably steady, and the scent on the burn is fairly true to the scent on the stick - it is wholesome, sweet, attractive, and pleasantly compelling. As a room freshener this is a decent job - it is noticeable but not too assertive, and gently lifts the room with a pleasant, sweet, vanilla accented fragrance. I wouldn't say it goes much beyond that, but it does what it does very well, and I think is one of the most pleasing vanilla incenses I've burned.
I had intended to review a batch of Bhagwan incense, but Eugene of Bhagwan has been in touch, and is annoyed that I am not giving the incense a higher score. In our email exchange I attempted to explain my approach, and wrote that "my reviews are subjective, and scores are applied on a hedonic scale depending on how much, at that particular moment, I like the incense (which is mainly the aroma, but does include various aspects of the incense experience including packaging, pricing, knowledge of the ethics of the company, etc). And I have noted that my experience with the same incense may vary from time to time depending on circumstances. Scents are particularly personal and do invoke individual memories and emotions which are separate from rational measurement, so a series of different scents from any one producer may invoke a variety of responses, while a certain scent, such as rose or sage - if true to type - may invoke a similar response from a range of producers." In essence, I cannot "heave my heart into my mouth" in order to generate sales for someone, even someone I like - I'd prefer to remain honest. Eugene's response was to tell me to stop reviewing the Bhagwan branded incense, and to throw it all away. I will not do that either - while I do attempt to help out producers and retailers by mentioning and linking to their products, I am independent and not subject to their whims. This is my hobby, and while it may be an asset to others who are in business, and I am aware of that, I am not paid, and I am not a lackey who can be ordered to take down negative reviews or put up falsely positive reviews simply in order to promote sales. Anyway, I am pausing on reviewing Bhagwan branded incense for the moment as there is a little tension here.
I'd also like to make clear, that the reviews I have done of this and all the incense on this blog have been done using conventional incense holders - the upside down holder in the picture, which was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com, was used for the pictures only. I was not satisfied with the fragrance that was generated by the use of the upside down burner (the top notes appeared to get scorched by the heat - something I note happens to most fragrant oil based incense sticks even when using conventional holders - as discussed on Ratnagandh's review of Shalimar Vanilla), and so for the reviews I used a conventional angled holder.
I had intended to review a batch of Bhagwan incense, but Eugene of Bhagwan has been in touch, and is annoyed that I am not giving the incense a higher score. In our email exchange I attempted to explain my approach, and wrote that "my reviews are subjective, and scores are applied on a hedonic scale depending on how much, at that particular moment, I like the incense (which is mainly the aroma, but does include various aspects of the incense experience including packaging, pricing, knowledge of the ethics of the company, etc). And I have noted that my experience with the same incense may vary from time to time depending on circumstances. Scents are particularly personal and do invoke individual memories and emotions which are separate from rational measurement, so a series of different scents from any one producer may invoke a variety of responses, while a certain scent, such as rose or sage - if true to type - may invoke a similar response from a range of producers." In essence, I cannot "heave my heart into my mouth" in order to generate sales for someone, even someone I like - I'd prefer to remain honest. Eugene's response was to tell me to stop reviewing the Bhagwan branded incense, and to throw it all away. I will not do that either - while I do attempt to help out producers and retailers by mentioning and linking to their products, I am independent and not subject to their whims. This is my hobby, and while it may be an asset to others who are in business, and I am aware of that, I am not paid, and I am not a lackey who can be ordered to take down negative reviews or put up falsely positive reviews simply in order to promote sales. Anyway, I am pausing on reviewing Bhagwan branded incense for the moment as there is a little tension here.
I'd also like to make clear, that the reviews I have done of this and all the incense on this blog have been done using conventional incense holders - the upside down holder in the picture, which was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com, was used for the pictures only. I was not satisfied with the fragrance that was generated by the use of the upside down burner (the top notes appeared to get scorched by the heat - something I note happens to most fragrant oil based incense sticks even when using conventional holders - as discussed on Ratnagandh's review of Shalimar Vanilla), and so for the reviews I used a conventional angled holder.
And yet, despite it is heavenly, you gave it 33. If the same incense would be sold in Satya or HEM box, you would surely give it 50. It is not fair, Steve.
ReplyDeleteNope. While, as I say, there are certain aspects outside of the fragrance that impact my overall enjoyment of an incense, the bulk of my enjoyment comes from the scent itself. The scent on this stick is heavenly, but it's also fairly predicable and monotoned and safe and not exciting. Vanilla is a very pleasant scent, and I really like it, but it's not one that excites me or engages my interest. Regardless of who sells it or makes it.
DeleteAs for HEM - I gave their vanilla incense a score of 28. And I gave Aasha Aromatics - an incense I was selling myself at the time on eBay (it sold very well) - a score of 27.
The Bhagwan branded incense comes second on my list of vanilla incenses I've reviewed. Curiously it's One Aromatics that comes top - and I don't generally like One Aromatics. It's the scent of theirs that I have rated highest.
Whoever has made the Bhagwan Vanilla Joy has done a good job - the scent on the burn is similar to the scent on the stick, there is a low volatility, and the vanilla has been balanced by something like sandalwood to give it a solid base. It's a decent incense, very pleasant, and I like it. One of the very best vanilla incenses I have tried. But while I find vanilla pleasant, I don't find it exciting enough to rave about. "Hey, here's a pleasant vanilla incense." Ho hum. I think it was probably the "sandalwood" (or whatever) aspect of the stick that boosted this for me. Now perhaps if the recipe had been turned the other way - a sandalwood with some drops of vanilla added, I might have gotten more excited.
Steve, you scoring system does not make sense, it is misleading. It is not scientific in any way. You are conditioning buyers in a big way. If you are responsible and serious blogger, please scrap it for God's sake.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right Eugene. You've got it. My scoring system is not scientific in any way. It is hedonic - it is subjective - it is emotional - it is my personal response to these scents. You can probably get a machine to sample scents and break down their components, and then print out a list of the flavour compounds. And you could chart it - with XXX's Vanilla Incense coming top with most vanillin compounds, and YYY's Vanilla Incense coming bottom with least vanillin compound. And the probability would be that those who most like vanilla would most like XXX's Vanilla Incense. But how would you then measure that against XXX's Sandalwood Incense, or YYY's Patchouli and Ginger Incense?
DeleteMe, I just rate the incense by how much I enjoy it. Is this helpful to others? Maybe, maybe not. I have always said that this blog is my own personal journey though the world of incense. My by-line for nearly ten years was "A personal journey into the ancient and modern world of incense." I am discovering incense, and recording and sharing my experiences here not as an influencer, but as a blogger in the traditional sense of the word - as a web-log of my experiences. If folks have similar tastes to mine they might find the posts useful. And even if they don't have similar tastes, there is possibly information that can be gained, or just some mild amusement in reading the ramblings of an old hippy.
I am not after an audience. I am just after honestly recording what I do, and having chats with other people who share an interest in incense. I'm cool with providing links to other websites, but I'm really not here to promote anyone's stuff, I'm just here to have a good time without any pressure.
Steve, do you want it or not, but people make their buying decisions based on your score. Who cares if your system is hedonic or scientific, readers are not aware of this, I am a reader of your blog of 5 years, and I was never aware of your scoring system structure before. Your score is a recommendation to buy or not to buy. Score can not be based purely on emotional element, score is not meant to reflect your emotions, it must be justified. It is like a mark in the school, it can not be based on teacher's emotions, psychology or memory alone. Otherwise, you need to clarify in every post that your score is not evaluation of quality but a sum of subjective elements. You can call it "My emotional response: 33". There is a very good reason why other incense bloggers don't use a scoring system. Think of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point on how the upside down can ruing the top notes of an incense, that’s what happened to me when I burnt Shalimar’s Sandal incense. I liked that incense and have repurchased that incense multiple times to freshen up the house but as soon as I got this upside down incense burner and lighten up the incense, I felt that it was more smoky than a pleasant, floral, cool synthetic strong sandalwood that I experienced with this incense when placed on a normal incense stand. After noticing it, I lit up one more stick and placed it on my normally incense holder to ensure that the the fragrance has not changed, and the fragrance did not change, so the upside down holder was the problem.
ReplyDeleteI did a experiment last month, I took my longest burning incense that is not fat, Cycle woods, which burns for 1 hour and 10 mins. I placed 4 sticks each on my 4 incense holders, one is the upside down holder, the normal upright incense holder, the leaf catcher incense holder and the Merry go round incense holder from Cycle.in in horizontal position. I later found out that the incense in upside down holder burnt out faster by 45 mins, then the merry go round incense holder by 50mins, and than the leaf incense holder and the upright incense holder burns the slowest for 1 hour 10 mins.
I think we have a problem not just with upside down burners, but with the whole current approach of Indian incense makers with using oils and perfumes (natural or synthetic) to generate the fragrance. The oils/perfumes smell nice on the stick, but don't burn well. And certainly when you add in the trendy upside down burners, there is even more loss of top notes.
DeleteA number of incense houses are attempting to disguise this reliance on liquid fragrances by covering their sticks with melnoorva powder to give the appearance of a masala - give the appearance of a better quality incense than it actually is. Given the choice of putting an essential oil on a stick and burning it, or using an essential oil warmer, where the oil is dropped into water which is gently warmed by a tea-light underneath, I find I'm going more for the oil warmer. I actually prefer the incense stick because I like the smoke, and I like the ease of use of the stick, and it feels right, but I prefer the scent from the warmer.
When I started this blog my intention was to discover a range of incenses, such as resins and bukhoor, and incense from around the world, but I have become locked into Indian incense for a long while now, and I have a huge backlog of incense - both that which has been sent to me to review, and that which I have bought because I am curious about it.
My intention this year was to deal first with the backlog of samples that have been sent for review. But I may shift now to exploring the incense that really intrigues me. The incense from around the world, and the various ways of burning incense. I'd particularly like to get the hang of burning resin - my experiences so far have been very variable, but when resin is good, it's fucking awesome.
Steve we love your blog and honest reviews , don’t let Bhagwan bully you into giving biased reviews like some of these other incense reviewers. I think Bhagwan completely copied the style and sources of TOI. Even his photos on his website use the same background and layout as TOI
DeleteTo be fair, TOI have been very good at marketing. They are just doing what many in the UK have done before them, but they have down it professionally and with style. Gokula have been selling excellent incense (often the same as Happy Harri, TOI, Absolute Bliss, and Bhagwan) at very low prices for many years, yet they have not had the market penetration that TOI have. Gokula's operation has been warm, friendly, low cost, while TOI's operation has been slick, cool, and high priced. People tend to lean to the slick, cool, and high priced because it projects quality. People prefer brands to supermarket own labels. TOI is a sophisticated brand. Gokula is more like a market stall.
DeleteBoth may be selling the same product (such asHMS) , but each to their own which marketing approach they prefer.
TOI is among the most professional and successful incense producers in the West. We at Bhagwan hold TOI in high regard; they are truly one of the best. When setting up a shop on the WordPress/WooCommerce platform, the layout options are limited, and ultimately, we all sell similar products like incense sticks. It's also true that our layout might resemble that of LotusZen (photos) and other sellers on Etsy.
ReplyDeleteI want to clarify that my intentions are not to bully Steven; that would be impossible, and there is no cause for concern. I've brought up two important issues with Steve: Firstly, I do not want my incense involved in any experiments that might affect its fragrance. Secondly, I had concerns about his scoring system, which he has explained is hedonic, not scientific. Furthermore, I have requested that he not review my incense, allowing him to focus on other brands and products.
To summarize our discussions: If I had fully understood Steve’s approach to reviews and scoring beforehand, I would not have sent him my products for review. Now that I better understand his methods, I am asking him publicly to refrain from reviewing our incense to avoid any perception of bullying or manipulation. I appreciate your understanding. Best of luck!
Bhagwan you are a purveyor of some of the finest incense I have yet to experience, the breadth of your incense range alone is outstanding while maintaining fantastic quality incense with fair pricing.
DeleteI hope that in the next year or 2 you'll be toe-to-toe with TOI as you deserve it..