Available from several places, such as Pilgrims Bazaar on eBay at £1.79 for 15g, this is a MDPH (Mysore Deep Perfumery House) product. MDPH are better known for their heavily promoted Zed Black brand. My blog has been spammed by sellers of Zed Black for years. MDPH are a huge company, with enormous incense producing units which they are proud to declare as the largest in the world. Fleur De Vie is a brand name of a Dutch importer, Eastern-Trading, who claim to be the largest incense wholesaler in Europe.
The stick is a standard modern perfumed-masala. 8 inches long with 6 inches of hand-rolled charcoal paste on a plain bamboo splint. A light dusting of melnoorva powder (sometimes called masala powder these days) finishes off the stick. The scent on the stick is light, dry, mineral, warm, pleasant, woolly, perfumed, professional. It hovers around an everyday body-mist scent, soap, and a subtle room freshener. It's not exciting, but it's not bad either. It feels more geared to a Western market than an Asian one.
The stick is a standard modern perfumed-masala. 8 inches long with 6 inches of hand-rolled charcoal paste on a plain bamboo splint. A light dusting of melnoorva powder (sometimes called masala powder these days) finishes off the stick. The scent on the stick is light, dry, mineral, warm, pleasant, woolly, perfumed, professional. It hovers around an everyday body-mist scent, soap, and a subtle room freshener. It's not exciting, but it's not bad either. It feels more geared to a Western market than an Asian one.
The scent on the burn is gentle, dry, pleasant, professional, well behaved, slightly woody, some sandalwood, some vanilla, some herb. It's OK, but it doesn't grab me. It's reasonably cleansing and calming, and doesn't call attention to itself. A gentle Sunday morning relaxant.
Date: Oct 2024 Score: 29
***
Hi Steve, the owners of Zeb Black are very insecure people despite running such a big, low value and mass market business. They are notorious for taking small brands and small retailers to the courts for just any reason. They are also known for opposing almost all trade marks in the incense category that small brands file in the registration office. I wish if they had put similar efforts in their product development!
ReplyDeleteIt's clearly a money operation. The incense is professional and pleasant - designed to appeal to most people. The incense doesn't hold much interest for me, though I am fascinated by the size of the operation, and how much money has gone into it. With ITC getting into commercial incense with the Mangaldeep brand, there is a clear sign that folks with money are seeing that there is serious money to be quickly made at the popular everyday incense level. On the whole I don't think that the everyday market is quite the same as the quality market, though I can foresee that a number of those who buy cheap, everyday incense will want to buy something special from time to time, and so a general increased interest in incense at any level is potentially a good thing for quality incense makers.
DeleteI do like that MDPH are training women to use incense machines. I have previously noted that whenever I've seen incense machines being used, it was men who were operating them.
DeleteSteve, I totally agree. Their products are not bad, they just cater to a specific requirement and to a large section of consumers. But with similar size and scale, in my opinion Moksh is doing much better in terms of quality. They are also very respected in the industry. I was just pointing to the confrontational nature of this company. I think that businesses as big as Zed Black should be graceful and avoid bothering others until there is a genuine concern over intellectual property or business dealings.
DeleteFunny, I was going to mention Moksh, as they were among the first that I noted as going into the perfumed incense market in a professional, big money way, and delivering a good value for money product. The domestic perfumed incense market has for long been the home of bad quality products, so it was refreshing to come across a company like Moksh. The incense is nothing special - the usual popular single scents - but it's bright, heady, and well made.
DeleteI've not really looked deeply into MDPH/Zed Black - what sorts of things have they been doing that you feel is worth bringing to our attention?
Moksh does not have as many products to offer, but they are very well made.
ReplyDeleteZed Black's dirty tactics have impacted many in some way, including I. They have a dedicated team to do this. Most people don't fight back, but they cant deter some!