Naturense is a range of incense by Nippon Kudo. The promotion is that this range is for "people who insist [on] their own natural life style" and are "particular about their choice and its ingredients". There appear to be five scents in the range: Calm Night (this one) with vetiver and chamomile; Comfortable Time with lavender and rosemary; Refreshed Time with geranium and ylang ylang; Oriental Mind with sandalwood and patchouli; and Inspired Mind with lemongrass and orange.
There are 40 short dhoop style sticks in the little box. These are available worldwide at around £11 a box. Helpfully on my box there's an import label with an ingredients list. The list is not impressive - it supports my own experience of Nippon Kudo (and other Japanese incense) as being essentially perfumed incense rather than masala (or pure fine ground) incense. It contains guaiacwood oil (also called oil of guaiac), which comes from the sawdust of the palo santo tree, and is used in soaps and room fresheners to introduce a gentle rose like scent. It contains this - which is also known as vetivone, and is a vetiver synthetic. And limonene, which is an aroma compound extracted from citrus fruits. I'm fine with synthetic fragrances being used in perfumes and incense - they can be purer, stronger, easier to use, and cheaper than using natural fragrances. But reading the ingredients list makes me wonder why these sticks cost more than £10 - there's nothing here which appears to justify that cost. *Eugene of Bhagwan Incense has pointed out in the comments below that labour costs in Japan need to be taken into account.
There are 40 short dhoop style sticks in the little box. These are available worldwide at around £11 a box. Helpfully on my box there's an import label with an ingredients list. The list is not impressive - it supports my own experience of Nippon Kudo (and other Japanese incense) as being essentially perfumed incense rather than masala (or pure fine ground) incense. It contains guaiacwood oil (also called oil of guaiac), which comes from the sawdust of the palo santo tree, and is used in soaps and room fresheners to introduce a gentle rose like scent. It contains this - which is also known as vetivone, and is a vetiver synthetic. And limonene, which is an aroma compound extracted from citrus fruits. I'm fine with synthetic fragrances being used in perfumes and incense - they can be purer, stronger, easier to use, and cheaper than using natural fragrances. But reading the ingredients list makes me wonder why these sticks cost more than £10 - there's nothing here which appears to justify that cost. *Eugene of Bhagwan Incense has pointed out in the comments below that labour costs in Japan need to be taken into account.
The sticks have a faint wood scent - possibly cedar. Quite attractive, though also quite faint, and rather simple. They smell of pencil shavings. That's OK, I like pencil shavings. But I don't admire the scent - I just find it pleasant. The scent on the burn is fairly similar to that on the stick, though (as normal) warmer and more smoky, and introducing notes of scorched paper (which I find common with incense sticks made of wood powder rather than charcoal. There's a touch of rose, perfumed soap, mild floral and citric notes hovering just above the scorched paper. The diffused scent is that of ash and scorched paper, and it leaves a faded, dirty, faint wood smoke aroma in the house.
Not really my thing at any price, but I find it irritating when an everyday chemical-perfumed wood dust incense is sold at five times the price of similar products. This is the power of marketing over quality - tell people that this incense is aimed at those who are "particular about their choice and its ingredients", but then sell them cheap synthetic perfumed wood dust. Just because a product asserts that it is Top Quality - Finest Ingredients, doesn't actually mean that it is.
Not really my thing at any price, but I find it irritating when an everyday chemical-perfumed wood dust incense is sold at five times the price of similar products. This is the power of marketing over quality - tell people that this incense is aimed at those who are "particular about their choice and its ingredients", but then sell them cheap synthetic perfumed wood dust. Just because a product asserts that it is Top Quality - Finest Ingredients, doesn't actually mean that it is.
Greetings from India, Steve! There is something inherently satisfying about giving an expensive incense 20 score, isn't it?) LOL On a serious note, Japanese incense can't be cheap by definition because of the cost of labour in Japan, it is extremely high, especially compared to India, Also, the costs of running a business (warehouse, accounting) and printing are very high in Japan, therefore they can not be cheap, ever. At the same time local Indian incense is becoming more expensive day by day - I went to a local shop in South India and saw Balaji Chandan selling for 380 RS/£3.5 for 25 sticks, not cheap either. I don't understand people buying expensive Japanese incense - you can buy high-quality Indian incense for half of the cost or less. And Japanese do not use halmaddi, it is not grown there. I love incense with halmaddi - it is very smooth. So, expect quality Indian incense to go up in price too - natural materials are scarce, and women do not want to roll the sticks every day, there is a shortage of labour in the industry so more and more companies are switching to machines. India is running high inflation and prices are going up.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right about the cost of labour isn't cheap. In my mind I was thinking in terms of ingredients, as that is generally what people equate cost to. But there is also the cost of skill and experience, equipment, quality control, transport, taxes, welfare benefits, etc, which have to be born in mind, and these will vary from country to country. In the end, it seems odd to be buying "cheap" (as in quality of ingredients) incense from a country where manufacturing costs are high, so the product remains "cheap" but is expensive to buy.
DeleteAs I gather incense from around the world, I find my admiration for the quality and style of Indian made incense goes up. And I find that Indian incense offers the best value for money. And while, as you know, I have a certain discomfort with the prices that rebadgers like yourself and TOI charge compared to the low prices charged by other importers such as Popat Stores, as well as not revealing to the public who makes the product, I do feel that you offer a good service in seeking out and finding quality Indian incense, as you did with B.G Pooja Store Nag Champa. This can save people a lot of wasted effort, and there are those who are happy to pay for that service.
We can not compete with Popat Stores: they are buying in huge volumes (containers literally) and we buy relatively small, their shipping was £8 last time I checked, so you need to buy a lot of incense. Our shipping to the UK is only £4.95. We (www.bhagwan-incense.com) sell many products for £3.25 (EUR 3.95) and more are coming up within this price range. One needs to start somewhere: you start as a rebadger, and then you develop into something else. We order more and more incense, which is made specifically for us and is exclusive: Vanilla Joy is one example, and there are many others that you did not review (Royal Sandalwood, Royal Frankincense, Royal Myrrh, Lady Champa, Balsamic Amber, Nag Champa Supreme). Even when we order our Woody Champa, we ask the factory to make a batch specifically for us with an old blend and a thicker stick, as they used to do it four years ago — not what they have been selling to BG recently (thin, yellow-colored sticks). As you know there is a big problem with inconsistency in India - you need to control everything, otherwise you will end up with a batch you can`t sell. There are more and more sticks that are unique to us and will soon be available. We are moving to a model where we place a specific order for our incense, and it is (hopefully) not made for somebody else. And there is also the question of many companies in India not having an export license, which means a huge number of excellent products stays within India. Western exports are only 5% of what Indian companies sell, the local market is 95%, so there is not much interest in going through bureaucratic hell for the sake of 5% revenue.
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