Balaji Signature

 

This Signature is part of a huge bundle of samples sent to me last year by Ashish of Balaji. I like Balaji, though I have found their products wonderful diverse - there's some fairly average everyday budget room fresheners as well as some delightfully heady and rich top quality stuff. Pretty much all of it is strongly scented, which I like. I'm always curious when lighting up a Balaji as to what I'm going to get: something dry and ordinary, or something sublime which will open up the day.  

 
This is a masala style incense - a handrolled charcoal paste covered in melnoorva powder, which these days is sometimes called masala powder; however, it is highly perfumed. And gorgeously perfumed. Quite Arabic - with elements of sweet, musky, dripping oud, and proper sensual sandalwood. I've been burning a fair bit of East Asian incense recently - Vietnam, China, Japan, etc, which tend to favour sandalwood, and use sandalwood powder. It's good to get back to the rich Indian approach to sandalwood - pour on the oils, and pour it good. Smells great on the stick. The downside, of course, is that while using oil means it smells great on the stick, it usually doesn't burn as well - with some of the subtle and balancing top notes being burned away. While the East Asian approach of using sandalwood powder means there's barely any scent on the stick, but it does burn well. If they're using decent quality sandalwood powder, of course. Otherwise it just smells like smouldering newspaper. Anyway, the scent on this stick is heavenly - there's spice, a touch of ginger, some honey, and light florals - rose and jasmine, and sugar candy. Oh, it's just so yummy!

And, oooh, the scent on the burn is divine as well. It is a warm, sexy, slightly assertive fragrance that does command the room, but without being aggressive or harsh. This comes across like a blend of synthetic and natural oils - there's a warm natural feel given strength and complexity by some quality synthetics. Oh, this is so lovely.  I do love proper sexy sandalwood. This is such a marked contrast to the wimpy, clean, well behaved, sandalwoods of East Asia. Indian sandalwood rocks baby! 

Pack is 15g. Available in the US (Reeds, $1.95) and Europe (Devananda 1.50 Euro) and Australia (Sundrops $3.95), etc. 

Date: Nov 2024    Score: 47

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Balaji Agarbatti Company

Sandalwood