I bought this on the recommendation of SamsaSpoon/Irene of Rauchfahne - my favourite incense blog. She goes into some of her history with the brand on her blog, and also has her review of Ambrosia.
The sticks are reasonably standard modern perfumed masala (I think there are only a few masala incenses made these days which don't use fragrance oils of some sort). 6 1/2 inches of charcoal paste very thinly hand rolled onto an 8 inch bamboo splint coloured a purple accented red. The paste has been very thinly covered in a fine powder. Both the charcoal and the powder are purple(ish) coloured. Difficult to see what the process was, but the way the powder clings to the paste, it appears that the sticks have been dipped or sprayed after being rolled. The liquid may have been a dye or a fragrance oil, or both. It's all speculation. The charcoal paste is quite dry and crumbly - I got these sticks from the German site Aqasha last year for around £3.00. The sticks are currently [Nov 2024] out of stock on that site. It may be old stock, but some makers do tend to make sticks where the paste dries hard. Anyway...
The scent on the stick is sweet, flowery, Parma Violets, mildly herbal - a mixed dry herbs, vanilla, some chocolate. Very pleasant, though also a little unbalanced and a tad too satiating for my taste. It reminds me a lot both in appearance and scent with HMS Blue Lotus, which is sold under a number of brand names - Primo Blue Lotus, Sacred Elephant Blue Lotus, and Pure Incense Blue Lotus.
I paused this review for a while until I got around to comparing this stick with the Primo Blue Lotus. I've now done that comparison, and I am certain it is HMS Blue Lotus - especially as the HMS production method includes pouring liquid scent onto the finished sticks, which is what appears to have been done here), so I am classing this as a HMS stick - as HMS Blue Lotus to be precise - until it is pointed out I am wrong.
The scent on the burn is gentle, pleasant, sweet, candy, vanilla, violets, soft florals, some sharp notes, some acidity, some smoky notes. It's attractive, though a little one dimensional for my taste, and the vanilla sweetness does become cloying after a while. I don't find the acrid (acidity and smoke) notes to be pleasant, but they do offer some comparison and relief from the candy sweetness.
Yeah, on the whole this is a decent incense, and one I can see some people really, really liking. I like it. Though because it is, for me, somewhat thin, narrow, too focused on one scent, and weighs too heavy on the candy sweetness, it's not an incense I can get excited over.
The scent on the stick is sweet, flowery, Parma Violets, mildly herbal - a mixed dry herbs, vanilla, some chocolate. Very pleasant, though also a little unbalanced and a tad too satiating for my taste. It reminds me a lot both in appearance and scent with HMS Blue Lotus, which is sold under a number of brand names - Primo Blue Lotus, Sacred Elephant Blue Lotus, and Pure Incense Blue Lotus.
I paused this review for a while until I got around to comparing this stick with the Primo Blue Lotus. I've now done that comparison, and I am certain it is HMS Blue Lotus - especially as the HMS production method includes pouring liquid scent onto the finished sticks, which is what appears to have been done here), so I am classing this as a HMS stick - as HMS Blue Lotus to be precise - until it is pointed out I am wrong.
The scent on the burn is gentle, pleasant, sweet, candy, vanilla, violets, soft florals, some sharp notes, some acidity, some smoky notes. It's attractive, though a little one dimensional for my taste, and the vanilla sweetness does become cloying after a while. I don't find the acrid (acidity and smoke) notes to be pleasant, but they do offer some comparison and relief from the candy sweetness.
Yeah, on the whole this is a decent incense, and one I can see some people really, really liking. I like it. Though because it is, for me, somewhat thin, narrow, too focused on one scent, and weighs too heavy on the candy sweetness, it's not an incense I can get excited over.
Date: Nov 2024 Score: 34
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