In each slide out box of Vakratund dhoops you get a clay dhoop stand and a box of matches, so you are good to go. The dhoop sticks are foil sealed to keep in the scent freshness. The scent on the sticks is mildly volatile with soft scents of sandalwood. The volatility indicates this is not actual sandalwood, but either essential oil or fragrance oil or both. Using both is generally considered best as synthetic sandalwoods fill in the gaps missing from a sandalwood essential oil. The scent is pleasant, but tilts strongly toward sandalwood top notes rather than the sensual base notes which are my genuine love. The base notes are there, but they are rather battered into submission by the high flying rapture birds of the top notes.
Dhoops are, I think, one of the unsung heroes of Indian incense. This is a very fragrant burn. It is quite heady, but soft and deliciously so. It is a little floral for my taste, and doesn't deliver enough sandalwood - certainly not the sultry base notes that I love. Give this a non-scent based name like Indian Evening, and suspect I would enjoy it more. Give something a scent name, and then fail to deliver on that scent, and there's going to be some disappointment and/or frustration. But put that aside, and what we have here is something quite delicate and beautiful. Nice one.
Dhoops are, I think, one of the unsung heroes of Indian incense. This is a very fragrant burn. It is quite heady, but soft and deliciously so. It is a little floral for my taste, and doesn't deliver enough sandalwood - certainly not the sultry base notes that I love. Give this a non-scent based name like Indian Evening, and suspect I would enjoy it more. Give something a scent name, and then fail to deliver on that scent, and there's going to be some disappointment and/or frustration. But put that aside, and what we have here is something quite delicate and beautiful. Nice one.
Sandalwood is very tricky! In most cases, perfumers use floral notes to bring it out. Most commonly, geranium, rose, and heliotropin are used. Some perfumers also use ambers for the lift. I think that is what you pick here.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have been learning over the years is that one can almost ignore what is said on the tin, because the ingredients will likely be something else! You mention "amber", and that's a case in point, because it's such a vague term. I guess there's a sense that perfumers, like yourself, will have a scent in mind, and that scent may be "amber", so there will be a glass jar on the shelf marked "Amber", and some ingredients are taken from that glass jar. But what is inside that glass jar? It won't be the tree resin, and it likely won't be the whale vomit. It may be labdanum, or it may be a synthetic. From my reading around, most perfumes which include an amber note, will be using a synthetic because amber synthetics are pretty good, and are cheaper to use than labdanum.
DeleteMy reading also suggests that when it comes to sandalwood, most perfumers will be using a synthetic sandalwood oil because natural sandalwood oil has weaknesses. Many use a blend of natural and synthetic to create the scent that people feel is "true sandalwood".
Is your suggestion here that a natural sandalwood oil has been used, but in order to support the scent, some floral oils have also been used, and perhaps either some labdanum or a synthetic amber oil?
Yes, you are right about Amber, Steve. When I said amber in the context of giving lift to sandalwood (in this case I am sure that no real stuff goes), it is mostly the woody amber molecules like Ambrocenide, Ambrofix, Ambroxan, Amber Xtreme, Amberketal, Z11, etc. These are so strong that even in trace amounts, they provide a lift to the difficult elements in the blend. The Padmini dhoop you remember? That is woody amber, but it is used to lift sandalwood, although it overpowers the sandalwood quickly. Florals are used in every sandalwood blend. They are indispensable. I am yet to find a blend where florals, especially rose/geranium, haven't been used in combination with sandalwood. It is the precision of the perfumer to dose it carefully so that only the technical aspect of providing lift to the sandalwood molecules is utilized and the fragrance of floral should not show up. Regarding the use of natural sandalwood oil, I can say with confidence that the mainstream incense makers do not use it. It is all synthetic in combination with some cedarwood oil. Companies like Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF, Symrise, Keva, etc., have developed remarkable sandalwood mimics, and they are used in tiny amounts on top of cheaper materials to give a real effect. You know Steve, the biggest consumer of real sandalwood oil in India is the tobacco industry, the giants like ITC, hahaha. Real sandalwood is also used in very expensive Indian sweet preparations in commercial settings. After tobacco, the biggest consumer would be the cosmetics. But I am sure that the French perfume industry also sucks up most of the production that happens in India.
DeleteYour info is excellent Alok. There is a reluctance in most makers that I am in contact with to give accurate and true information. Yet when I read around the subject (and there is frustratingly little written about Indian incense production, so I read about perfumes in general, and work back from there based on what I know, and simple common sense, but I feel like I'm wandering inside a temple at night without a torch), I find that synthetics are widely used in the perfume industry, and are totally respected. Even Chanel No 5, the most famous and respected perfume, uses synthetics (also some naturals).
DeleteI think there is such pressure on Indian incense makers who want to sell to the West that their products must be natural, that they are afraid to tell the truth.
One of the most respected traditional incense makers among incense connoisseurs in the West is Shroff. Mohith Shroff has told me (and I'm breaking no confidences here, as this is open knowledge - Shroff gain trust by telling the truth) that the company has struggled to keep to their original recipes because of the cost of using natural ingredients, and so have moved to using synthetics.
If even the most revered of traditional masala houses is using synthetics, then that does tell its own tale.
After recently reading about J. J. Sudborough and H. E. Watson - the British scientists who in 1917 introduced the modern method of making essential oil to India, I kind of see that as a watershed date to mark the start of the shift from using finely ground solid ingredients to using oils. I assume nobody sent the memo to the northern countries, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan because they have carried on using natural ingredients rather than oils. I haven't found much information on the development and use of the term "masala" in incense, so I have largely been using common sense and guesswork. But my assumption is that the term originally applied to the mix of finely ground fragrant ingredients, rather similar to a mix of finely ground spices. And it looks like the term has these days shifted from the finely ground ingredients inside the paste to the perfumed melnoorva powder on the outside of the stick. After all, that perfumed powder looks and behaves like a masala of finely ground fragrant ingredients.
I respect Shroff so much! They have earned a reputation. And yes, you are right about Masala. It actually means crushed/pulverized in Hindi. It is a reference to powdered ingredients that are blended together. If you speak to someone from the handcrafted firecracker industry in India, they also refer to the fillings inside the firecracker as masala, because it is a blend of several powdered materials.
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