Vuong Kim Thanh Incense Phat Ba Quan Am (Guanyin)

 

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Cute sticks. Paste is mechanically extruded onto pink sticks. A tad shorter than the average length stick. Scent on the paste is bold and not unattractive, though a little mixed. Rubber bands (which I do tend to get from some Asian sticks), marine coral, cheap perfume - vaguely floral, not quality, but curiously appealing, like Teen Spirit.  

The fragrance on the burn is quite bold for an Asian incense (it appears to me that Asian incense becomes fainter/more subtle the further East from India one goes). The burn fragrance echoes that of the stick. It's more of a fabric conditioner scent than a traditional incense scent. It is a little warm and blurry, with an old socks element to it. Not bad, but not particularly engaging either. I'm keeping hold of the incense in the house for a little longer in order to review this again in a few months. It's a little more interesting than much other cheap Asian incense. But that is not to say it's actually very appealing. And I am liking it less than I did last year, so I am marking the score down. But I like the bold weight of the fragrance - there is some character here. It's not unattractive, and it is interesting, just that it's not that great. 

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 27

First review

Vietnamese incense from Tradewinds for £3.99. This incense is available from a number of Asian online shops in a variety of countries including the US: KayakCreeks, and Australia: Exotic Groceries.  The company is Vuong Kim Thanh, based in Saigon. Difficult to work out the name of this particular incense - I couldn't find it on the archived website. Much of the wording refers to the incense being smoke free, but there is the wording, Phat Ba Quan Am, which translates roughly as Buddha Avalokiteshvara, and there is an image of a woman on a green dragon, which I feel probably refers to Guanyin, a Chinese representation of Avalokiteshvara.  I shall take Phat Ba Quan Am as the name, and translate it as Guanyin, as being the nearest possible meaning, based on the image. 

I like the packaging of Chinese and Vietnamese incense. It's usually bright and colourful and very jolly. I love the image on this tube. The weight is 180g, and there's probably 180 or so sticks in the tube, so at £3.99 this a good value packet. The sticks are 7 1/2 inches, with 5 inches of firm, machine extruded paste on a scarlet dyed machine-cut bamboo splint. The scent on the stick is pleasant, perfumed, light, floral, chalky, some rubber band, light sandalwood. 

The burn is pleasant, perfumed, sweet, floral, but with that smouldering sandalwood sawdust that seems to be a feature of Thailand, Vietnam, and Chinese incense. That smouldering damp wood-dust smell is not one I particularly like, and is one I associate with cheap incense from these secondary incense producing countries. I think this Vuong Kim Thanh incense is pleasant  and attractive, but also rather limited. It's soft, pleasant, well behaved, and somewhat boring. There's nothing interesting here. There's no passion here. No surprises. No delights. Just a pleasant sweetish floral scent - a bit like a packet of Love Hearts. And it comes with an accompanying drift of smouldering damp sawdust/wood-powder that drags it in the wrong direction. I do like it. It's actually a decent everyday scent. It's not a bargain basement everyday scent, it's a decent one. 

Date: Nov 2024   Score: 34 

***

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