Vanilla is a lovely scent, and is occasionally used in incense sticks, though it will mostly be a synthetic
vanillin, as natural vanillin from the vanilla orchid is scarce and highly expensive. The problem with vanilla as a single scent in incense is that though pleasant it can be fairly limiting by itself, and too much of it can be both a little boring and a little satiating. It is, however, a common and popular room freshener because it is so undemanding, familiar, pleasant, and relaxing. It is a scent I note is not used much by top end incense makers, though I have come upon a number of everyday perfume-dipped incenses using the scent.
I love the bright, joyful yellow of the box - so fitting for vanilla, as I think most of us associate yellow with vanilla - not so much because the vanilla flower is yellow, but because vanilla flavoured ice-cream is yellow. The scent on the stick is heavenly. Really attractive and seductive and engaging. There's a fresh, light, slightly sharp, but young and uplifting volatility on the stick. There's sandalwood - and vanillin can be extracted from woods such as sandalwood, and there's herbs, and there's some rich, plump, slightly heady florals - red rose. It's a very perfumed scent - more like a feminine perfume than an incense, but attractive nonetheless.
The burn is reasonably steady, and the scent on the burn is fairly true to the scent on the stick - it is wholesome, sweet, attractive, and pleasantly compelling. As a room freshener this is a decent job - it is noticeable but not too assertive, and gently lifts the room with a pleasant, sweet, vanilla accented fragrance. I wouldn't say it goes much beyond that, but it does what it does very well, and I think is one of the most pleasing vanilla incenses I've burned.
I had intended to review a batch of Bhagwan incense, but Eugene of Bhagwan has been in touch, and is annoyed that I am not giving the incense a higher score. In our email exchange I attempted to explain my approach, and wrote that "my reviews are subjective, and scores are applied on a
hedonic scale depending on how much, at that particular moment, I like the incense (which is mainly the aroma, but does include various aspects of the incense experience including packaging, pricing, knowledge of the ethics of the company, etc). And I have noted that my experience with the same incense may vary from time to time depending on circumstances. Scents are particularly personal and do invoke individual memories and emotions which are separate from rational measurement, so a series of different scents from any one producer may invoke a variety of responses, while a certain scent, such as rose or sage - if true to type - may invoke a similar response from a range of producers." In essence, I cannot "
heave my heart into my mouth" in order to generate sales for someone, even someone I like - I'd prefer to remain honest. Eugene's response was to tell me to stop reviewing the Bhagwan branded incense, and to throw it all away. I will not do that either - while I do attempt to help out producers and retailers by mentioning and linking to their products, I am independent and not subject to their whims. This is my hobby, and while it may be an asset to others who are in business, and I am aware of that, I am not paid, and I am not a lackey who can be ordered to take down negative reviews or put up falsely positive reviews simply in order to promote sales. Anyway, I am pausing on reviewing Bhagwan branded incense for the moment as there is a little tension here.
I'd also like to make clear, that the reviews I have done of this and all the incense on this blog have been done using conventional incense holders - the upside down holder in the picture, which was sent to me by Aida of
IncenseBurnerHolder.com, was used for the pictures only. I was not satisfied with the fragrance that was generated by the use of the upside down burner (the top notes appeared to get scorched by the heat - something I note happens to most fragrant oil based incense sticks even when using conventional holders - as discussed on
Ratnagandh's review of Shalimar Vanilla), and so for the reviews I used a conventional angled holder.
Date: May 2024 Score: 33
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