Nandita Arabian Oudh

 

Scent on the stick is sweet, citric, and floral. Quite perfumed and synthetic. There's some faint sandalwood soap. And some cleaning fluid - a little sharp, metallic, medicinal. I quite like Nandita, I've had some good masala style incense from them; but their recent machine-extruded output has largely been disappointing (though I like the Original Amber, despite presenting as a perfumed machine-extruded stick). This presents as a fairly simple perfumed machine-extruded stick, with a crude synthetic perfume on the stick. I like the scent of oudh (agarwood), and this scent doesn't match up with my experiences with that fragrance. 

The scent on the burn matches my experience with most of the other recent machine-extruded sticks I've had from Nandita - a simple smouldering wood smell at first, then the synthetic perfume warms up and becomes known. Nandita scents, especially from the machine-extruded sticks, tend to be mild - this one, however, is calling attention to itself. Much of the burn scent echoes that found on the stick, though the fruit notes are less citric - sweeter and juicier, and there's some woody touches, though that could be remnants of the  smouldering wood. The combustible material in the paste appears to be wood powder rather than charcoal, and that could account for the woody touches. On the whole this is not a scent that is really engaging me. Pity, as I generally like oudh, and I generally like Nandita.  Though, to be fair, it diffuses well around the house - and at some distance it is a reasonably pleasant aroma that perhaps has some light awareness of oudh - but more of sweet citric fruit and sweet florals. 

Date: Jan 2025   Score: 24

***

Nandita of Mumbai

The best agarwood incense