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| The Om shop in Pushkar |
Pushkar is a temple town in the northwest of India. There are three incense outlets in the town -Nityam, Shiva, and Om (there used to be five, but two have recently closed down according to Google maps). Nityam sell their incense in packets with a smiley face, and I have reviewed some of those as sold in the UK by Mystic Soul (website down as of Aug 2025), who give this description of the incense: "Mystic Soul Incense is sourced from a small family run business from the city of Pushkar in India ...[it] is made by hand in a traditional/authentic way. The ingredients are first boiled to make a paste, then hand rolled onto bamboo sticks, once dried they are sprayed with essential oil before finally being covered in wooden fragrance powder." Which is a description of standard perfumed masala as made and sold by the majority of incense makers across India.
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| The Nityam shop with two tourists |
Pushkar incenses are also sold by the UK based Pilgrims Fair Trade (PFT). I assume that PFT sourced these from Om Pushkar Natural Incense which don't put the incense in special sleeves as Nityam and Shiva do.
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| Shiva packets |
While there are variations within stock sold by PFT and Mystic Soul, indicating different households making certain scents, there doesn't appear to me to be any difference between the incense sold by PFT and the incense sold by Mystic Soul, so I assume they are all made (or overseen) by the same family business. It is quite common for Indian shops to sell white label incense under their own name - Ramakrishna's is a well known example. PFT market them as Pushkar "Temple Incense", and I note that on various incense blogs and forums, they are termed "Pushkar Temple", though the outlets in Pushkar say "Natural" and "Hand Rolled", but not "Temple". Its possible, but I doubt if any of the temples in Pushkar are making these. Some discussion on Reddit: "Pushkaram" and "Pushkar Temple". Retail outlets in Pushkar: OM; Nityam; and Shiva. Film about the OM shop.
Reviews
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| Pushkar incense Pushkar Sandal (M) Jan 2025 - Score: 39 |
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| Pushkar Mantra (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 38 |
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Pushkar Nag Champa Sp (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 35 |
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| Pushkar Amber Kasturi (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 29 |
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| Pushkar Krishna Flora (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 29 |
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| Pushkar Kobra (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 29 |
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| Pushkar Agar Woods (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 27 |
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| Pushkar Vrindavan (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 25 |
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| Pushkar Sandal Super (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 23 |
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| Pushkar Tube Rose (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 21 |
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| Pushkar Vanilla (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 19 |
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| Pushkar Sandal Woods (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 17 |
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| Pushkar Kirtan (PM) Jan 2025 - Score: 12 |
Scents reviewed: 13
Top score: 39
Top score: 39
Bottom score: 12
Average: 23
Conclusion: A few of these Pushkar incenses have been promising on the stick, but none have really shined on the burn. I've not really got on with them. The impression I have gained is that of a backstreet incense maker in the northwest India temple town of Pushkar who is using cheap fragrance oils and large plastic tubs of agarbatti oil to scent the sticks, and is using the buy it cheap and pile it high theory. I often like crude and simple. And I tend to love heady. But, while some sticks have had that appealing crude and heady intensity, on the whole I have not liked or loved them as a whole.
Conclusion: A few of these Pushkar incenses have been promising on the stick, but none have really shined on the burn. I've not really got on with them. The impression I have gained is that of a backstreet incense maker in the northwest India temple town of Pushkar who is using cheap fragrance oils and large plastic tubs of agarbatti oil to scent the sticks, and is using the buy it cheap and pile it high theory. I often like crude and simple. And I tend to love heady. But, while some sticks have had that appealing crude and heady intensity, on the whole I have not liked or loved them as a whole.
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Hi ! i don’t know if you ever see it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHqpJSKS50 i’ts thé Shop and the artisan Who talk about incense and oil.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did see that. I asked a friend to give me a translation of the part where they talk about the incense. This is what he replied to me:
Delete“here is what they are saying about their incense: 'These incense are handrolled, they give off less smoke and one stick burns for 1 hour. You can get these scents in different fragrance such as Sandalwood, chocolate, kesar Chandan etc.' Regarding where they produce, they said that their factory is located 3-4km from their shop."
I'll put the video in a link: Video