Vijayshree Golden Nag Mantra

 

I think all of Vijayshree's incenses are prefaced with "Golden"; and there's many which have "Nag" in the name.  I'm not sure if the "Nag" is associated with the "Golden", so the brand is "Golden Nag", and the scent is "Mantra"; or if the brand is simply "Golden", and the Nag is part of the name of the scent - so this scent is "Nag Mantra".  I just looked back on my experiences with Vijayshree: the first Vijayshree scent I reviewed was  Golden Nag Champa cones in 2017. I remarked back then: "It's not what I would normally understand as a Nag Champa - it seems to contain plumeria or frangipani, rather than the magnolia or champaca of Nag Champa. Normally such incenses are simply called Champa, but Vijayshree have chosen to call it Nag Champa, which expands my understanding of what is Nag Champa."  So, reflecting on that, it seems that "Golden Nag" is the brand name, as the Golden Nag Champa cones I had in 2017 smelled of champa rather than nag champa. 

My early encounters with Vijayshree incense tended to be enthusiastically positive (albeit holding back on very high scores), yet with little analysis of the product or the scent. However, with a weight of positive experiences (however shallow) I started to associate Vijayshree as a potential incense house of quality. And this, despite repeated comments regarding the vague nature of the scents, their lightness, the brevity of the burn, and an awareness of the perfume on the stick. I then decided to explore more of the Golden Nag range. I found the cones variable, with a general trend toward crude perfume-dipped, though my feelings regarding the agarbathi were still very positive - mostly hovering around top end of Decent or nudging into Heavenly on my Top of The Dhoops list. It looks now that I simply swoon at the scent on the stick, and, like an infatuated Romeo, largely ignore how superficial and curiously room-freshener perfumed they are on the burn. 

The scent on the stick is warm, manly, sweet, musky, floral, citric, delightful, hovering between a bukhoor body perfume and a fougre accord, such as used in Brut. It promises much, but the scent on the burn is quiet (and soon over), and delivers a faintly pleasant room-freshener perfume. Nothing significant. Moderately nice.

My experiences with this stick, and looking back at my previous reviews, have prompted me to question my enthusiasm for Vijayshree. Whereas initially I though the sticks were proper masala (and indeed they are described as such), I'm now thinking they are perfumed masala. So, I scraped the powder off one of these sticks, and just burned the charcoal. There was no scent. It's a charcoal punk, coated in wood powder, and then dipped in a perfume solution.  Smells great on the stick. Less effective on the burn.  Sigh. This is not unique to Vijayshree - this appears to be a trend. Cheap perfume-dipped sticks being marketed to the West as masala. Of course, as I always say, it doesn't really matter how the sticks are made (within common sense of course), what matters is how they smell - how much pleasure they give. The pleasure created on the burn with this stick is very, very modest. I'm now interested in going back to the previous Vijayshree I've reviewed to see how much I was seduced and distracted by the scent on the stick, and just how the scent on the burn stands up to a more critical examination.  

Date: Jan 2025    Score: 24

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Vijayshree Fragrance