There is an old fashioned and familiar scent on the stick. Sweet, delicate, delightful. It smells as much like strawberries as roses, and reminds me of the legendary Spiritual Sky Strawberry Fields incense. There are no roses involved in the making of this, and it kind of shows. Geranium has been used as it is a cheaper oil than rose oil. We often often talk about ingredients, as though they matter. But sometime they don't. What really matters is how the incense smells when it is lit. Hunting after the musk or sandalwood or rose in an incense stick may actually lead us astray. I think we should just open ourselves up and enjoy the experience - let our emotions and imagination play with the scent, explore it, see where it goes. Let's not be surprised or disappointed at the lack of real rose in this incense, let's just enjoy what is here. My one quibble, of course, is that the incense is named Rose. Better to let people relax and enjoy the fragrance experience without looking for the rose scent, especially as in this case the rose scent is fake. The ingredients are "Wood powders, geranium powders, benzoin resin, and geranium essential oil". The benzoin resin would likely be used as a fixative, and the wood powders would likely be sandalwood powder as a combustible and litsea glutinosa powder, known as joss powder among other names, as a binder. The powders and the ground resin would be mixed into the paste. The essential oil could either be put into the paste before rolling out, or used as a dip afterwards. I'm not experienced enough to know which way round it has been done, or why an incense maker would select one method over another. I think that dipping afterwards would make the stick smell pleasant, and so create a positive response before lighting up. And I suspect that the downside of that would be that the scent could evaporate. I think that in this case the oils have been folded into the paste. My understanding is that would make these sticks "masala" rather than "perfume dipped". Though I wonder if the use of the benzoin resin as a fixative would also mark this out as a masala incense.
The scent on the burn takes a little time to settle. There's scorched wood from the wood powders, and that tends to dominate, with occasional higher notes drifting around, but - for me - not really making much of an impression. I walk around the house with it, but it doesn't improve. There's some light floral notes, and a touch of sweetness here and there, but predominantly for me is the smouldering wood. It's not offensive, but it is rather dull and ordinary, and not an incense I would positively select for even the most casual of room freshening. It's a quiet, sombre, neutral to bitter, and somewhat dry smouldering wood incense with the lightest touch of floral pleasure.
Available from Aromandise, or Padma Store, or other outlets.
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