Single stick sample from the Prasad Celestial Assorted pack made by Haridas Madhavdas Sugandhi of Pune, India (HMS), and sold by Prasad Gifts in the USA. There is a tendency by incense houses in Pune to use vanillin crystals as a fixative, and HMS tend to use a lot of vanillin so a vanilla scent becomes a feature of HMS incense - more noticeable in some blends than others. I like the scent of vanilla, so I tend to be quickly drawn to a HMS incense. I like sweet, I like smooth, I like luxurious, and vanilla has all these qualities so it has an instant appeal. The downside is that it is a tenacious and enduring scent that doesn't shimmer or change, so can become a little boring after a while, and exposure to too much of it (either large dosage in the incense or prolonged or repeated burning) can be a bit cloying or satiating, and it can eventually push away rather than invite.
This Midnight Rose has a sharp volatile scent on the stick with civet-like urine notes along with heavy, heady florals, weighted on rose. It feels chemical due to the sharp volitivity. It's OK, but rose is not a scent I get excited about.
On the burn the vanilla makes itself known quite early, but here it is a soft use, balanced by the heady rose, so the rose and the vanilla work well together, enhancing each other. But although the scents are blending well together to make an acceptable fragrance that doesn't satiate, it's not an exciting accord. I find the sort of mono-scents that HMS focus on to be a little old fashioned and boring. Not really my thing, so even when well done, I find I can't get interested let alone excited. The problem here is not the vanilla, nor even the rose, because well used, as with Jeomra's Frankincense & Rose, rose can be awesome, it's just a lack of spark. It feels like not much thought was put into this. Now, luck plays its part in casual scent blending or incense making, and now and again a casual low cost incense will absolutely delight because for the individual customer it may just hit the right spots. But mostly the result is something acceptable but ordinary. And, for me - your mileage may vary, this is acceptable but ordinary. But, having said that, I find it a pleasant background room freshener, and would be happy to burn this again.
On the burn the vanilla makes itself known quite early, but here it is a soft use, balanced by the heady rose, so the rose and the vanilla work well together, enhancing each other. But although the scents are blending well together to make an acceptable fragrance that doesn't satiate, it's not an exciting accord. I find the sort of mono-scents that HMS focus on to be a little old fashioned and boring. Not really my thing, so even when well done, I find I can't get interested let alone excited. The problem here is not the vanilla, nor even the rose, because well used, as with Jeomra's Frankincense & Rose, rose can be awesome, it's just a lack of spark. It feels like not much thought was put into this. Now, luck plays its part in casual scent blending or incense making, and now and again a casual low cost incense will absolutely delight because for the individual customer it may just hit the right spots. But mostly the result is something acceptable but ordinary. And, for me - your mileage may vary, this is acceptable but ordinary. But, having said that, I find it a pleasant background room freshener, and would be happy to burn this again.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment: