Folkessence

 

Folkessence is the trademark of an American company called FolkHomes Global, based in Cheyenne, Wyoming (who trade as Folkulture). The incense is made in India by Star Consumer Products in Gurugram, a satellite city of Delhi. Star Consumer Products appears to be mainly known for selling laundry detergents.  

Reviews

Folkessence Trippy Hippy
Moon Child (Wildflower Lotus) (P)
Aug 2025 - Score: 23

   

Folkessence Trippy Hippy
Hippy Soul (Balsam Cedarwood) (P)
Aug 2025 - Score: 22

Reviews: 
Top score: 
Bottom score: 
Average: 

***

Own brand traders

Folkessence Trippy Hippy Hippy Soul (Balsam Cedarwood)

 

Made in India by a laundry detergents company, Star Consumer Products, for an American home style distribution company, Folkulture, and bought in Nottingham by my granddaughter as a gift for me. This Hippy Soul is part of a range called Trippy Hippy, all of them mechanically extruded pale wood powder fragranced with basic room-freshener, laundry-product scents. 

The scent on the stick is clean, sharp, lemony, indistinctly floral. Quite bright and uplifting, though clearly chemical and very much basic everyday. Essentially, if you like the fragrance of clothes conditioners, then you will enjoy this. I'm OK with it. It's not an exquisite scent, but the simple, bright, fresh, summary notes are not offensive - indeed are quite jolly and uplifting. 

The scent on the burn is mild, smoky, vague, and without the fun, breezy brightness of the scent on the stick. Ho hum. Smells more like smouldering paper than cedarwood. 

Date: Aug 2025    Score: 22

***

Folkessence

Folkessence Trippy Hippy Moon Child (Wildflower Lotus)

 

A gift from my youngest granddaughter in thanks for supporting her through university. Lovely girl. Folkessence is the trademark of an American company called FolkHomes Global, based in Cheyenne, Wyoming (who trade as Folkulture). The incense is made in India by Star Consumer Products in Gurugram, a satellite city of Delhi. Star Consumer Products appears to be mainly known for selling various cleaning liquids and powders. 

The packaging is charming, and is clearly aimed at old hippies like me. There is a collection of psychedelic flat packs, with names like Moon Child, Free Spirit, Good Vibes, in a small cardboard box labelled Trippy Hippy. It's all very sweet and cute, and I have absolutely no expectation that the incense will be any good. But it's good fun, and a brilliant present for aging hippies! The sticks in this Moon Child pack, as in all the others, is mechanically extruded pale coloured wood powder which has been dipped in mildly pleasant room-freshener style scent. This Moon Child has a lemony fragrance, a bit like washing up liquid. 

As with most mechanically extruded incense sticks, it burns neatly and consistently, the ash falling in neat strings. The fragrance on the burn is quite mild, and moderately echoes the lemony washing-up scent on the stick, though softer, and smudged by vague grey warmth. There's a hazy floral awareness - nothing specific, but kind of summery. It's basic stuff - not offensive, though it's not the sort of exquisite incense that gets me interested let alone excited.  

Date: Aug 2025    Score: 23

***

Folkessence

Best floral incense

Fumino Saffron Sandalwood

 

Saffron and sandalwood is a reasonably popular combination in Indian incense, and I find it works well - I have liked pretty much every incense stick that I have tried which is made with this fragrance combination.  And I love the aroma on the sticks as I take them out of the pack. Fresh, attractive, with that particular "masala" scent of powdery sandalwood. This also has cedarwood and beech notes, and a good spray of florals and fruits. It is a genuinely delightful scent. 

The fragrance on the burn is beautiful. Certainly woody, and the woods swirl around sandalwood, cedar and beech. There is a sharp touch in the woods, which comes from the cedarwood aspect. I don't think there is cedarwood in the fragrance mix, but that is the scent I perceive. Indeed, for me it has always been about the perception of the fragrance rather than what was intended, or what fragrances were used.  And I think that is particularly relevant when it comes to incense sticks where the scent blends are composed in house (rather than sticks composed directly from fragrance ingredients or resins such as Pure Yemen do). Yes, there is some friction that occurs when a stick is presented as containing certain scents, such as here with the Saffron Sandalwood name, and those scents are not perceived when the incense is burned. But I have learned over the years that by and large what an incense is named is not important - it is the scent we perceive that is important. As such  it is usually better if non-scent names are given, so that there is less likelihood of friction between expectation and perception.   Also, non-scent names can be fun! 

I love this Saffron Sandalwood. I have burned it several times over the past three days, and the more I burn it the more I enjoy it. The incense fragrance is noticeable though not assertive - it is a soft, gentle, subtle, intriguing scent that unfolds in various ways, all of them playing around with creamy woods, soft florals - jasmine, and playful and refreshing fruits. Golly, this is good! 

Date: Aug2025   Score: 46

***

Fumino

Saffron

Fumino Tropical Rainforest

 

I reviewed Fumino Tropical Rainforest cones last year, and found them moderately pleasant, but lacking in interest. I tend to prefer sticks over cones, so I'm hoping that this will be a better encounter.

The scent on the stick is refreshing and zingy with hints of mint and sandalwood.  The scent on the burn is pleasant, and echoes the fragrance on the stick, though is a little mild and laid back for my taste. Yeah, it's OK, and is better than the cone, though like the cone it lacks spunk.  

Date: Nov 2024   Score: 28

***

Fumino

Stamford Dragons Blood

 

I'm OK with perfumed incense, but I do prefer when incense makers explore the possibilities offered by perfumed, and offer exciting new fragrancies, rather than traditional resin scents, such as dragons blood. But then again, to be fair, I'm not an expert on resins or dragon's blood. It just "feels" more appropriate if you're gonna want a dragon's blood fragrance in your home, and especially if you're gonna want to get more out of it than just a pleasant scent to freshen the house, that you'd go for the true resin. For me, a mono-scent incense stick is for fun and convenience rather than for aromatherapy, magic, meditation, therapy, or connoisseur aesthetic appreciation. But it's each to their own, and your mileage may vary. Anyway, I'm not expecting much of this stick, other than it will smell perfumed and acceptable - perhaps a bit tart and spicy, with sweet woody notes, which is the most common description of the scent of dragon's blood. 

Well, it meets my expectations. It is a bit tart and spicy with sweet woody notes. It is perfumed and acceptable. Yeah, it's OK. It's actually a little better than I expected (but, then again, I wasn't expecting much). Dragon's blood is a vague sort of scent - I've only had the resin once, and it was acceptable and vague. I recently (March this year) had a Pure Yemen incense stick made from the original dragon's blood resin from dracaena cinnabari, the dragon blood tree, which only grows on the Yemen island of Socotra, and that was my best encounter with dragon's blood. That is a dragon's blood incense I would certainly suggest people try if they fancy exploring genuine dragon's blood in stick form. This Stamford Dragon's Blood is not genuine dragon's blood, and is for casual room freshening only. Though, as always, your mileage may vary. 

Date: Aug 2025   Score:  27

***

Stamford London

Dragon's blood

Fumino Tropical Fruits

 

Oooh - the scent on the stick of this Fumino Tropical Fruits is glorious. Fruity, tangy, herby, warm and spicy with wood tones. It's sultry and zesty with a firm grip on a unisex cologne. This is lovely stuff - sandalwood and patchouli and summer warmth and ripeness. 

Delightfully the fragrance on the burn follows closely that on the stick. This is a refreshing, uplifting, bright incense - a cleansing room freshener, and a decent scent which can be burned just for the pleasure of that alone. 

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 37

***

Fumino

Fruit Fragrances

Satya (BNG) Opium

 

Opium is a reasonably popular incense scent, based on the 1977 perfume by Yves Saint Laurent.

The scent on the stick is gorgeous. Sweet and highly perfumed, feminine and sultry with a yummy musky and woody base and enlivened with vanilla and florals - it follows the tradition of Nag Champa in that it has a woody (sandalwood) base with floral top notes, but is a lot busier and more subtle and interesting than that standard Indian incense base. Very commercial and appealing, but also quite fascinating. A brilliant promise. 

The scent on the burn is surprisingly gentle and laid back. It takes its own sweet time to drift around the room and start to meet the promise on the stick. I like my incense to be quite bold and up front, and I tend to expect that of Indian incense in general. Satya is not the boldest of Indian incenses, though it's generally not shy either - usually saying hi quite early on in the burn. However, after a little while, it does come across, and is warm, spicy, sweet, with sandalwood and floral notes in harmony. There are hints of what is available on the stick, though over several burns it doesn't quite deliver that early promise. However, it is a sweet and attractive incense, and I like it a lot. There's subtle citric and fruit notes to keep it fresh and lively.

Even knowing that most perfumed incenses don't quite perform in the burn as they promise on the stick, so I do expect that the burn fragrance will underperform the stick fragrance, it is still a little disappointing that this one underperforms because the promise was so exciting. The burn hints at that thrilling promise, but falls so far sort, that there is a sad sigh in my heart.  


Date: Aug 2025 Score: 38

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Opium

Satya / Stamford (2012) Imagination

 

This is an old Satya - the fragrance developed in conjunction with Aargee / Stamford around 2012. This is Satya before the brothers split.  I'm not sure where my box came from, nor how long I've had it, but the date on the hologram seal is 2012. However, this appears to be still available in the original boxes, as here at £2. 

This is a standard perfumed masala - it is similar to the majority of such sticks made across India. I see people putting down Satya on incense forums and blogs, but on a blind test I doubt if many (or any) of those folks could really tell Satya apart from most of the thousands of companies in India making perfumed masala incense sticks. The negative attitude toward Satya in some incense circles began when the brothers split, and Nagraj Setty began selling poor quality Satya branded incense from his Mumbai premises. That harmed the reputation of the company which still lingers, even though the Satya incense sold by Balkrishna Setty from the original Bangalore premises had retained the same quality, and the Satya incense sold by Nagraj has since improved, such that there is no longer a significant  difference between the output of both brothers, other than name and address. 

The scent on the stick is quite heady, volatile, and moist. It is both earthy and perfumed, with chemical notes. It curiously reminds me of the scent on the stick of some Pushkar incense, suggesting that perhaps a dose of something like DEP / agarbatti oil was used too liberally, though I'm not sure that Satya uses DEP, nor that it uses halmaddi - I suspect that Satya uses frankincense oil in the paste as a fixative. They do use fragrance oils, and these will be blended with carrier oils, and may also be cut with something like DEP to keep costs down. But I've not read of them doing that, and evidence, such as the scent on this stick, is thin and unreliable. 

The scent on the burn is very heady, and may not be appreciated by most Western customers - this behaves more like a domestic Indian incense than an export. Aargee at its height did commission some excellent and uncompromising incense, and this is one such example. I assume that is why so much stock is still for sale - this is too much for most Westerners, who prefer better behaved and more commercial incense. I think that DEP may have been used, as it does increase the potency and projection of the perfume oils. This is not an incense for those who like the weak fragrances of Asian incense, particularly Japanese. This is a rich, passionate, colourful, powerful incense which as the name suggests excites the imagination. Having said that, there is some variance between the sticks. Some of the sticks I burned had a pleasant floral aspect - jasmine and violets, with hints of peppermint, and were quite soft and well mannered; others were much more complex with lumps of rich woody driftwood amid the sea-spray of marine and coral and the joy of floral sprays. Yes. A fascinating if sadly inconsistent classic Aargee / Satya.  

Date: Aug 2025 Score: 39

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Help Us Green Sandalwood

 

The resemblance to Phool in terms of packaging and use of recycled temple flowers is no coincidence - Help Us Green was founded in 2019 by Karan Rastogi, who co-founded Phool in 2017. The sticks are neat and tidy - mechanically extruded and spray scented. The fragrance on the stick is somewhat chemical and artificial - it's like one of those plastic room fresheners that people place in the corners of smelly rooms, such as toilets. It's not offensive, but it's not exactly what you think of when thinking of incense. 

The scent on the burn, however, is rather more attractive. It is a little light, so there is the temptation to waft the smoke in my direction, but that is rarely successful, and it isn't with these sticks either - I get more soft vague smoke aroma than I do exquisite fragrance. But if I let the fragrance do its thing, there is a pleasant sweet musky presence, somewhat woody, which drifts around the room, gently informing and brightening it. It's a warm and attractive scent. More room freshener than aromatherapy, but I'm OK with that. There is an appealing commercial aspect to this. The overall scent is more appealing and rounded than Phool, and does work well as a pleasant room freshener. Plus points for the recycling of temple flowers.     

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 29 

***

Recycled Temple Flowers

Sandalwood

Ansaam Incenses Sondos

 

Tidying up my desk, and this emerged from under a heap of books, CDs, incense packs, and scarves. It's a big packet to mislay - the sticks are over a foot long! They are from Ansaam Incenses of Egypt. While in Cairo visiting one of my daughters who taught there, I bought some of the normal sized Ansaam incenses from a stall in Khan el-Khalili. In looking on the internet for more information about the Ansaam incense house I found Etsy seller, Kim of IncenseLounge who was selling these long sticks for £8 a packet (they are - as of Aug 2025 - around £11.50 a packet).  I have noted that since my initial review in April 2024 a number of other sellers have popped up on Etsy, Amazon,  DesertCart, and eBay at varying prices. 

There is some useful information on the pack, such as the production date (Jan 2021), and the shelf life (five years). It also tells me the ingredients: Sandalwood, Fragrance, Natural Fixatives, Masala Powder - Tree Bark. The sticks are mechanically extruded, and appear to be made in the same way, and using the same ingredients, as Indian incense. So this is a modern perfumed masala stick. The fragrance is the key thing in perfumed masala, and the fragrance is made by Maomen, based in Port Said. Both companies formed at the same time, and are based in the same place, so it looks like Ansaam Incenses is the incense brand of Maomen.  

The scent on the stick is very perfumed and commercial with powdery floral notes, some citric, and a sweet musky, almost patchouli base. It seems to riff around that sweet musky fragrance with floral and citric notes, which is pleasant, though a little earnest and is not profound or interesting.  I like it, but it's too simple and perfumed for my taste, so doesn't hold my attention. Because of the length there are not many incense holders which are appropriate. Outside is fine - just stick it in the ground. It can also be put in the earth of a plant pot, depending of the size and shape of the plant. I have some upright stick holders, and that's what I use. The fragrance on the burn expands on the fragrance on the stick - it is a sweet oud scent, though with some sandalwood notes that ground it and provide some woody contrast to the sweetness. It burns OK in the house - reasonably heady (which I like), but not overwhelming. Though I haven't burned the whole stick in one go. I just burn a bit, until there's the point at which the sweetness gets a bit satiating, then I put it out. It does fill the house with a sweet, musky aroma which lingers pleasantly for some time. It is softly Arabic in nature. I like it, but the sweetness, and the simple nature keeps the score down. And I find the length to be off-putting as an indoor incense - though I would find it useful as an outdoor incense for picnics or barbecues - so there's swings and roundabouts. 

I just looked up the name - Sondos is a feminine perfume by Lattafa - an Arabian perfume maker. It all starts to make sense now. I think I'd prefer this as a perfume than an incense, though I'm not sure I'd find it attractive on someone. I think this is a perfume to spray on bedclothes. 

Date: Aug 2025    Score: 32

***

Ansaam Incenses of Egypt

Fumino Jasmine Aloe Vera

 

I do like the scents that are in the Fumino range. Jasmine and Aloe Vera is an interesting combination. On looking it up I found only one other incense with that combination, and it is made by Vivasvan International of Bangalore who trade as Garden Fresh. When I first encountered this Fumino brand I wondered if the sticks were being made by Garden Fresh/Vivasvan, but I had no real direction signs, and this isn't one either, but I find it curious that Garden Fresh crops up again in relation to Fumino. 

The fragrance on the stick is fresh and fruity with powdery floral notes. It is pleasant, cleansing, and uplifting. The scent on the burn is a little muted and obscure with some inoffensive but neither very attractive smoky notes wrapped around the fruit and flowers. It is a modest albeit pleasant and uplifting room freshener.  

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 27

***

Fumino

Fumino Pineapple

 

I've only had a few pineapple incenses. They tend to be fresh and uplifting, though a little simple, so they don't hold my attention or provide meaningful rewards. But I think they are nice for a change now and again. Essential oils can be made from pineapple skin, and is used as a way of dealing with pineapple waste, though tends to be three times more expensive than a fragrance oil made up to produce the pineapple smell, so it is highly likely than most pineapple incense, including this one, uses synthetics or natural alternatives to essential pineapple oil.  

The scent on the stick is fresh and lively and juicy sweet - it does convey the essence of pineapple with few off notes. There's a touch of creamy sandalwood which grounds the fragrance and provides contrast, and there are some pungent civet notes here and there which give it power and interest. The room is left with a creamy, woody sort of pineapple fragrance. Softly pleasant, and the most attractive and satisfying pineapple incense I've yet encountered.  

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 35

***

Fumino

Fruit Fragrances

Fumino Coconut

 

The scent on the stick is fresh, lively, quite juicy, compelling spice notes, woods, grass, bananas, alcohol, tobacco. A fascinating melange. There's a vague sense of coconut as well, but not bang on. I think the coconut scent has been created out of other scents, and it hasn't quite worked, but it has produced a clash and clamour of scents which puts me in mind of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, particularly The Leaden Echo and The Golden Echo. 

The fragrance on the burn is equally complex and fascinating, though points more clearly toward coconut. It's a somewhat beguiling and seductive scent - a musky, sweet base leading up to some joyful fruit and floral notes. It is somewhat crude and brash with its clearly synthetic fragrance oils, but that is part of its charm - those rough edges are very compelling, and give spice to what might otherwise be an everyday commercial sweet coconut scent. I like this. 

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 39

***

Fumino

Coconut incense

Sai Handicrafts Amber

 

There is a curious volatile lemony scent on the stick - quite artificial and chemical. It reminds me of some of the crude Pushkar incenses from Northern India, which curiously I've just been discussing with "BriefChemistry" today in regards to the possibility that British based Sai Handicrafts are sourcing their Oudh from Pushkar, as "BriefChemistry" found them to be very similar. Though "BriefChemistry" says he got his Ruhe Oud from Vrindavan (which is where I suspect - though I don't know - that Pinkesh of Sai Handicrafts buys his incense). Anyway...

The fragrance when burned is less chemical and volatile, though still has a pronounced lemon character. It is an attractive scent, though not compelling. It does have a little sharp pinch now and again, which I don't like. On the whole a moderately likeable everyday sort of uplifting room freshener, but a little crude, not divine, and not, for me, within scope of a fragrance that I would identify as amber (albeit that amber is a vague scent which will differ from incense house to incense house).  I find this to be more suitable for the toilet than the house in general. 

Available from Sai Handicrafts at approx 15g for £2.00. 

Date: Aug 2025    Score: 24

***

Sai Handicrafts

Amber

Temple of Incense Myrrh

    

Myrrh is one of the classic traditional wood incenses, though it's not a scent that has particularly grabbed me. It is relatively cheap and easy to make into an essential oil, yet difficult to accurately synthesise, and is not in high demand,  so most myrrh incense will use the natural essential oil. It is a wonderful accompaniment to frankincense, less attractive by itself. Given that this is a monoscent, and myrrh resin is widely available, the main attraction to having myrrh in an incense stick format where it would be blended with binders, etc, is the ease and convenience of  burning a stick. Though (I am compelled to say this) paying £16 for the convenience seems to me to be either the height of rich self-indulgence or sheer stupidity. Myrrh resin is not expensive. 

There is a weighty and hard lump of paste on the chunky bamboo stick. The paste has been mechanically extruded onto the bamboo. The fragrance on the sticky is creamy caramel. Very commercial and appealing. Very sweet, with notes of vanilla and coconut. Quite yummy - though I'd welcome some balancing bitter notes. Well, there are some, but restrained and somewhat buried by the sweetness in my nose. Your mileage may vary - people do differ in their sensitivity to sweetness and to bitterness. 

   

Available from ToI at £16 for a box of 20 sticks
or from Exotic Incense for $22. 

There is more bitterness contrast in the fragrance on the burn. It's quite leafy and wholesome blended with the musky caramel sweetness. Hints of chocolate. Some mint. Very enjoyable. I like this. While its a monoscent there is enough going on in myrrh to keep the interest, and it is an appealing scent.  I find this to be one of the more attractive myrrh incenses I've burned. And, yes, it's nice to have the convenience of the stick. But the price is off-putting for me. Each to their own, but we prefer Satya's Myrrh, and that's available at a more realistic price. Why not try both on a blind scent test, and see which you prefer?  But this did seduce me. And I like it. I would certainly buy this if it were £2 or £3.

There is some similarity in appearance and production with Happy Hari's King of Myrrh, and there may have been an intention to copy it, or it may even come from the same source. We didn't really get on with the Happy Hari Myrrh - it was  OK, but never lifted for us. This ToI Myrrh experience has been more pleasing, even if it did come from the same source (which it may not - I honestly don't know). 

Date: Aug 2025   Score: 37

***

Temple of Incense

Myrrh

Reviewed in USA

Reviewed in Germany

Rasbihari Lal Ab. Sayli (Radharani) / Absolute Sayli

 

Called Ab. Sayli (Radharani) by Rasbihari - a devotional shop in the holy city of Vrindavan in Northern India, and Absolute Sayli by Padma Store - the Germany based online store which bought the incense from Rasbihari. The incense is made in and around Vrindavan by a selection of small producers. There are other outlets in Vrindavan, such as Vrindavan Bazaar, which may (or may not) be using the same local producers. 

The charcoal paste on the stick is covered by a thin layer of pink coloured fragrant masala/melnoorva powder. There is an incense sold by Pure Incense called Pink Sayli, though the melnoorva powder appears to be fluffier on the Pure sticks. Adi Guru, the owner of Pure Incense is known to source most of his incense from HMS in Pune - it may just be a coincidence, it may be HMS copying Vrindavan (or vice-versa), or Adi Guru may have sourced his Pink Sayli from Vrindavan. Who knows? Who cares anyway? Buy from whoever you are happy with. 

Sweet mostly musky-floral scent on the stick. Quite light and joyful. Very appealing. Very commercial. Some cute sharp notes, but mostly this is soft and inviting. I had some off-notes when I started my first stick - possibly a hair or something caught up in the paste. I broke off the end and started again. It was clearer, but the scent on the burn is not hugely inviting for me. It's a tad smoky and a tad obscure, like the Super MahaLaxmi I just reviewed. It comes around after a while to the sweet musky-floral notes I got from the powder on the stick. Nice, but a little simple, and not very bold or energetic. It does pleasantly, albeit modestly, inform the room, so it's OK, but I'm not really impressed. 

Available from Padma Store (as Absolute Sayli) -- 10gm for 5.45 Euros plus postage, or from Rasbihari (as Ab. Sayli (Radharani)) - 250gm for $12.50 plus postage.  Padma also sell a sample pack of 15 different scents bought from Rasbihari. A useful introduction. 

Date: Aug 2025    Score: 26

***

Rasbihari Lal & Sons

Reviewed in Germany

Discussed on Reddit