Sai Handicrafts are a UK based trader selling Indian incense under their own brand name. The incenses are well chosen - heady and fragrant, and are sold at decent prices. The joss sticks are £2 a packet, the dhoops are £5 a pack. This dhoop stick is named Heritage, and is clearly a sandalwood fragrance. As with most dhoops, it is richly fragrant and somewhat smoky - best burned with plenty of ventilation. The scent is somewhat assertive, though not at all overbearing. But it is not a mild or gentle incense - it will fill the home with sandalwood fragrance.
The scent on the stick is volatile and inclines more to pine disinfectant than sandalwood, though the sandalwood is certainty there, along with clove and camphor, and a couple of other things that are familiar but I can't quite pin down. Something fruity or jammy, and something sweet in the direction of vanilla or coconut, but possibly neither.
The scent on the burn is decidedly sandalwood, though, to be fair, a well mannered sandalwood - a recognisably "sandalwood" aroma, but without the wildness and earth and richness and excitement of a rich dark, genuine sandalwood oil. Fair does, not all sandalwood oils are earthy, some are surprisingly sweet. But this one steers a careful course which emulates sandalwood without actually being sandalwood. It projects aroma chemicals rather than nature. Now, aroma chemicals are the norm in Indian incense. I doubt if there are many Indian incense sandalwoods that actually contain sandalwood essential oil. It's pricy, while the synthetic oils are very good, and are available at a more reasonable price. I've been rambling about this for years, and I guess regular readers will be bored at me repeating it again (oh no, he's talking about synthetic sandalwood again!). But I'll keep repeating it for those readers who look up an incense on the internet and are led here. It's pretty impossible to tell the difference between an aroma chemical and an essential oil in an incense. But the price of these dhoops is a clue, plus the mid level, pleasant, corporate, pleasant sandalwoodness of the scent. There's also some soap, but I have no idea if that is a tell, or is due to something else in the mix.
I like this incense. I like it a lot. It's not a wild, earthy sandalwood. It's not a sweet, charming sandalwood. It is something more in between those. It's a good use of scents to create a woody, oily, rich and delicious scent that is warm, seductive, and very relaxing. Nice one. Sai Handicrafts are worth checking out if you haven't already done so. I think they source from Vrindavan where some awesome incense is made by artisans in and around the holy city, but I don't really know.
The scent on the stick is volatile and inclines more to pine disinfectant than sandalwood, though the sandalwood is certainty there, along with clove and camphor, and a couple of other things that are familiar but I can't quite pin down. Something fruity or jammy, and something sweet in the direction of vanilla or coconut, but possibly neither.
The scent on the burn is decidedly sandalwood, though, to be fair, a well mannered sandalwood - a recognisably "sandalwood" aroma, but without the wildness and earth and richness and excitement of a rich dark, genuine sandalwood oil. Fair does, not all sandalwood oils are earthy, some are surprisingly sweet. But this one steers a careful course which emulates sandalwood without actually being sandalwood. It projects aroma chemicals rather than nature. Now, aroma chemicals are the norm in Indian incense. I doubt if there are many Indian incense sandalwoods that actually contain sandalwood essential oil. It's pricy, while the synthetic oils are very good, and are available at a more reasonable price. I've been rambling about this for years, and I guess regular readers will be bored at me repeating it again (oh no, he's talking about synthetic sandalwood again!). But I'll keep repeating it for those readers who look up an incense on the internet and are led here. It's pretty impossible to tell the difference between an aroma chemical and an essential oil in an incense. But the price of these dhoops is a clue, plus the mid level, pleasant, corporate, pleasant sandalwoodness of the scent. There's also some soap, but I have no idea if that is a tell, or is due to something else in the mix.
I like this incense. I like it a lot. It's not a wild, earthy sandalwood. It's not a sweet, charming sandalwood. It is something more in between those. It's a good use of scents to create a woody, oily, rich and delicious scent that is warm, seductive, and very relaxing. Nice one. Sai Handicrafts are worth checking out if you haven't already done so. I think they source from Vrindavan where some awesome incense is made by artisans in and around the holy city, but I don't really know.
