An "amber" stick from Raeucherwelt.de, which I got in the "Nature & Pure" sample set for €27.90. These are resin-on-a-stick style incenses made on a small scale by Georg Huber (Jeomra) in Germany. Amber is not a genuine natural scent as such - it is more an idea of a scent, and Huber is open and honest enough to deal with that in his description on the website: "the name "Amber" doesn't refer to amber itself, nor to ambergris, ... but rather to a scent image". Lower grade incenses and perfumes will use synthetics, or natural blends, while decent perfumes and better quality incenses will use labdanum, a resin extracted from gum rockrose, a flowering shrub native to Spain and Portugal. Huber blends labdanum (sourced from Portugal) with balsam of Peru from South America, Siam benzoin from Vietnam, along with unspecified "essential oils". The combustibles in the paste are a mix of sandalwood dust powder (known as "balloon dust" because it is so fine) and beech wood charcoal, and the stick is finished with a sprinkling of the sandalwood powder.
There is a candy sweet scent on the stick - a pleasant, chalky, sweet vanilla scent. It's perhaps a tad too sweet for my taste, but I do like the cool mineral quality of the scent, and the faint dusty wood aspect, which takes a little of the edge off the sweetness, though I'd welcome more balance toward the wood. I like it, it is a rather inviting scent; though I could like it more with a tad extra wood or musk or "amber.
The scent on the burn starts off quite resinous and dark with scorched sugar strands intermingled. There is an attractive mineral quality, which I tend to find when burning benzoin. I'm not getting a sense of what I normally associate with an amber fragrance, this - for me - is more like a benzoin fragrance, which feels like it's burning a tad too hot and so is getting scorched. I absolutely loved Huber's Frankincense & Rose, so I am pre-disposed to enjoying this, but it's not working for me. It's OK. I like the resinous element, and the mineral quality, but the burning aspect is intruding too far, and preventing me from fully engaging with the overall fragrance. Sometimes it takes a few burns to really get into an incense. I'll be trying again next year. But for now this has disappointed me a little.
Date: Dec 2025 Score: 27
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Interesting. I must have had a much earlier batch than you, but we pretty much had the same experience. Like you, I found the benzoin a little too dominant and was missing some depth. I think I didn't mention it in the review, but my thought was that a tad bit of patchouli would serve the blend very well.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the stick aged well, so I'm already looking forward to your second review next year! ;)
How did you like the after-smell?
For me, the after scent was vague, and slightly smoky.
DeleteFunny, adding patchouli was in my thoughts as well, but I also didn't mention it. I believe patchouli is sometimes used as an ingredient in an "amber" blend. And, for me, that would work well. I think this "amber" is lacking the sexy musk notes. Some tonka would also be welcome. I don't know too much about it, but I suspect that the Peru balsam is what is causing the problem for me. I think having benzoin and the Peru balsam creates an accord that is too sweet, too light, and misses out on the essential warm musky notes of "amber". And I think if Georg has used sandalwood powder in the paste in place of traditional low-aromatic binders, such as joss powder, that would, for me, account for some of the burning notes. As you know, I am a little sensitive to the scorch note produced when using wood powder as a combustible or binder. So I would prefer that the sandalwood element would be oil rather than powder, and that the combustible would be a more traditional charcoal and joss powder mix.
I've just read your review, and linked to it in my post. Good review. We cover similar ground, but I feel you cover it more succinctly and with greater knowledge and authority.
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