I got this incense ten years ago, and now I get around to reviewing it. Cultures of Eden / Edenic States was a website project set up by Holly Paige who also writes health books and runs the FoodForConsciousness website. Paul Eagle of Happy Hari had an arrangement where he imported and packaged incense for Holly to sell under her brand name, though sometimes it was under joint brand names. Usually the incense was also sold simultaneously by Paul under his own Happy Hari brand.
There is something mysterious and legendary about Paul's sources, which he always kept a secret until just before he died. The incense he imported tended to be very enjoyable, and people became attracted both to the incense and to the myth of Happy Hari. Before he died he sold the details of his sources to Corey Topel of Absolute Bliss; though Corey was never 100% certain about what Paul had given him, especially as the girls who run Temple of Incense have hinted that Paul gave them details of his sources as well. In truth, when you start to explore deep into the world of Indian incense, you find that there are many incense makers who are producing very similar incense. Indeed, on a blind scent test, it can be difficult to tell one maker from another. Paul's incense is good. But then so is the incense from many Indian incense makers - the majority of whom are as yet unknown in the West. Grab a random bunch of masala incense from Vrindavan, from Pune, from Mumbai, mix it with Happy Hari incense, and on a blind scent test nobody could pick out which sticks are Paul's. It's all a wonderful and compelling myth. It's all incense and mirrors.
There is something mysterious and legendary about Paul's sources, which he always kept a secret until just before he died. The incense he imported tended to be very enjoyable, and people became attracted both to the incense and to the myth of Happy Hari. Before he died he sold the details of his sources to Corey Topel of Absolute Bliss; though Corey was never 100% certain about what Paul had given him, especially as the girls who run Temple of Incense have hinted that Paul gave them details of his sources as well. In truth, when you start to explore deep into the world of Indian incense, you find that there are many incense makers who are producing very similar incense. Indeed, on a blind scent test, it can be difficult to tell one maker from another. Paul's incense is good. But then so is the incense from many Indian incense makers - the majority of whom are as yet unknown in the West. Grab a random bunch of masala incense from Vrindavan, from Pune, from Mumbai, mix it with Happy Hari incense, and on a blind scent test nobody could pick out which sticks are Paul's. It's all a wonderful and compelling myth. It's all incense and mirrors.
Tulsi is the Indian name for Holy Basil, which is used in India for religious and therapeutic purposes. It is also associated with the holy city of Vrindavan where the god Krishna played as a child. Basil has an attractive scent (we use it a lot in cooking) - it smells fresh, green, herby and minty, with a pinch of pepper and aniseed. And those are the notes I pick up from the cold throw scent on the stick, along with a delightful musky warmth and a resinous benzoin sweetness. It's an engaging and compelling fragrance, which well fits in with the legend of Happy Hari, though also with the incense sold in Vrindavan. There is a cool volatility to the fragrance which is like brilliant diamonds in the nose, and hints more than a little at aldehydes.
The scent on the burn is divine. Fresh, sweet, herbal, resinous, floral, musky. It is a fluid and moving fragrance, yet at times also quite powdery like sherbet. It is joyful and uplifting and genuinely quite beautiful.
This may be the same incense as Radha Madhav Tulsi Vrinda Chandan
