Matchless Gifts Escential Essences Paris Cafe

 

Second of the three Escential Essences branded synthetic-perfumed incense sticks I bought from the US online incense store ExoticIncense, who ship worldwide. Escential Essences is a brand created by a California trader operating under the name Matchless Gifts. The incense is made in the US, possibly by an American tribe such as the Jicarilla Apache, who make Sage Spirit incense sticks. 

The scent on the stick is caramel, coffee, faint rose, and faint vanilla, possible demerara sugar.  It's kinda dark, sombre, slightly smoky. The scent on the burn is vague, smoky, scorching wood, and might contain some of the elements of the scent on the stick, some burnt vanilla, a hint of cream, but not in any defined way. There's possibly some cassia and some nutmeg oil in this. It doesn't really work for us.   $3.50 for 16 sticks from ExoticIncense. 

Date: May 2024   Score:  20 

***

Escential Essences

Matchless Gifts Escential Essences Ocean Atlantis

 

Second of the three Escential Essences branded synthetic-perfumed incense sticks I bought from the US online incense store ExoticIncense, who ship worldwide. Escential Essences is a brand created by a California trader operating under the name Matchless Gifts. The incense is made in the US, possibly by an American tribe such as the Jicarilla Apache, who make Sage Spirit incense sticks. 

We liked the Escential Essences Amber Flame. It's a simple synthetic-amber perfumed incense, but the scent worked for us as it was mainly composed of base notes which tend to survive when burned on an incense stick.  This Ocean Atlantis, with its marine notes, doesn't work. The scent on the stick is a little sharp with its volatility, and the aroma is that of a cheap bottle of bath foam with some kind of "marine" name. This stick is highly likely to use Calone, a scent molecule devised by Pfizer in 1966, and much used in the fragrance industry when a marine or "sea breeze" aroma is required. 

On the burn the sea breeze scent, which is mostly composed of middle and top notes, gets lost, and what is most apparent is the scent of scorched wood.  Not good. $3.50 for 16 sticks lasting around 45 minutes each from Exotic Incense. 

Date: May 2024   Score:  19 

***

Escential Essences

Matchless Gifts Escential Essences Amber Flame

 

While putting in an order recently on the American website ExoticIncense I grabbed three packs of Escential Essences because they say "Made in USA", and I'm interested in incenses made in countries outside of Asia.  Escential Essences is the brand name of a small company, MatchlessGifts, which operates out of a PO address in Laguna Niguel, California. They import packaged incense such as Satya Nag Champa, and loose incense which they bag and sell under the brand name Mystic Temple, and smudges made by American tribes in New Mexico, such as the Jicarilla Apache, who make Sage Spirit. I don't know, but it seems plausible that these Escential Essences sticks are made by Sage Spirit or some other American tribes co-operative for Matchless Gifts. 

The sticks are very long - 11 inches, though only 7 inches of that is paste. The paste is a simple black charcoal which has been machine extruded onto the bamboo splint, and impregnated with the liquid fragrance. There is a fair degree of room freshener disinfectant volatility about the scent, though the scent itself is reasonably attractive - musky, leathery, warm and mildly sensual. There's a hint of cigar smoke and musty books, and a general ambiance of a traditional headmaster's office or study. And almost out of reach, some mineral notes and a tantalisingly faint sweetness. All of which makes it sound more interesting and attractive than it actually is. 

The burn is moderate and steady and lasts around 45-50 minutes. The burn scent is fairly true to that on the stick - largely because it's composed of so few top notes. This is a stick that likely could be used in an upside down incense holder, and I shall include this in the incense holder experiment we are going to do later, in which we compare conventional holders with an upside down holder. The scent is highly likely to be that wonder perfume molecule ambroxide,  used in the fragrance industry under the brand name Ambroxan. There is no genuine natural amber fragrance used these days - it'll either be the plant labdanum, or something synthetic like Ambroxan - and mostly it's something synthetic. 

This produces a very attractive musky amber scent. There are pleasant vanilla notes at one end, and some scratchy burning wood notes at the other end. It's a fairly simple fragrance, but no less effective for that. It's not a work of art, it's not mystical or magical, it is essentially the power of a scent molecule that impacts on our senses and emotions. It works.  My complaints: it's fairly narrow, it's fairly predicable, it's not exciting, there's no romance, it's too woody and ashy - not enough top notes, contrasts, balance. But for all that, it's an enjoyable musky amber scent.  $3.50 for 16 sticks from ExoticIncense. 

Date: May 2024    Score: 34 

***

Amber

Escential Essences

Inca Aromas Priprioca

 

I love exploring incense from around the world, and found these Inca Aromas sticks, made in Brazil, on the USA website Exotic Incense, who export to the UK. $7 for four short sticks (plus shipping) is not cheap, but the sticks do burn for a decent time (the claim is an hour and a half, which is a little longer than the average stick), and the opportunity to get hold of incense that is not made in India is worth paying a little more. 

I'm curious about the connection between the company and the Inca Empire culture. The company was founded in 1993, with the current owners taking over in 2001, and moving the factory to its current location in Brazil in 2009. The two best known incenses associated with indigenous peoples of South America are palo santo wood and copal resin.  I've not yet looked deeply into the history of incense in the Inca Empire - I shall enjoy doing that. If anyone already has information or links, please let me know!  I have asked the company for more info about the Inca connection, and will update this post when they get back to me. 

Brazil has a strong incense culture. They import a large amount of incense, primarily from India, and there are a number of small local incense producers, such as Inca Aromas, Bright Side, and Nirvana, which export, mainly to the US. Now that I have largely given up on getting quickly though my backlog of Indian incense - I will be exploring more of these small Brazilian producers in coming months. 

There are four sticks in the pack, each stick is just over 5 inches long, with around 4 1/2 inches of firm, semi-soft, semi-brittle, semi-sticky 1/4 inch thick black paste extruded onto a plain stick. There is an engaging herby aroma on the stick, quite cleansing and quite natural with some touches of spice. Lighting is slightly difficult. As the sticks are quite thick, it requires holding a flame to the stick for a long while before it catches. There may be some sparks and small bits of glowing incense falling - these tend to go out quickly, but a few have left smudges on my wooden desk. I found it best, when lit, to leave the flame for a while to really get a hold of the stick. If blowing out too soon, I found that the stick would quickly go out.  I did blow a bit to increase the burn to encourage it to catch, but that does result in more sparks, so I preferred just to leave the flame for a while.

The smoke and aroma is surprisingly gentle for such a thick stick, though leaving it to burn for the full hour and a half indoors would be a little overwhelming, as the smoke does build and linger over time. The scent is dry, spicy, herby, woody, attractive. There are aspects to it which remind me of Indian dhoop incense - especially the wet dhoops made with ghee. Little sharp tones, and a brittle, chalky sense of charcoal. I am charmed and intrigued by the aroma, which is warm, calming, exotic, and fulfilling. There's a fair amount of churchy frankincense - pine, citrus, warmth, comfort, calming but also somehow uplifting and quietly thrilling as its works its way inside. 

   

The contents include white breu resin, which comes from the bark of  the  Alma Cegueira tree - also spelt as almécega and almíscar, and also known simply as breu.  There's also frankincense - which I thought I was smelling, but apparently breu smells like frankincense, and is known as "the Brazilian frankincense". Priprioca is an aromatic sedge, which is presumably where I'm getting the herby, faintly sage like, aroma from.  Salt is a curious ingredient, and that is possibly why the stick sometimes sparks. 

All in all I really like this incense, and want to discover more. 

Date: May 2024    Score: 39 

***

Incense Around the World

  

Inca Aromas

Bhagwan Incense Vanilla Joy

 

Vanilla is a lovely scent, and is occasionally used in incense sticks, though it will mostly be a synthetic vanillin, as natural vanillin from the vanilla orchid is scarce and highly expensive. The problem with vanilla as a single scent in incense is that though pleasant it can be fairly limiting by itself, and too much of it can be both a little boring and a little satiating. It is, however, a common and popular room freshener because it is so undemanding, familiar, pleasant, and relaxing. It is a scent I note is not used much by top end incense makers, though I have come upon a number of everyday perfume-dipped incenses using the scent. 

I love the bright, joyful yellow of the box - so fitting for vanilla, as I think most of us associate yellow with vanilla - not so much because the vanilla flower is yellow, but because vanilla flavoured ice-cream is yellow.  The scent on the stick is heavenly. Really attractive and seductive and engaging. There's a fresh, light, slightly sharp, but young and uplifting volatility on the stick. There's sandalwood - and vanillin can be extracted from woods such as sandalwood, and there's herbs, and there's some rich, plump, slightly heady florals - red rose. It's a very perfumed scent - more like a feminine perfume than an incense, but attractive nonetheless. 

The burn is reasonably steady, and the scent on the burn is fairly true to the scent on the stick - it is wholesome, sweet, attractive, and pleasantly compelling.  As a room freshener this is a decent job - it is noticeable but not too assertive, and gently lifts the room with a pleasant, sweet, vanilla accented fragrance. I wouldn't say it goes much beyond that, but it does what it does very well, and I think is one of the most pleasing vanilla incenses I've burned. 

I had intended to review a batch of Bhagwan incense, but Eugene of  Bhagwan has been in touch, and is annoyed that I am not giving the incense a higher score. In our email exchange I attempted to explain my approach, and wrote that "my reviews are subjective, and scores are applied on a hedonic scale depending on how much,  at that particular moment, I like the incense (which is mainly the aroma, but does include various aspects of the incense experience including packaging, pricing, knowledge of the ethics of the company, etc). And I have noted that my experience with the same incense may vary from time to time depending on circumstances. Scents are particularly personal and do invoke individual memories and emotions which are separate from rational measurement, so a series of different scents from any one producer may invoke a variety of responses, while a certain scent, such as rose or sage - if true to type - may invoke a similar response from a range of producers." In essence, I cannot "heave my heart into my mouth" in order to generate sales for someone, even someone I like - I'd prefer to remain honest. Eugene's response was to tell me to stop reviewing the Bhagwan branded incense, and to throw it all away.  I will not do that either - while I do attempt to help out producers and retailers by mentioning and linking to their products, I am independent and not subject to their whims. This is my hobby, and while it may be an asset to others who are in business, and I am aware of that, I am not paid, and I am not a lackey who can be ordered to take down negative reviews or put up falsely positive reviews simply in order to promote sales. Anyway, I am pausing on reviewing Bhagwan branded incense for the moment as there is a little tension here.

I'd also like to make clear, that the reviews I have done of  this and all the incense on this blog have been done using conventional incense holders - the upside down holder in the picture, which was sent to me by Aida of  IncenseBurnerHolder.com, was used for the pictures only. I was not satisfied with the fragrance that was generated by the use of the upside down burner (the top notes appeared to get scorched by the heat - something I note happens to most fragrant oil based incense sticks even when using conventional holders - as discussed on Ratnagandh's review of Shalimar Vanilla), and so for the reviews I used a conventional angled holder. 

Date: May 2024   Score: 33  

***

Bhagwan Incense

Vanilla

White Sage

 

Californian white sage, which grows in Southwest America, is used by American Indians / Native Americans as a ritual purification known as smudging, which may have taken place for thousands of years. Apparently, the commercial exploitation of white sage and smudging has upset some Native Americans - partly due to over-harvesting of the white sage, and partly due to misappropriation of a sacred ritual. I suspect the white sage scent in most white sage incense is either synthetic or comes from plants that have never been near California. And while I am always prepared to listen to and am empathic towards a culture or religion who feel abused,* I think that sometimes people can protest too much. *(For example, while I feel some of the responses have been highly immoral and reprehensible, the behaviour by Salmon Rushdie and Charlie Hebdo in deliberately ridiculing sensitive aspects of another people's personal beliefs to be inappropriate. I don't believe we should have Hate Speech laws, as that creates both a chilling effect and an imbalance in relationships, but I do believe we should not deliberately ridicule and insult each other. And that "freedom of speech" does not mean we can say shit to each other and be protected from the consequences).  The scent of white sage is generally herbal, cleansing, slightly sharp, kind of green and fresh. 

Reviews

Satya (BNG - post 2018) White Sage (M)
Jan 2020 - Score: 40 

   

 

Green Tree Californian White Sage
Aug 2017 - Score: 34 

  

Bhagwan Incense White Sage (M)
May 2024 - Score: 31

Satya (BNG - Earth) White Sage Dhoop Cones (D)
April 2021 - Score: 30

  

Tulasi Sage (P)
June 2018 - Score: 30↑ 

  

Deepika White Sage Masala Cones (P)
July 2022 - Score: 29 

  

Satya (Mumbai) Californian White Sage 
Jan 2024 - Score: 28 

  

Aromatika Ace Scents White Sage (P)
Mar 2024 - Score: 27

  

Aromatika White Sage Incense Cones (P)
Feb 2021 - Score: 26

   

Hari Darshan Tribal Soul Backflow
White Sage + Lavender (P)
Oct 2022 - Score: 21

  
 

Vijayshree Golden Nag White Sage cones 
March 2024 - Score: 19

  

HEM White Sage (P)
March 2013 - Score: 09

  
Scents: 12 
Top score: 40 

Bottom score: 09

Average: 27 

***

Best Scents

Bhagwan Incense White Sage

 

Eugene of Bhagwan Incense and Good Incense has sent me a new bundle of samples. For the Bhagwan scents, these are the same sample packs that Eugene sends out either free for a small pack or for 10 Euros for the whole set, plus the boxes that the sticks are sold in when regularly purchased.  Eugene doesn't get involved in production, but has travelled to India several times, and sought out attractive incense which he has brought back to Europe. We have communicated for several years, and I have followed his travels to Europe with interest. He has sent me some exciting packs of incense he discovered, which he now sells under the Bhagwan name.  

The full bundle

There are loads of incense in the bundle - rather overwhelming and daunting to burn all at once, so mostly at random I selected a dippy dozen to burn and review over the next few days. 

The dippy dozen

First up is a pack of White Sage. White Sage, or Salvia apiana, is a plant that is burned by a number of native American tribes as part of purification rites, and is more common as an incense fragrance in America than it is in India or Europe as the plant grows in America and Mexico. It produces a mildly attractive mild sage aroma, quite warming, spicy, gentle, and softly seductive - not significantly aesthetic, but generally pleasant  This Bhagwan stick consists of a medium thickness hand-rolled paste, dryish and crumbly, with a thin covering of melnoorva powder, on a plain bamboo splint. There is a gentle perfumed scent on the stick, reasonably pleasant, fairly feminine and floral, mildly volatile. It's OK.  

The burn is mainly steady though has fluctuations due to the uneven hand rolling. The smoke is a pleasing silvery grey. The scent is gentle and modest, though does smoothly inform the room with a vague general sense of floral perfume. More perfume than incense. The scent is reasonably fresh and pure. This is an OK incense. As it develops it does become a little prickly and smoky, though remains acceptable and fresh and somewhat invigorating. 

The blurb on the packet says: "A fragrant Californian white sage with a woody, earthy, herbal and minty notes. Perfect for healing, purification and protection".  Bhagwan White Sage can be bought on Etsy (where it has received an average 5 stars from 57 reviews) for £5.33 and from the Bhagwan Incense website for €3.95. The upside down burner was sent to me by Aida of  IncenseBurnerHolder.com, who sell it for $23.99. It is also available on Shein. 

Date: May 2024   Score: 31  

***

Bhagwan Incense

White Sage

HEM Gold Rain

 

Typical HEM cheap and cheerful everyday synthetic-perfume room-freshener incense stick. Some HEM scents I like, some I don't. It's as simple as that really. HEM sticks are generally professionally made, no nonsense, and cheap as chips. There's little romance here - this is functional stuff largely made on machines in factories. There isn't a signature HEM scent. They each smell of the perfume. But they make a wide range of scents, and there is likely to be some that people will like, and some they won't. There are some HEM scents I really like. Some which I really hate. And most which are just meh. This is mostly meh. It's clearly synthetic. It's a little sharp, fruity, slightly floral. Mostly top notes, though there is a solid musky base which holds things together. It's not a great scent, but the musk, for me, holds it off from being kinda rancid and off-putting. This is an outhouse incense. OK for keeping that place smelling fresh, but not, for me, something to burn in the house. 

This Gold Rain came in a HEM pack deal on Amazon over a year ago. A similar such deal is this one of 15 different packs for £10.  The wooden incense holder in the photo was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com.  

Date: May 2024   Score: 22

***

HEM Corporation

Flourish Fragrance Dhyanam

 

A decently fat stick, machine extruded onto a plain machine cut bamboo splint. A complex and arresting display of scents on the stick: cherry, copal, mineral, camphor, sea water on a hot sandy beach, leather, earthy decay, dust, herbs.  This reminds me of another stick - both in appearance and scent, but I can't put my finger on which stick. I like the scent on the stick. There is some mild volatility, but no more than normal for a modern mainstream Indian incense.  The name Dhyanam relates to meditation. 

There is a pleasantly exotic, Arabian scent on burning - it feels scented and natural. Touches of fruit and sweetness among the cool mineral notes - hints of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit. It is a cleansing scent, fairly heady and a touch sharp. I'd prefer more depth and sweetness and sensuality, and less of the sharpness. The headiness I find a little off-putting, though that's mainly because it's not my type of incense. I think I would enjoy it if it were warmer and more sultry. I'm finding it a little too heady, sharp, and assertive for indoor use. A decent cleansing incense, though not one for me. 

Flourish Fragrance Dhyanam may sometimes turn up on eBay, and can be bought from Aavyaa in India with free international shipping if you spend over £50. The wooden incense holder in the photo was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com.  

Date: May 2024   Score: 25 

***

 

Flourish Fragrance

Flourish Fragrance Bilvapatra

 

Bilvapatra refers to the stone apple tree, a plant sacred to Hindus and Buddhists. Kapoor is mentioned on the blurb: "With Mixture of  Pure Kapoor" - kapoor is camphor.  The hand rolled paste is soft, pliable, and moist, covered with a thin coating of melnoorva. The appearance is thus of a masala style incense; however, the scent on the stick is volatile, chemical, synthetic, powerful, and somewhat overbearing. It is, however, an interesting and plausibly attractive scent. I can't quite pin it down, so it intrigues me. There's fruit, musk, wood, leather, floral, earthy decay, camphor, and way too much chemical sharpness for comfort. 

When lit there is some black smoke, though less than the other Flourish sticks I've burned. It settles into a somewhat steady burn with an attractive swirling grey smoke. There are occasional minor sparks and puffs, but really that is very minor. The scent on the burn is warm, sultry, muggy, fragrant, like a hot Mediterranean evening in a blossoming field of flowers and herbs and spices and pine trees. Musk is the heart of this incense, holding my interest, with fruits, flowers, and spices playing around on top. Hmm - this is reasonably likeable. I've not really been impressed with the Flourish Fragrance samples I've been sent, mainly due to the chemical/synthetic nature of the scents, however the musky ones like this and the Indian Kasturi, I've found somewhat acceptable. This one has attracted me the most. It's a warm, seductive, intriguing burn despite it's synthetic nature. 

Flourish Fragrance Bilvapatra may sometimes turn up on eBay, and can be bought from Aavyaa in India with free international shipping if you spend over £50. The wooden incense holder in the photo was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com.  

Date: May 2024   Score: 30 

***

 

Flourish Fragrance

Flourish Fragrance Mystic

 

A moist, soft, hand rolled paste on a hand cut bamboo splint, dyed purple. Icy, penetrating, volatile scent on stick - room freshener synthetic perfume aroma, floral, woody, soapy, citric, some thoughts of lavender.  Black smoke, hungry flame when lit, which settles into a steady burn with attractive grey smoke. The scent on the burn is similar to the scent on the stick - vaguely floral, herby, but mainly chemical, smarting my eyes. Clearly synthetic, it's a low end everyday perfumed room freshener. It's not one I'd want to burn again. 

Flourish Fragrance Mystic may sometimes turn up on eBay, and can be bought from Aavyaa in India with free international shipping if you spend over £50. The wooden incense holder in the photo was sent to me by Aida of IncenseBurnerHolder.com.  

Date: May 2024   Score: 18 

***

 

Flourish Fragrance

Gamta Organic Incense

 

Gamta Organic Incense are based in Mumbai, and appear to have been founded in 2021. Their marketing focus appears to be that they are making Panchgavya products - which means they utilise cow by-products, such as  milk, urine, dung, ghee, and curd, according to Ayurveda principles. They have at least one video showing incense being made from ingredients such as milk and crushed up cow dung. Well, that video is a marketing video, so we don't see the incense being made on a commercial scale, but I suppose it gives a rough idea of what they do. I can't find much information on them as their website, GamtaOrganic.com, has a fault where I can't access it. But they do have a Twitter account, a YouTube account, and a FaceBook account.  

The panchgavya paste is machine extruded onto plain bamboo splints. Liquid fragrance is added at some point - possibly by dipping after the sticks are extruded. It's possible that the sticks are all extruded with the same paste, and the fragrance is added later. It's also possible that the liquid fragrance is added to the paste before extrusion. There is a degree of conflict between the natural fragrances of the panchgavya paste and the liquid fragrance, which is resolved slightly differently on each stick. On the whole I've liked these Gamta sticks, though found the clearly chemical nature of the liquid fragrances to be increasingly irritating. 

I've classed these as perfumed masala. 

Reviews

  

Gamta It Smells Like Miracle Majmua (PM)
May 2024 - Score: 39

Gamta It Smells Like Authentic Agarwood (PM)
May 2024 - Score: 34

 

Gamta It Smells Like Heritage Heena (PM)
May 2024 - Score: 32

  

Gamta It Smells Like Saffron Sandal (PM)
May 2024 - Score: 31

Gamta It Smells Like Saffron Rose (PM)
May 2024 - Score: 28 

Scents tried: 5

Top score: 39 

Bottom score: 28

Average: 33

Conclusion: The use of  panchgavya paste is intriguing, though the intrusive chemical element to the liquid fragrance is off-putting. On the burn the incense is decent everyday room fragrance. I'd be OK with trying more Gamta incense, though wouldn't seek it out. 

***

The Best Incense Makers