This is part of a batch of samples sent to me by Junaid of Koya's Agarbatti, and is one of three by the company that I consider World Class, and among the best incense I have ever experienced. Truly awesome. I cannot fault this incense - it is perfection. What we smell is just the fragrance - no filler, no base, just the sweet, woody, benzoin scent of pure incense. The burn is slow and steady, introducing just the right amount of smoke and fragrance into the room. Not too little, so you don't notice, not too much that you are overwhelmed. This has been judged right. And notice the scent you do, and nobody has hesitated at responding. Each person who has smelled this incense, even just in passing, has said something like "Ooh that's nice!" or "Wow!". the scent on the stick is quite strong - there's the volatility of perfume or essential oil. Fruity, flowery, sage, onions, balsamic, petrol - it is interesting and compelling, though not heavenly. I like it, and keep returning to it to find more scents (each will find their own - here's banana and shoe leather), but though I rate it highly, I would not put the scent from the stick in my Top Drawer. it is when it is lit, that the magic happens. Those scents on the stick emerge, but harmonised, and with the sharper notes polished off, so there is no petrol, or it has been reduced so that it merely adds contrasting sharp tones of brilliance to the underlining main experience of the fragrant wood which is so agarwood. Yes there's spice, like walking though a souk in Istanbul or Damascus, and there's the flowers and the fruit, but it's the sexy oudh that captures and holds the attention. The other scents play around the oudh, supporting it, enhancing it, modifying it, making the whole experience quite stimulating so the whole become more than a Persian bakhoor, it transcends even that delightful incense. The scent moves around like a sinuous dancer - always there at the heart is the agar wood, but playing around it are the fruits and flowers, sometimes sweet, occasionally a drift of something sharp and sexual, cat pee, patchouli, musk. This is a total sensory experience - this is like a luxury perfume, divine and enchanting and seductive. It oozes luxury and sensuality and delight. It's sexy, exotic, exciting, uplifting, shifting, luxurious, and divine.
Date: Nov 2021 Score: 50
*I put this incense into a little scent comparison, where several different, almost exclusively masala, incenses were tried blind - I put it against Mother's India, Happy Hari, Gokula, Temple of Incense, ELIF, etc. This came tops. This is an awesome incense.
Date: Jan 2022 Score: 50
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