Satya/Stamford (2014) Laxmi's Lotus

This is the last of the Satya/Stamford collaboration produced in 2014 that I have. All the scents have been somewhat acceptable, with Knowledge being the one I liked the most, though none have impressed, and it has become increasingly clear as I worked through them that they have been made on a low budget. They are also, to be fair, around five years old, and as the fragrance is delivered mostly by perfume-dipping rather than using masala ingredients, perfume-dipped incense tends to degrade over time as the volatiles evaporate.

This is the weakest of the four I've burned. Occasionally there is a sort of Stamford sweet candy perfume, but than that drifts away and I'm left with something vaguely sandalwood. There may be some sense of lotus about this, but it is really weak and fleeting.

Hmmmm. I'm getting into this. It's not anything special, but it does an OK job once it gets going. Laxmi is a Hindu goddess of  wealth and good fortune who is typically depicted with a lotus in her hand.  The lotus has religious significance in India.


Date: Nov 2019   Score: 25

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Lotus

Aargee / Stamford brand

Satya/Stamford (2014) Freedom

There is a mint and cucumber edge to this rather nondescript incense which is more perfume-dipped than masala. I'm not hugely impressed. This was made in 2014 as part of the series produced in collaboration between Satya and Aargee in 2011 for Aargee's incense brand Stamford.  It appears to have been produced with a low budget in mind as the ingredients are not quality.


Date: Nov 2019   Score: 20

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Satya/Stamford (2014) Meditating Shiva

Another of the Satya/Stamford co-operations. I note that all of the sticks in the series have a larger proportion of charcoal than is standard for Satya. Satya tens to use a significant proportion of wood in the core mix, which gives a pleasing brown colour, and offers a cooler more fragrant burn.  I am assuming that the blend used here is cheaper, and was done as a result of the deal arranged with Aargee, the owners of the Stanford brand.

The scent is fairly perfumed and mainstream. And there is a volatile scent on the sticks which indicates a liquid scent was applied.  While there are clearly perfume-dipped sticks which are  charcoal blanks dipped in a liquid scent, and there are clearly masala sticks which are composed almost entirely of finely ground dried fragrant ingredients (such as Tibetan/Himalayan sticks), there is a blurry area in between in which the fragrant ingredient of sticks is a combination of dried (masala) ingredients and essential oils and/or liquid scents. This stick appears to lean very close to perfumed, with only a small amount of masala.

It's an OK scent, but there's nothing distinctive about it. 

Date: Nov 2019   Score: 27

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Satya/Stamford (2014) Knowledge

Second review - scroll down for earlier

Satya Knowledge is a scent developed by Satya for Aargee/Stamford in 2011. Aargee/Stamford - now under the name Stamford London - still distribute the scent in the UK, where 15g boxes can be picked up for £1.50: Holistic Emporium, Bazzar Pixie, etc. This is the same 2014 pack I reviewed five years ago in 2019. 

The scent on the stick is sweet and huge. It pops out as soon as the box is opened. Fruity, sweet, clean, floral, soapy, somewhat heady, a bit Indian, a bit modern car/room freshener. Very approachable, though not profound. This is more of a simple enjoyment, like a fun cocktail rather than a thoughtful wine. This is more Coldplay than Radiohead. But I like it. 

On the burn this is bright, fresh, uplifting; more balanced than the scent on the stick, so - for me - somewhat more satisfying. There's some quirky cabbage water elements which add interest. Yes, rather likeable. 

Date: Nov 2024    Score: 35

First review

I have four packs of Satya incense made for Aargee in 2014 under an agreement made in 2011. The scents were developed in collaboration, and are exclusive to Aargee, being sold in association with the Stamford brand. It was in 2014 that the brothers split up, so this may be one of the last batches made by the original company.

It is a sweet and heady incense, the sort that Aargee's Stamford brand tends to focus on. Highly perfumed yet with a candy sweetness. There are flowery notes, slightly herbal, like lavender and a hint of Parma Violets.  It's not a subtle or refined scent. It's a little crude and blunt, and can smother the senses if the smoke drifts in your direction, but it does give a cool scented feel to a room, like a dusting of baby talc, so is an incense that is best burned in advance to create a sense of calm. Burn in a room before having a difficult discussion that could become tense.


Date: Nov 2019   Score: 32

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Other ratings of incense by Aargee

Satya (BNG) Frankincense

This is very pleasant. Sweet, slightly vanilla like, and with a mild sense of halmaddi. It is a traditional masala incense, so if you like traditional masala, you'll like this. It's fairly middle of the road, there's nothing special about it, but nothing bad either. Some masala halmaddi enthusiasts may find it a little bland, but nobody should actively dislike it. It has a pleasant oily quality - a warm sensual essential oil scent, sweet, woody, and more toward sandalwood than frankincense, though it has some orange oil and church incense notes as well, which for me are key ingredients in frankincense. It smells better on the stick than it does when burned, though I find this is fairly common to most incenses. On the whole I find this "very nice" rather than "wow!", and while a pleasant example of frankincense,  not for me a defining example, which tends to be the resin itself.

This is made by Balkrishna Setty, the brother who has the original Satya factory in Bangalore, and uses the original Satya production methods and recipes,


Date: July 2019    Score:   39

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Frankincense

Satya (BNG - pre 2017) Namaste

Decent quality Satya incense, but not quite heavenly. Good stuff that lingers pleasantly for hours afterwards, and gives off a traditional masala incense scent. Anyone who likes traditional old skool masala will like this, it follows a steady course and does what it's supposed to do, giving off a warm woolly scent that gently informs a room in a neutral to sombre manner. It's not an evocative or attention seeking scent, but rather one that gets on with it in a manner that, as my nan used to say, wouldn't offend anyone.

The date on the logo is 2016, and the logo is the old style that was used before 2017, while the address is (BNG), which was introduced in 2014. This is Balkrishna Setty's incense made in the original factory to the original recipe, and would have been made sometime in 2016/2017, so is around two to three years old as I write this. A lot of the incense powder has collected at the bottom of the inner bag which suggests that it has dried out a little, but there is still plenty left on the stick. The design on the box is the same as Satya Reiki, and it appears likely they were made at the same, but where I was blown away by the Reiki, here I am just quietly satisfied. Sure this is a good incense worth buying, and offers excellent value for money (Satya incenses are never expensive - you can generally get them for a £1 per 15g box, or cheaper if buying in bulk online, if someone is asking for a lot more than that, then walk away, and find a cheaper source), but it's sending me to the heights of pleasure - either that is down to the individual fragrance ingredients, or the fact that this box is likely to be over a year older than the Reiki when I reviewed it. 

Namaste is an Asian greeting where the hands are brought together as though in prayer -  Aargee have also used it as an incense name: Aagree Namaste.  Anyway. Nice job. Happy to buy again.


Date: Nov 2019    Score: 35

***

Satya (Shrinivas Sugandhalaya)

Pal-Ji Honey Suckle

There's no  actual honeysuckle aroma in this bargain bin incense, but it does have a decent enough cleansing woody scent that is very useful for covering up cat odours (we have three kittens who are not yet allowed outside) as well as simply freshening up the house. Not offensive - quite an acceptable scent, but fairly basic and more utilitarian than transcendental.


Date: Oct 2019    Score: 23


I've reviewed this previously - see Pal-Ji Honey Suckle May 2013 (score 22)

***

 

Pal-Ji Incense Sticks

Pal-Ji Bouqet

As with this company's Frenk Insence, I'm sure Bouqet is a misspelling of bouquet. Anyway. The same standard of quality that has been applied to the design of the packet has been used in the making of the incense. Yes. It's crap. There is no  bouquet - there's just the core material that was used in the making of the paste without any pleasant fragrance. This is a bit like Tibetan incense - herbal, grassy, like burning garden waste. There's a bit of wood in there, which is likely to come from the powdered wood that was used in the making of the paste. It's kind of like the smell you get when using an electric saw on hardboard.


Date: Sept 2019   Score:  16

***

Pal-Ji Incense Sticks

Pal-Ji Green Apple

A fairly generic low cost perfume-dipped incense. The packaging is cheap and uninspired, and the incense itself is similarly cheap and uninspired. There is a very pale green colour on the sticks to identify it as green apple scented, and that's probably closer to the intention than the scent itself, though I suppose I could convince myself that there is something about the scent that could be green apple, but it's not exactly strong. To be fair this is not offensive, and could be used as a quick and cheap way of refreshing the whole house with a stick in each room.


Date: Sept 2019   Score: 20

***

Pal-Ji Incense Sticks

Aromatika Vedic Marie Qui Defait Les Noeuds Encens Natural Rose

Beautiful orange, vanilla, rose, and parma violet aromas on the stick - the aromas have the feel of essential oils. There's also something powdery and sweet like sherbet. And underneath, something woody, touching on cedar, with a hint of halmaddi. I like it. I'm not entirely sure if the charcoal paste has been machine or hand applied, though on balance, unlike in 2019, I am inclining to hand rolled - not that it makes any real difference to the quality of the scent, but some people like the romance and tradition of hand-rolling. 

The scent on the burn is warm and woody; darker, deeper, warmer, and more subtle than the scent on the stick. It often happens, especially when there are perfumes or fragrant oils involved, that the scent on the burn has less impact, is less sweet, less sharp, less defined, less acidic, more woody and warm, etc. I think this is to do with the way that the top notes of oils and perfumes burn off quickly, so the heavier, woody notes are more noticeable. The scent here gently and pleasantly informs the room, creating a calming environment. The stick burns slowly and evenly. 

I'm liking this a lot more than I did back in 2019, and I'm pleased I returned to this, as I think I was rather too harsh and way too dismissive back then.  I understand what my 2019 self is saying, and I empathise fully with the notion that the scent on the burn is weighty but not strong, and that nothing clear emerges. I get that. I get that entirely. And that will hold down my score again today, but I think that in 2019, I missed the beauty of the scent on the stick (which is a pleasure in itself, and should not be ignored - I appreciate all aspects of an incense, from the packaging, the appearance of the stick, the scent on the stick, and the experience of the burn; all these things contribute, for me, part of the overall experience, and it's good to pause and note them rather than just going for the blind glory hole of the burn), and I also think I missed the overall earthy sensuality of the burn. 

While I am used to differences between scents on the stick and the burn, the difference here is  quite remarkable. The scent on the stick is sweet, joyful, uplifting, exciting, direct, child-like. The scent on the burn is sombre, earthy, sensual, mature, calming, and subtle. There is some rose and wood in both, but otherwise the scents are quite different. Interesting. 

On the whole I like this. I certainly like it more than I did back in 2019. Though, to be fair, as in 2019, the impact on the burn is rather too gentle to make a significant impression, and the scent journey is not interesting enough to invite me to return. I'm simply not intrigued or pleasured enough.  


Date: Nov 2022   Score:  35 

[Average of two reviews: 32]

First review

Marie Qui Defait Les Noeuds (Mary, Untier of Knots) is a painting (Wallfahrtsbild or Gnadenbild) by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner of one of the devotions of Mary. It is one of a series of Christian themed incense by Aromatika under the Vedic brand, aimed mainly at France but also distributed in the UK. The Sacre Coeur I have already reviewed (well, reacted to - not much of a review actually!), and that was, well, divine. 

The sticks appear to be a decent quality charcoal paste applied by machine, and then hand coated in a fine fragrant masala dust along with essential oils. The scent is weighty but not strong. There's a lot going on, but nothing really clear emerges.  A bit of cat pee, some rose petal, onion skin, charcoal... Meh. It's not offensive at all, but it doesn't transcend either. It's just, well, there. It exists, but it doesn't shine. OK to burn as background incense perhaps, but I'm not really getting this. 


Date: Sept 2019  Score: 29

[Average of two reviews: 32]

***

  Aromatika

(Wonder Incense) New Moon Aromas Black Rose

Second review - scroll down for earlier

A crudely rolled stick. Softish black paste. Scruffy thin coating of melnoorva powder (tree bark or other wood powder used to dry the paste) which a number of people these days are referring to as "masala powder" ("masala" originally referred to the mix of dried fragrant ingredients that was mixed into the paste - these days, the scent of a masala stick mainly or entirely comes from a perfume mixed into the paste).  The scent on the stick is attractive - clearly perfumed, with an obvious, though gentle volatility. It's a complex fragrance - the damask rose hits straight out of the box, though, as the name says, this is a dark rose, there's wood and earth and sweat here, which gives a fascinating edge to the usual insipid floral headiness of rose. There's milk, sweaty socks, wood, wood, wood - sandalwood, cedarwood, beechwood, rose (of course), and earth, mushrooms, daisies, clover, and coconut. It's lovely stuff. But, of course, we don't buy incense for how good it smells on the stick (well, actually, companies like  Wild Berry sell their sticks to idiots primarily on the perfume on the stick). Most sensible incense buyers buy incense based on the fragrance it emits when burned. Anyway, I am quite used these days to perfumed incense smelling better on the stick than on the burn. Which is a shame. But that seems to be the way it is. 

The scent on the burn, to be fair, is not bad. It's a little gentle for my taste, but has a good balance of top, middle, and base notes which deliver a complex and satisfying fragrance which does cover the main points discovered on the stick. Yeah, not a bad incense. Not great, but warm and tasty, creating a calming and authoritative atmosphere which inspires confidence, reassurance, and warmth. An incense to welcome people to your home. Unobtrusive, pleasant, and calming.   

Date: Oct 2024    Score:  41

First review

Yes, there is a rose scent here in this masala incense. It's an essential oil scent. Quite dark and fruity - almost more blackcurrant than rose. I like it. There's the halmaddi coming through, warm wool and prickles, but it's the fruit that really dominates. This comes over more as a perfumed incense than traditional masala. Interesting. It's probably the most modern masala incense I've encountered.

I know nothing about the company. The website given for New Moon Aromas (newmoonaromas.net) is registered, but not fully active [2024 comment: now active]. A number of UK internet shops, including the wholesale site Wonder Incense, list New Moon incense, and they can be bought for less than £2 a box on Amazon. But they don't appear to be available outside the UK, so New Moon Aromas is presumably a British distributor importing from India. [Update Jan 2022: I note that the website is © Wonder Imports, an Australian company who sell New Moon products. There is a UK distribution company, Wonder Incense, who also sell New Moon products, and have other products in common with the Australian Wonder Imports. It is possible that New Moon Aromas are made on commission for Wonder Imports, and the the UK company is related - I shall ask them.] 

[Update Feb 2022: Navan Shah from Wonder Incense has been in touch to tell me "New Moon Aromas range of Incense is manufactured by us in India".] 

[Update April 2024: Based on comments by Vid (Ratnagandh) on New Moon Aromas Black Rose, and further research, it appears that New Moon products are made for Wonder Incense by Haria and possibly Nandita). The arrangement seems exclusive to Wonder Incense.]

Date: Sept 2019    Score:  39

***

New Moon Aromas

Best rose incense

 What's The Best Incense In The World?

Pal-Ji Frenk Insence

No, as you see, I didn't spell it wrong: it is Frenk, and it is Insence.

As with the other Pal-Ji it is cheap, but not quite cheerful.  It is a crude incense. Reminds me of Tibetan incense, only a bit sweeter and less of a challenge! I suppose there is some sense of musk or something about this that could be pointing in the direction of frankincense, and it is the first Pal-Ji that I could say I can actually see myself using in the house (albeit as a insect repellant in the outhouse). Anyway, credit for not being appalling.


Date: Sept 2019   Score:  24

***

Pal-Ji Incense Sticks

Frankincense