Incense in The Wind

Friday, 21 March 2025

Naturveda (Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde) Haute Tradition Precious Amber

From what I can understand this is made in Pondicherry by the local cottage industries under instruction from Naturveda for the French shop Aromandise. Naturveda incenses have the same character and style as other incenses made in and around Pondicherry - they are natural, traditional, and somewhat dry and serious - this is thoughtful and spiritual incense rather than pleasant fragrances for fun and comfort. They are good. And they are worthy. However, they don't excite me or give me pleasure.

Ingredients are given as "Wood powders, labdanum gum, bitter orange essential oil, geranium essential oil". Labdanum is frequently used as a source for the amber fragrance. I like amber fragrance. I'm OK that it's a constructed fragrance, though I wonder what people who are looking for natural scents and purity think about this brand creating a substitute scent. The Rose in this series was also non-genuine, as the scent was created out of geranium oil, and the Tiare is made of various oils, none of which are from the tiare plant. It kind of reminds me of the Simpsons episode where the film crew are painting a horse to look like a cow, because cows don't look like cows when filmed.

The scent on the stick is mild, perfumed, pleasant - with mint, florals, a hint of bubblegum, and a wee touch of soft citrus. It's an attractive fragrance, though very soft - like a scented drawer liner that has faded. It's OK, but not exciting.

The scent on the burn is mild. And it falls into the same character as the other Naturveda incense - indeed, the other Pondicherry incenses. It's predominantly dry, woody, peppery. There's some lemony citrus, a light floral, and a mild sweet resinous caramel which hovers around a sort of general "amber" scent. It's pleasant, but it doesn't give pleasure. It's herby, smoky, peppery, woody. Quite narrow. And quite brown.

Available from Aromandise, or Padma Store, or other outlets.

Date: March 2025 Score: 27

***

Naturveda

Amber

Naturveda (Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde) Haute Tradition Eucalyptus Freshness

I've not really got along with Naturveda. They are all decent well made incense sticks with a focus on natural; however - as with most Pondicherry incense, I personally find them dry, sombre, boring, old fashioned. I don't burn incense for the spiritual, magical, or therapeutic qualities of the scent - I burn incense for the pleasure of the fragrance. I am awake to the potential spiritual and therapeutic benefits of scent - though I would wish to always combine that with an aesthetically pleasing scent. My feeling regarding the general thrust of incense made in and around Pondicherry is that the incense is largely not being designed for fun and entertainment. As such, it passes me by, because I mainly burn incense for the fun and entertainment.

That said, I am curious about the eucalyptus nature of this incense. I've previously only had one eucalyptus incense - GR International Eucalyptus, and that was over ten years ago. The ingredients are given as "Wood powders, eucalyptus powder, eucalyptus essential oil, vetiver essential oil". I like that natural ingredients are used. My assumption is that the oils are folded into the paste rather than added after the sticks have been made. And my understanding is that putting all fragrant ingredients, dry and wet, into the paste before rolling out, is part of the masala tradition - though these days there is a greater reliance on wet ingredients than previously, due to costs and ease of use. I'm curious that there doesn't appear to be a fixative in the ingredients, such as a resin, which will protect, heighten, and prolong the fragrance as it burns. I assume that there is sandalwood in the "wood powders", and that is acting as a fixative. As there is no other ingredient listed other than wood powders and the fragrant ingredients I am wondering if they are leaving something out. Would those two pure oils and a pure powder work by themselves or would they get overpowered by the wood powders when burned?

Scent on the stick is mild. There is some light powder on the paste surface - would that be the eucalyptus powder? The oils being locked inside, so some fragrant powder added to the outside to give it some scent? It's a woody (pine) citric fruit (peach) scent with a faint touch of floral.

The scent on the burn is pretty much what I have come to expect from Pondicherry incense. It is dry, peppery, woody, sombre, narrow. It is also quite cleansing and pleasant, with lemony citric and pine notes. I'm OK with this, but sombre woody stuff doesn't really rock my world. I like more sweetness, more passion, more joy, more balance and range. And the peppery quality irritates my nose. It's the sort of reaction I get from terpenes. And, yes I just checked, eucalyptus is high in terpenes. It is a minor irritation, but it is one I'd rather not have.

On the whole I like this incense. I like its woody, outdoorsy, masculine freshness. But it's not an incense experience that is high on my list of wants; and even when I would want such an experience, I would like it to be more balanced and interesting than this.

Available from Aromandise or Padma Store, and other outlets.

Date: March 2025 Score: 27

***

Naturveda

Thursday, 20 March 2025

Naturveda (Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde) Haute Tradition Eternal Cedar

I've not reviewed many single-scent cedarwood incenses. There are plenty out there, though not so many from India where I have done most of my incense exploring. I like cedar, though I find it a little limiting as a single scent. I tend to prefer it as a base scent to counter-point fresh, citric scents. Or for the incense maker to use their imagination and creativity to produce something new and refreshing.

The paste on the stick is quite dry and hard, though it will crumble and break down into dust. There is a mild spicy wood scent. Soft. Slightly sweet and musky. Quite perfumed. It's like an old, faded Turkish men's hair oil.

The scent on the burn is quite vigorous. Dark, woody, peppery and spicy. Sombre. Masculine. There's an outdoors feel. Pine. Cut grass a day old. Warmth to the point of heat - as if from a bonfire at midnight in a sparse wood on a small hill. I could go either way with this fragrance. It's somewhat simple and limiting - there's not a lot going on, and it's dry and sombre, and a bit too close to just being wood burning, albeit an aromatic wood. However, it is attractive and oddly compelling, especially for a simple wood scent. I used to work in the James Latham wood yard in Clapton, East London, and I loved the scents of fresh cut woods, especially aromatic woods such as cedar. But that was a different scent to this - that was a fresh, juicy, living scent. This is a dead scent, only brought to life by fire. This leans more into the aroma of burning wood than into the fresh fragrance of the wood.

Essentially, this is likeable, but too dull, too sombre, too boring for me to get much pleasure out of it. Folks who like the burning plant smell of Tibetan incense, the single scent smell of wood burning, and who like the old fashioned/traditional mono-scents of Cottage and related Pondicherry incenses, may enjoy this rather more than me. Ingredients are "Wood powders, eucalyptus powder, resin, cedarwood essential oil and pine needle essential oil" - the cedarwood oil coming from Himalayan cedar. It's all good stuff, natural, and very worthy, but it's not for me. And I do think we need to be getting away from burning wood for pleasure, as burning wood destroys the planet. We need more modern, intelligent, forward thinking incense makers who are exploring alternative combustibles, and less harmful aromatics.

Available from Aromandise, or Padma Store, or other outlets.

Date: March 2025 Score: 28

***

Naturveda

A cedarwood sampling

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Okuno Seimeido Ginsen Kunsui

Okuno Seimeido was founded by Jinkoya Kyujiro in the Kyoho era, which started in 1716, so that's the date given for when the company started. The company is based in Sakai, in the Kansai region - the historic heart and cultural centre of Japan. Ginsen Kunsui, one of the original recipes by Jinkoya, was first reproduced in 1999 by Jinkoya Kujiro, the eighth generation head of Okuno Seimeido, and continues to be sold They make several incenses with the name Kunsui. Kunsui is an alkaline substance, first found on the shores of a Mongolian lake, which is used in noodle making. Not sure if that is the same substance related to this incense, nor what it would do to the scent of the agarwood. I'm also puzzled by "Ginsen". I don't think it's ginseng, especially as the company call the incense "a ginsen" style. Unravelling incense is like playing with a wooden puzzle box.

I have seen this incense listed as "Okuno Seimeido Ginsen Kunsui Aloeswood" and "Okuno Seimeido Ginsen Kunsui Agarwood". Though the company list it simply as "Okuno Seimeido Ginsen Kunsui", so that's how I'll present it. Aloeswood is another name for agarwood, such as eaglewood and oud. There is no difference, and I'm not sure why one form is sometimes used in preference to the other. I note that I tend to use oud/oudh instead of agarwood when the incense house is aiming for an Arabian vibe.

I like this incense. On the burn there's a delightful blend of fruit and soft, dark wood. It's a rich, dark fruit - like plum or fig. It's kind of neutral, but also kind of sweet - a balanced, deep, rich sweetness, like honey. It's a friendly and engaging scent. Inviting, approachable, almost irresistible; and very warm and engaging. Over time the wood becomes the dominant fragrance - musty, mildly spicy, with notes of cedar, and a hint of pine. One stick I found to be plenty - it gave off plenty of scent with no off notes, and the approx 25 minute burn was enough. I was quite satisfied by that time, and wouldn't have wanted more. I was a little disappointed that it didn't develop much, and that the fruit notes gradually diminished. And I would have welcomed more joy, passion, light, and sweetness. Though there were sweet notes at the start, the abiding impression was of dryness. A sombre dryness. And there was a general lack of adventure or modernity about it. Even with the fruits at the start, it was mainly a fairly mono-scented, almost boring wood note. My excitement and enjoyment at the start was not what I felt at the finish. Good, clean, well made, but a little too dry, boring, and old-fashioned for my taste. Having said that, I liked it a lot, and enjoyed burning it. And I can see myself wanting to burn this at certain moments - not as a room freshener so much as something to create a focused mood. Perhaps when I want to study or concentrate. This is not an incense that is going to distract me or rouse me - this is an incense that will settle me into a serious frame of mind.

The large box - approx 390 sticks

Available in large boxes on eBay (UK) for £63, postage free, or as a 5 stick trial pack for £2.79 plus postage. The sticks are just over five inches. They are cleverly posted inside strips of corrugated cardboard, so they are nice and safe. I poke them out with an incense stick bamboo splint. Available in the US for $15 for 150 sticks, or $36 for the large box (approx 390 sticks). Available in Europe for 84 Euros.

Date: March 2025 Score: 37

***

Japanese incense

Agarwood incense

Goloka Nature's Herbal

I started this blog in 2013, and that's when I reviewed my first Goloka: Goloka Chandan. I loved it, and thought it one of the best incenses I had reviewed that year. A Goloka of some sort has finished as one of my favourite incenses pretty much every year since. And when I re-review a Goloka, it tends to hold its score. Such consistency and quality year after year is impressive, especially at such low cost and easy accessibility. And all profits go to charitable causes in India.

This Herbal is part of Goloka's Nature Collection. Twelve different scents as far as I'm aware: Nest, Lavender, Rose, Meditation, Parijatha, Basil, Patchouli, Pure Musk, Sandalwood, Jasmine, Supreme, and Herbal. I bought the complete set last year (or the year before), and I've reviewed them all so far, except for the Pure musk and this Herbal.

There's a dusty, oily, slightly dirty scent on the stick. It's perfumed, somewhat floral, a little volatile, but more than anything it is downright dirty. It's got my attention.

On the burn it is oily, sexy, musky sandalwood. Touches of patchouli. My sort of incense. It does centre on the sandalwood and patchouli. And like the scent on the stick, it is somewhat dirty and naughty, yet gloriously beautiful. I love this. I can't get enough of it, and have burned three in a row, and loved each one more than the one before.

Date: March 2025 Score: 46

***

Goloka

Naturveda (Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde)

I got a sample pack of Aromandise incense from Padma Store two years ago in 2003 - 11 scents (two sticks of each) for around 11 Euros. I wasn't aware of the company, I just liked the offer, and trust Ashok's taste in selecting interesting incense. The sampler has been tucked away in my backlog until now, completely forgotten.

I've just been researching Aromandise and am a little disappointed that they are a shop in France rather than an incense house. The incense house responsible for making the incense is Naturveda. Naturveda was set up in 2005 by "an international group of people" in Pondicherry, and offer a white label service to Western shops - they are sold under various brand names in Europe and USA. Depending on the arrangement, the same sticks could be sold again and again under different brand names. Or the agreement could be that Naturveda tweak the scent, or even make a scent blend unique to the seller. We don't know. But such is the nature of the incense marke, and many people do seem to feel more comfortable buying from a local brand than from an Indian brand. Aromandise, the shop, uses the brand name Les Encens du Monde for the incense it sells.

I'm not really warming to this brand. A bunch of Westerners go to India to set up a white label brand to sell to own brand Western shops. And in Pondicherry of all places. I've not really got on with incense made in and around Pondicherry. Not that the incense made there is bad - far from it. It's natural, and decent. But it tends to be dry, sombre, old fashioned mono-scents, and with more of a focus on tradition and nature, rather than the aesthetics of the fragrance, or the sheer joy and pleasure and fun of burning incense.

On the positive side, I like the blend of Indian and European culture in Pondicherry and nearby Auroville. I think cultures working together is the way to the future. And I like that the ingredients are all natural. Having said that, it's not actually a priority for me. Priorities are first that the incense smells nice, then that the incense blends are interesting and forward moving rather than locked into simple mono-scents from the past, then that the incense minimises the harm to the planet (so as little wood as possible - there are a number of interesting Indian companies who are really moving forward with this, such as Malaan Gaudhoop using cow dung as the combustible, and young companies such as Phool and Calmveda using temple flowers. I am excited by these companies, and see them as doing the right thing), and then that there is a positive vibe about the brand, which includes the brand being the one responsible for making the incense.

Even though Naturveda are based in Pondicherry, I'm not sure how responsible they are for making the incense. There is no Naturveda factory, just a residential address. But there is also no Cottage Industries factory - there's a showroom next door to the ashram, but the incense is not made there. I don't know, but it seems likely, that the incenses made in and around Pondicherry are made in people's homes as a cottage industry - just like the name suggests. Well, the incense sticks are rolled in people's homes. The paste is possibly made in some central location. The fragrance oils could either be put into the paste as it was being mixed, or added later, after the sticks have been rolled. Now, either Naturveda are setting up their own cottage industry workforce, or they are working in collaboration with the existing Cottage Industries network set up by Mirra Alfassa (The Mother). All this is just speculation and me thinking aloud. However, it seems possible, even likely, that these Aromandise sticks are part of the Cottage Industries network - which is known for the same things that these "High Tradition" Aromandise/Naturveda are known for: being natural, and using traditional, natural mono-scents. I've just compared Cottage Musk, Rose, and Myrrh with the Naturveda sticks, and they could be made by the same network, but the recipes are different

Reviews

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Myrrh (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 30

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Imperial Frankincense (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 28

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Tiare (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 28

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Cedar (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 28

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Eucalyptus Freshness (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 27

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Precious Amber (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 27

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Oriental Musk (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 25

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Supreme Sandalwood (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 24

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Oriental Vetiver (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 24

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Tender Patchouli (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 23

Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde
Haute Tradition Rose (M)
Mar 2025 - Score: 21

Reviews: 11
Top score: 30

Bottom score: 21
Average: 26

Conclusion: These are very much in the Pondicherry tradition. They are pure and natural, but are also quite basic and old fashioned with no refinement or sophistication, and seemingly no awareness of modern olfactory or perfume skills. They are dry, sombre, and peppery. This is brown and twiggy incense. As natural and harsh as sniffing powdery tree bark. Not my thing.

***

The Best Incense Makers

Pondicherry dry brown twigs

Naturveda (Aromandise - Les Encens du Monde) Haute Tradition Intense Rose

There is an old fashioned and familiar scent on the stick. Sweet, delicate, delightful. It smells as much like strawberries as roses, and reminds me of the legendary Spiritual Sky Strawberry Fields incense. There are no roses involved in the making of this, and it kind of shows. Geranium has been used as it is a cheaper oil than rose oil. We often often talk about ingredients, as though they matter. But sometime they don't. What really matters is how the incense smells when it is lit. Hunting after the musk or sandalwood or rose in an incense stick may actually lead us astray. I think we should just open ourselves up and enjoy the experience - let our emotions and imagination play with the scent, explore it, see where it goes. Let's not be surprised or disappointed at the lack of real rose in this incense, let's just enjoy what is here. My one quibble, of course, is that the incense is named Rose. Better to let people relax and enjoy the fragrance experience without looking for the rose scent, especially as in this case the rose scent is fake. The ingredients are "Wood powders, geranium powders, benzoin resin, and geranium essential oil". The benzoin resin would likely be used as a fixative, and the wood powders would likely be sandalwood powder as a combustible and litsea glutinosa powder, known as joss powder among other names, as a binder. The powders and the ground resin would be mixed into the paste. The essential oil could either be put into the paste before rolling out, or used as a dip afterwards. I'm not experienced enough to know which way round it has been done, or why an incense maker would select one method over another. I think that dipping afterwards would make the stick smell pleasant, and so create a positive response before lighting up. And I suspect that the downside of that would be that the scent could evaporate. I think that in this case the oils have been folded into the paste. My understanding is that would make these sticks "masala" rather than "perfume dipped". Though I wonder if the use of the benzoin resin as a fixative would also mark this out as a masala incense.

The scent on the burn takes a little time to settle. There's scorched wood from the wood powders, and that tends to dominate, with occasional higher notes drifting around, but - for me - not really making much of an impression. I walk around the house with it, but it doesn't improve. There's some light floral notes, and a touch of sweetness here and there, but predominantly for me is the smouldering wood. It's not offensive, but it is rather dull and ordinary, and not an incense I would positively select for even the most casual of room freshening. It's a quiet, sombre, neutral to bitter, and somewhat dry smouldering wood incense with the lightest touch of floral pleasure.

Available from Aromandise, or Padma Store, or other outlets.

Date: March 2025 Score: 21

***

Naturveda

Best rose incense

Top Incense by Year

These are all the incenses I have scored 35 or higher in a given year. I score out of 50 - which is like 5 stars, a common scoring method used by Trustpilot, TripAdvisor, AllMusic, etc. As with sites like Trustpilot, the score is broken down into decimals - though instead of 3.5, or 4.6, I will have 35 and 46. As the score is out of 50, the half way point is 25, and that would signify an average incense - neither great nor bad: a decent everyday incense. I group all scores from 20 to 29 as "Average". Scores under 20 are less than average, and would be incense just to burn to cover up nasty smells or get rid of flies. Scores 30 and above are above average - these are the incenses I consider decent. There are surprisingly quite a few incenses I consider as above average, so for this listing, I'm only using incenses I have score 35 or higher. 35 translates into 70% - which is generally accepted as a good pass mark for most exams. The score is the score that was given that year. The same incense may have scored less in subsequent years, and I may no longer regard that incense as good - but this is a record of how scored that incense at the time. Multiple appearances means that the incense got reviewed again, and scored well again. It doesn't mean the incense rolled over its score from previous years. In a year when I reviewed few incenses (such as 2016, when I only reviewed 23 new incenses - plus re-reviewed a handful of others, such as Nandita Wood Spice), or a year when the incense I burned was generally not that good, an incense could be my top reviewed incense that year on a low score. As the years go by, I am burning more and more incense each year, so the recent years tend to have a lot more high scoring incenses.

As always I must stress that my scores are subjective and hedonistic. The scores reflect how much I enjoyed the incense, and so how likely I am to buy that incense again. But along with pleasure comes satisfaction and engagement and interest. So some incenses which are very pleasurable, and we are happy to burn casually everyday in the house, may also be quite fleeting and superficial. Some more challenging incenses may however be very rewarding and satisfying, such that I will score them higher than the light and pleasurable ones, even though I am likely only to burn them occasionally. As such the scores may not tell the full story - for that you would need to read the reviews.

List of top scoring incense each year

2024: Malaan Gaudhoop Swarna Champa (D) Dec 2024 - Score: 50

2023: SamsaSpoon Homemade Swiss Stone Pine (D) Oct 2023 - Score: 50↑

2022: Happy Hari Kings of Incense Queen of Roses (M) Feb 2022 - Score: 46

2021: Koya's Nirvana Premium Incense Sticks (M) Nov 2021 - Score: 48

2020: Happy Hari Meena Supreme (M - Oct 2020): 44

2019: (HMS) Gokula Gaura Radharani / Pink Rose (M) Aug 2019 - Score: 46

2018: Nandita Wood Spice (M) Jul 2018 - Score: 45

2017: Nandita Wood Spice (M) Mar 2017 - Score: 49

2016: Nandita Wood Spice (M) Jan 2016 - Score: 49

2015: Satya Nag Champa (M - May 2015): 50

2014: Satya (Original - pre 2014) Harmony (M - Mar 2013): 36