Fair Trade Incense Works/ Incense Collective / Nitiraj / Om / Bombay

 

Incense Collective - previously known as Fair Trade Incense Works, are based in Mumbai and mostly make incense for others to brand as their own, though they did have some brands of their own which they distributed themselves, Om Incense, Nitiraj Incense and Natural Incense. Of those, only Om and Nitiraj appear to still be available.  Bombay Incense was the company's distribution branch set up by Nitin Bulsara, son of the founders of Fair Trade/Incense Collective. Nitraj is named after Nitin and his brother Raj. Bombay Incense was set up in Birmingham, UK in 1979, and then also in Florida, USA in 1991. Distribution rights have since been given to Kheops International in North America, KO Shop in Australia, Liberty Trading in Japan, and Namaste in the UK. Bombay Incense distribution closed down in Dec 2024.

Fair Trade/Nitiraj make perfumed masala aimed at the Western market. They tend to use machines. This is a reliable and economical method of making incense sticks, though some purists prefer their incense sticks to be hand rolled.

I tend to quite like Fair Trade products, but never get excited by them. They are always decent scents, and the incense is well made, professional, and consistent. But there is not much excitement, creativity, or heart about them. This is professionally made incense, made with a clear eye on the profit line. Job done. There is nothing wrong with them, except, like HEM and SAC Sandesh, they lack soul. Companies like this show that it doesn't matter if the incense is masala or perfumed, what matters is the attitude and spirit of the makers.

Reviews

* = Review over five years old, so may not be reliable

Nitiraj Original (PM)

Match 2017 - Score: 35*

Nitiraj Red Nag Champa (PM)

Aug 2013 - Score: 33*

Om Temple (M)
Aug 2025 - Score: 32↑ 

Nitiraj Laxmi (PM)
Nov 2025 - Score: 31

Om Amber (PM)
Jan 2023 - Score: 30↑

 

Om Dragons Blood

April 2018 - Score: 28*

  

Nitiraj Purple Champa (PM)
Nov 2025 - Score: 28

Om Exotic (PM)
Dec 2020 - Score: 27*

 

Nitiraj Frankincense (M)

Feb 2023 - Score: 23

Nitiraj Green Champa (PM)
Nov 2021 - Score: 21

Om Frankincense (M)
Dec 2020 - Score: 21*

 

Nitraj Om Natural (PM)
Feb 2023 - Score: 20 

Reviews: 12 

High score: 35 

Low score: 20 

Average: 29  

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Incense in Mumbai

Incense Brands Compendium

Cenacle Qualitätsweihrauch Weihrauch fein (Quality Incense Frankincense)

 

A gentle and fine lemony Frankincense resin from Cenacle - a British based online Catholic book and gift store who sell Christian-associated incense such as Prinknash Abbey resins and  Sacred Heart by Aromatika, plus their own range.  

The resin is in small fine pieces which burn easily, and can be easily blended with other resins to form your own unique scents. There is a slight inclination toward soapy, but on the whole this is 
an appealing resin which burns well if modestly.


Date: Dec 2020 Score: 33

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Resins

Frankincense

Al-Afdal Perfumes Swiss Arabian Oud Muattar Sahra

A bakhoor incense bought from Al-Afdal Perfumes on eBay. The image used was of a pack of Swiss Arabian incense called Oud Mauttar Sahra. "Oud Mauttar" mean "old fragrance" and appears to either be another word for bakhoor or another word for agarwood, the fragrant wood which is soaked in perfume to make bakhoor (or bukhoor). Oud by itself is another name for agarwood. What I am thinking here is that this agarwood has been soaked in a Swiss Arabian perfume called "Sahra" which means "bright". 

The eBay advert. I didn't get the box,
I got a plastic bag. 

It is, like the other bakhoor I have tried, very sweet and intensely perfumed. This is a vibrant experience. Quite heady. Quite delicious. Quite intoxicating, romantic, and erotic. This is a very seductive scent, and certainly one to burn to infuse the house before a lover (or potential lover) arrives. While being seductive, it is also alive with energy which it easily transmits. This is potent stuff! 

Date: Dec 2020   Score: 47/50

*** 

The best agarwood incense

Mount Athos Incense Frankincense

 

Mount Athos is a Greek peninsular-island named after the mountain at its far end. It is a religious area with 20 monasteries, and, like the Vatican, it has  autonomy to run things its own way, which means only men over the age of 18 are allowed to visit. Incense made in the area is popular among Catholics.  

Frankincense is tree resin from the Boswellia family. It grows in parts of Africa and India. Its qualities as an incense have been known for over 6,000 years, and it gained its Western name of Frankincense from the French for "quality incense". There are many grades of resin, and some specialist sellers, such as House of Frankincense, will spend a lot of time in grading the resins they receive, and putting a premium price on the higher grades. 

The Boswellia tree doesn't grow in the Mount Athos region, but the monks there have developed their own recipes for grading and blending the resins they buy in. I'm not sure what grade this Frankincense is - the colour is a dirty yellow with some tending toward orange, many with dark flecks, and some very dark, almost red. I couldn't get it to burn attractively - perhaps burned it too hot. The resin before burning has a gentle lemon aroma, slightly soapy, slightly powdery, with vague flowery elements - white blossoms, perhaps gardenia, and a hint of musk. It's mild and pleasant. When burning, however, it tends to scorch and get smoky and become quite acrid. I put some foil on my burner to slow down the burning and that stopped the scorching, but there was little in the way of aroma, certainly nothing like frankincense. I then got a piece and set fire to it. It burned vigorously and for a brief moment there was mild but pleasant frankincense aroma, then the smoke turned black and there was just a hint of burning petrol and turpentine in the aroma. So if it is burned slowly, normally or fast, this resin does not give out attractive frankincense aromas. It is too mild, and perhaps contains too many impurities. I am disappointed with this. 

The incense was bought from Cenacle, a British based online Catholic book and gift store who sell Christian-associated incense such as Prinknash Abbey resins and  Sacred Heart by Aromatika, plus their own branded range.  

Date: Dec 2020   Score:  12  

***

Mount  Athos Incense

Frankincense

Resins

Underworld Apothecary Djinn Incense

 

I love this! I bought this from Misha of Underworld Apothecary over three years ago after her Facebook incense page was tagged on my Facebook incense page. She sent me this and some Bon Po Astral Incense as a sample. As is often the case - I either order or get sent stuff as samples, and then more stuff arrives and I get distracted, so it can take ages; sometimes - as in this case - years before I get around to burning it. I dug this up today after having to clear out stuff under my desk for a visit from an internet engineer. But the wait was worthwhile because this is cool stuff. It's a handmade incense consisting of a selection of loose dried ingredients which need to be burned on charcoal or a burner. I don't know the ingredients - they may have been mentioned at the time, but that's a long time ago! There's resin - amber I think, and various dried herbs and spices. It's a wonderful combination. I bought this incense at a time when I was exploring craft made granular incenses. I was (and still am) fascinated that there are so many different ways of burning incense, and particularly interested in this area of burning incense as part of witchcraft and links with the past. Of the craft made granular incenses I have tried this Djinn is by far the best. Proper job incense. As it was three years ago, and these incenses are craft made, I suspect the Djinn will no longer be available, but the craftwomanship that went into blending the incense will still be there, so it would be well worth checking out Misha's Facebook page to see what she's currently blending.

Date: Dec 2020   Score:  38 

***

Loose or home-made incense

Spiritual/Ritual Incense

Sifcon Backflow Cones: Sandalwood, Lavender Field, Patchouli, Golden Buddha

 

Just a note to readers that backflow cones look attractive, and you might want to try one, but they do leave an unpleasant smell afterwards, the smoke will stain surrounding furniture, so take care where you are burning them, the burners are difficult and unpleasant to clean (use gloves!), and there are health concerns because of the amount of tar they produce.

Popped into our local hardware shop, and took a look at their incense selection. They have been stocking SifCon for a while now, and have added Satya to their list. SifCon frequently rings the changes with their incense to keep customers interested. We were selecting a range of scents, when I noticed one packet said "Backflow", and got it to try it out. I have a backflow stand and some cones, but while the cones look lovely, the scent is more of the core material than the actual scent, so we don't burn them. I thought it was worth giving a SifCon pack a go, especially as - like the other cones - it was only £1. On getting home we discovered that almost all the packs we bought were backflow! Oh well. 

The first one we tried (inside our recently built summerhouse - or summershed as Phocea calls it) worked quite well, and I was pleased to see that there is a little stand inside. We tried the stand, and it does work, but is very limited. It doesn't really show the backflow smoke to its proper effect. Anyway, it worked. But the next three I tried did not work. And then one worked, but went out. They go out a lot. And when they do work, it takes a long while before the smoke stands flowing downwards as it is supposed to.  I compared it to my existing cones, which light easily and start flowing backwards straightaway. 

In the picture the stand you get with the packs is on the right. My own, slightly bigger, stand is on the left. 

The scents we bought are Patchouli. On the cone they smell slightly of pine - toilet cleaner pine, and faintly of sandalwood and cedar. When burning there is a hint of sandalwood, but mostly it's of ash. The lingering scent afterwards is of damp ash - like someone has thrown water over a fire. Not great. 

The Golden Buddha cones are darker in colour. The scent on the cone is flowery - gardenia? - with a hint of licorice.  When burning the scent is modest, mostly burning core material, but not offensive. 

Lavender Field has a modest and run of the mill scent of lavender on the cone.  Smells of the core material when burning. 

Sandalwood has a lacklustre sandalwood aroma on the cone, which is barely detectable when burned as the core material takes over. 

The smoke settles heavily on whatever the stand is resting on and can and does stain - so take care. After burning a few cones I noticed an unpleasant smell in the room like old ashtrays - then I noticed that the stand was thick with a tar like substance. Avoid getting it on anything as it clings and stains. Remove carefully with an old wet cloth or damp tissue paper.  Dispose of carefully. 

All in all not a great product. As incense they pretty much fail, leaving behind both an unpleasant smell and a particularly unpleasant mess; and as a backflow they don't always work. Very low score for this. I think we'll end up just throwing them away as they are not worth the hassle. 


Date: Nov 2020   Score: 2/50

The more we burn these the more I hate them. The lingering smell afterwards is like a dirty ashtray. And the tar is really hard to remove. It stains very easily. We have thrown them away. They are worse than useless, they are anti-incense. 

Be aware that the smoke from backflow cones will stain, and the accumulated residue has an unpleasant smell, and is unpleasant to clean, so use backflow cones with care. Place your backflow waterfall or holder on a disposable or easily cleanable surface, such as a large plate. 

Date: Dec 2020   Score: -2/50 

***

Sifcon International

Happy Hari Meena Supreme

 

Around 2015/2016 Paul Eagle sent me some Happy Hari incense to review. Among the bundle was some Meena Supreme. As is rather too common for me, I hadn't got around to reviewing it. I thought I had, but it seems not. At some point after Paul's death on Christmas Day 2016,  Corey Topel of Absolute Bliss incense in the USA got in touch to say that Paul had handed him details of his producers in India. Corey sent me some samples to review to check if they were the same as the original Happy Hari, and that bundle may have included some Meena, but - as is all too common for me - I haven't got around to reviewing those samples. Last year, I can't remember why, but almost certainly prompted by someone contacting me about Paul and his Happy Hari incense (people do so several times a year, and we often have interesting conversations), I was trawling the internet for remains of original Happy Hari incense. It may have been something to do with someone in the UK selling a Nag Champa Gold which was supposed to be made by Paul's original supplier.  Anyway, as I was trawling the internet and finding that Paul's original Happy Hari incense was disappearing, I bought up stocks here and there, including a large box of Meena Supreme. Of course, as it common with me, I haven't got round to reviewing them. I have burnt them, of course. I love Meena Supreme. But then sitting down and writing a review hasn't happened. 

Anyway, just this week someone got in touch about Happy Hari. I think that's the first Happy Hari contact I've had this year. They wanted to know where they could get in the UK incense like Happy Hari. I linked them to Corey's website, but that's expensive for someone living in the UK. And I pointed them to Gokula, who use some of the same suppliers as Paul, and who are very cheap. Probably the best quality and best value traditional masala incense available anywhere in the UK. But I also had another trawl to see what Happy Hari incense is left. Well, there's nothing.  Apart from  NagChampaWholesale who have bags of Meena Supreme left which they are selling off cheap (not any more - all stocks are now gone!). You can get 25 X 10g bundles of original Happy Hari Meena Supreme delivered to your door next day for less than £20 (that's less than £1 a pack - I don't know of a cheaper deal for delivered incense anywhere). Of course, I bought some. These are a little different in that the batch produced sticks slightly smaller than normal, so Paul put five sticks in each bag rather than the regular four. 

The new five stick packs of Meena on the right,
and the packs of four sticks of Meena on the left

Meena Supreme are Fluxo style incense - inspired by Sri Sai Flora Fluxo. A thick, rich, heady incense, pregnant with essential oils and loaded with fragrant ingredients. They are generally too heady for Western tastes, so are not sold much in the UK or America. I also suspect that people don't like it that you only get a few sticks. Perfume-dipped sticks are really thin and lightweight as the fragrance is carried entirely by the liquid perfume rather than heavy oils and weighty fragments of flower and resin, and they are cheaper to make, so you tend to get a lot for your money. 

To be accurate, Paul's Meena, while being thick, has never been as heavy or oil rich as the original Sri Sai. But it has always been supremely wonderful. But people would only know they are wonderful after they have parted with their cash, taken them home and burned them. And some people are hesitant to pay £3 or more for four sticks, when they would normally get ten or more. I think, even though the Meena Supreme is among the best products that Paul sold, they were the hardest to sell, and so that's why there are still some stocks left. OK, these stocks are not fresh, but masala incense holds up well. Perfumed incense will fade with time, and old stocks are frankly often useless. But masala retains wonderful fragrances. It does alter slightly, and will lose some of the initial intensity. But that is replaced with depth and sweetness, and a radiance that lingers for days. Some folks actually prefer masala incense that has matured slightly.   Up to you folks what you do, but I would strongly suggest you invest £20 and get yourself a bunch. 

Close view of the packs. It can be seen
that these are different batches both
in terms of the thickness, and in the
composition of the masala. Also, the 
labels are slightly different sizes.

When the Meena Supreme arrived I compared it with some old stock, and it is the genuine article - the familiar scents are there. It's not as strong as it was when fresh, and some subtle tones are missing, but in its place is a calming balance. It's more honeyed, and has less of a bite from the halmaddi. It doesn't wow as it did when fresh, but it now slowly unfolds and creates a beautiful aura in the home. This is great stuff. It is real old school hippy incense, and smells of old head shops and vegetarian cafes on Portobello Road, it holds the memory of proper hippy festivals like the Windsor festivals where the air was full of the scent of masala incense and dope and wood fires and patchouli oil. 

So. There. About four or five years late (sorry Paul), but I have finally got round to reviewing Meena Supreme. It is a wonderful incense. 

Date: Oct 2020   Score: 44 

There is a Meena Supreme made by Meena Perfumery Industries in Bangalore. Here is a YouTube review of that incense. 

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Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme

Happy Hari Incense

A little scent comparison

Top Incense of 2020

Reviewed on Rauchfahne