I don't know why I have this, nor where it came from. I reviewed four different packs from
Metromilan (then known just as Metro) back in 2014, in the early days of IncenseInTheWind, but I wasn't impressed. Cute cat, bright packets, and bold synthetic scents, but not an incense house that held interest for me. I'm not sure why I felt I needed to get another pack - especially one containing seven (yes, count them, seven) different scents. I suspect I was drawn by the name Metromilan because I'm aware that
Metro Milan is Metro(milan)'s best known and most successful scent. It looks like the company have decided to name themselves after their best known scent - this does happen. Anyway, here we go.
There are seven sealed plastic bags inside the pack, each containing six machine-extruded charcoal-dipped sticks. The packets are marked with the fragrance names, and the sticks have different colours. So, the scent called Falah has pink sticks, while the scent called Hadya has green sticks, and so on. I've looked for meanings of the names, and the closest consistent I can find is that they are girl's names.
Sahar has sandy coloured sticks. The scent on the stick is bright, sharp, heavily synthetic, and is just like a bucket of toilet cleaner fluid. The scent on the burn is sharp, acidic, bright, chemical, mildly offensive. I'm not sure what it is intended to be, but this is a Bri-Nylon shirt in a world that loves natural cotton. The Bri-Nylon structure of the scent is brash and confident - it does have positive qualities, such as its bright, cheerful semi-floral resilience, but like nylon it is cheap and crude, and like nylon catches on my nails and fingers, this catches on my soul. Just about acceptable for keeping away the flies in the outhouse when feeding the cats. [19]
Maheen has natural coloured sticks. Again, a sharp and synthetic note on the stick. This one reasonably deep, but the general impression is of dried old sweat on a nylon shirt. The scent on the burn is somewhat acceptable - it has a scent range, with top, middle, and bottom notes. It's not crude or blunt. Assertive, certainly, but not rude or aggressive. Yeah, it's somewhat seducing me. There's some sexy sweet deep notes along the edge of patchouli, and some playful florals. It's all fairly familiar. I've had this scent before, though can't quite pin it down. It's not a great scent, but it's playful and reasonably attractive. [24]
Zahra has green sticks, a little brighter than the green for the Hadya. Scent on the stick is partly pine disinfectant, and partly an incense scent from my hippy youth. It's cold and sharp, yet has some warm tones that bring me in. It burns attractively, developing on those warm tones, and that familiar hippy incense scent, though is rather smoky and assertive, and gradually becomes too much for my medium sized room. [23]
Haya has purple sticks. As with the others, the scent on the stick is harsh and smells of chemicals rather than perfume. The scent on the burn is fairly obscured. There's some florals, but mostly it's just synthetic room freshener incense. It's not bad bad bad, but it aint good either. It's just an outhouse incense. [20]
Sana has black sticks. Again, the chemical fumes. Plus some vinegar. Quite green and outdoorsy. It's green and a little sharp on the burn. A little vague. A little smoky. A little like jasmine. Smells like bargain basement perfumed-charcoal incense. It's nudging against unpleasant, though not quite there. Certainly it's not an incense I want to burn in the house. [17]
Hadya has a green tip. The journey with this is the same as the others. A crude chemical note on the stick, with some vague synthetic floral scent. Notes of vinegar and cat piss. I really don't think much care and attention has gone into making these fragrance blends. A splash of this and a splash of that into a big bucket of DEP, and then dip the charcoal blanks into the bucket. Job done. Rinse and repeat. Well, forget the rinse, just repeat. The scent on the burn is a white floral, close to jasmine. I think my main problem with this variety pack is that the scents are mainly focused on white floral, which is not really among my favourite fragrances. And they are garishly synthetic. And there's not a lot to distinguish them from each other, or from any other run of the mill bargain basement perfumed incense. To be fair, this one is not that bad. [22]
Falah has a red tip. It smells of violets and roses in a cold, sharp chemical breeze. It's the most floral, and least chemical of the bunch. This is an acceptable incense. [23]
So what have I learned from burning this Metromilan variety pack? Well, as regards the Metro(milan) company, I've learned nothing I didn't learn over ten years ago: that they make cheap and crude perfumed-charcoal incense sticks using a lot of a chemical such as DEP to save money. The scents are brash and colourful, rather like the packaging. And I've not yet tried their most acclaimed scent:
Metro Milan, which is now called
Metromilan. So I've not learned anything - simply confirmed my opinions from 2014 (I have learned so much since then, and my understanding and appreciation of incense has shifted somewhat, but it appears that my response to cheap, brash, and crude is largely the same). I have reflected, though, on the nature of incense variety packs. These do tend to be aimed at the budget end of the market. There is the appeal that I'm going to get several different scents for roughly the same price as one scent, but it appears to be a false economy as the quality of most of these 3-in-1 or 7in-1 or variety packs is generally not strong.
Anyway, this +7 has really not been my thing. On the whole I'm usually OK with bright, bold perfumed incense. But Metromilan is just a tad too crude for me.
Date: Feb 2025 Score: 21
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