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While the Green Garden and Tulsi Queen are somewhat similar (and green) incenses, this is really something of a miscellaneous group for Bhagwan installment #13. It should be noted that even though the incense links go to Bhagwan’s pages, Exotic Incense is carrying the Bhagwan and Good Incense lines in the US as well if US readers prefer to order domestically.

The Bhagwan Incense Green Garden is not the Vedic Vaani Green Garden or the Temple of Incense Green Garden which has been renamed The Green One (previously reviewed here). Bhagwan’s stick is a much fruitier variant with a few other green sources in the mix but I wouldn’t describe it as grassy or dry like the previous incenses with the name. The only ingredients we’re specifically given is benzoin which I’d imagine sweetens up all the other ingredients considerably; however, the website also gives berries and lily. I think its two main qualities are fruity and minty, the former dominant (I’m reminded of apple juice, pear, lime jello, and kiwi) with hints of spearmint, menthol, and (maybe at a smaller pitch) notes like patchouli, cactus/agave, fir or pine needles, and vetiver. Having so much green goodness in one stick also tends to evoke anything else green, so it’s a bit of a cauldron scent, like single voices occasionally arising over the multitude, and occasionally you might notice something else. I even wondered what this smell would taste like and came up with those green apple Jolly Ranchers. It also reminds me a little of the TOI Tulsi in its fruitiness, something that always felt like a pleasant affectation to me. I go for green incenses and not so much for fruity ones, but there’s so much greenness here that this one was an easy like. And if you’re worried this might get into too-sweet territories, I found a slight paint/lacquer note, similar to the one Shroff Parrot Green Durbar had, to balance this out quite nicely.

There was an older masala around the time I started buying from Incense from India and Mystic Temple in the late 90s whose name or names I can’t remember anymore, with “desert flora” being the closest I took forward. I’ve mentioned this lineage in some previous reviews as well. I remember clay-patchouli and vetiver notes in it as well as something cactus/agave in the mix, but of course these old scents changed over the years leaving me more with general impressions than specifics. Bhagwan’s Sacred Earth is perhaps somewhat in this tradition, although the box really only describes it as amber resin and florals, while the link adds benzoin and plumeria. The amber does give it some thickness, and I’d imagine it helps to bring out a green note reminiscent of spearmint toothpaste (and there’s some slight licorice hints here too) but given the prior information the amber is unlikely to be either note’s source. Sacred Earth is very cool and grounding but it feels like the ingredients combine in a way that is very obscuring, as there’s not a given note in the description I would have guessed on my own. It’s amidst all of this that the scent finds its earth in a bit of rocky soil. The incenses I remember were always large mixes of ingredients and so perhaps there’s some alchemy going on here from the combinations. Needless to say, this lineage was never a personal favorite (in the early days they were dry masalas), but as the lineage has deep roots it’s one you should probably make up your mind on yourself.

If you see a masala with heavy orange dusting on it it’s likely saffron will be involved. I’ve seen numerous variations of these mostly in handrolled batches and despite saffron usually being more red-orange, if its spiciness is toned down a bit and combined with amber and vanilla, you can get incenses that smell a lot like orange creamsicles which, at least to me, is a yummy childhood memory smell. In 2022, just in the Vedic Vaani catalog we noted Saffron Masala, Saffron Nagchampa (in the Nagchampa Collection), Dhumavati (in the DasMavidhya Bhakti Sadhana Collection), Dashavtar Kirshna (in the Lord Vishnu Dasavataran Dharma Collection), Shri Mahadevi Lakshmi (in the Devi Shakti Collection) and Vaibhavi Lakshmi (in the Vedic Nagchampa God’s Blessing collection). All of these varied slightly from one another; however, I would not recommend ordering these and expecting the same incense as its especially the incenses in the collections that Vedic Vaani will switch up at whim, which is why I didn’t link them. However, perhaps the most startling thing I took from them is that this amazing scent was never imported here or in Europe as far as I can tell. Similar to these incenses is the Bhagwan Saffron Robe, except this is in a slightly thicker, lightly orange dusted extruded charcoal and there’s been no real attempt to tone down the saffron’s spiciness or bump up any creamsicle note. This makes Saffron Rove an analagous but not exact incense to all the ones I previously mentioned, but certainly a variation I like a lot. I’d imagine there’s not a lot of real saffron in any incense. I’ve smelled quite a few incenses purportedly with saffron that I wouldn’t even say smell like saffron, but the manufacturer has really managed to pull together a distinctly spicy saffron note that is more incense than food spice while still retaining some of its herbal qualities.

The Tulsi Queen actually flips a green stick in the opposite direction to the aforementioned Green Garden. The Temple of Incense Tulsi is something of a classic, as long as you weren’t expecting a basil aroma like you’d get from a pesto. It paired together some semblance of the herb but prettied it up with a certain green fruitiness. The Bhagwan Tulsi Queen allows the basil to be more herbal (tart but maybe not quite as savory as you’d imagine) in the stick, it’s a move that makes this a completely different stick to the TOI Tulsi as there’s also no fruity qualities here. However, like patchouli and vetiver, concentrated oils of green (or green scented) plants give off some wonderful minty (to me, spearmint again) tones as well (this is always a quality I really love in many green sticks). I don’t think I’ve probably ever gotten to smell holy basil in India so I would imagine based on several incenses I’ve sampled that it’s probably not as piquant or herbaceous as basil in the west (or possibly the essential oil changes the herb’s qualities). So even though it’s closer to the leaf than the TOI Tulsi, the Tulsi Queen is still not likely to remind you of cooking with it. I am really impressed with Eugene’s/Bhagwan’s ability to work with Indian manufacturers to come up with variations of incenses like this one, as this is another green winner.

Good news from Hart at incense-tradtions.ca this morning, they are shipping to the US again. Do keep in mind there is a new flat rate $15.00 shipping fee for any size order plus a 37.4% tariff charge. If you have any further questions do email Hart at the site (you can also find additional info here). I’ll just reiterate that i-t has always been one of the best, if not the best company selling true Tibetan incenses, many of which are among my personal favorite incenses on the entire planet (some I’ve gone through multiple rolls of and reach for frequently).

This most recent third installment (and 12th overall) of Bhagwan incenses largely covers what I’d call resin incenses; however, as always, the plans don’t usually make it to posting and there’s a floral added here as well. And not only that but one of the resin incenses actually isn’t one. Exotic Incense is carrying the Bhagwan and Good Incense line in the US as well if US readers prefer to order domestically.

Previous incenses that go by the name of Dragon’s Blood usually refer to the resin in that link, but I feel like its popularity is more attuned to the resin’s name rather than its scent which has never struck me as anything but mediocre. There are Dragon’s Blood incenses along the TOI/Absolute Bliss lines that started moving away from the resin a bit, gussying up the scent with berry and spice notes. There’s one or two also in the Bhagwan and Monsoon line with different attributes, but this new stick is apparently a replacement incense for the Bhagwan incense. It’s a very cool incense stick that I’d maybe think of in terms of being a conceptual incense derived from the name rather than something that has much to do with the actual resin. The first thing that’s different about this one is one of the notes is an interesting mineral-metallic note that I haven’t yet smelled in any other incense but it’s something I find really intriguing. The overall incense feels like it’s from a cavern deep under the earth and it reminds you that (fictional) dragons were supposed to be reptilian and thus cold blooded, so everything seems to work from that angle. It still has that sort of cinnamon spice and berry (strawberry, raspberry, sour cherry) mix that most of the previously mentioned incenses have but the metallic notes balance the cloying aspects I remember from previous red sticks (my general memory is I’d enjoy them off the bat but by the end of the stick I was fatigued by them so never added any to my collection). This one I’d get behind because of the creator really nailing the vibe. The box also gives notes of vanilla and ylang ylang but the latter is kind of faint and the vanilla expertly distributed throughout the incense to give it some heft without turning it into a loud note. I’m generally fascinated with notes like petrichor, grass and the like so I found this to be one of the more unique sticks on the market for now. It may not be the best Dragon’s Bood incense on the market but it’s the definitely the best incense named Dragon’s Blood. Only caveat is that it burns pretty fast.

I’ve noted that with several Indian frankincense masalas I’ve reviewed over the years that they don’t usually remind me all that much of frankincense resin on a heater or on charcoal, so Bhagwan’s Frankincense & Rose (not to be confused with their purple Frank & Rose which is a Meena stick and qualitatively one of a kind) is one of the first where the frankincense note actually does remind me of a thurible smoking in a Catholic church. The frankincense is not the sort of upscale resin we get from Apothecary’s Garden or Mermade Magickal Arts, but it is certainly sufficient for the broader associations. And like the name it is combined with a rose perfume that sits very lightly and delicately on top, and which does not dominate the scent in any way. It’s actually really difficult to further describe this any deeper as over a few sticks I did not notice too many complexities. I sat with the rose perfume a bit and found it pretty gentle but clearly it was meant to compliment rather than dominate. Honestly if we can finally get a resinous smell now, I would imagine this could open up masalas to the more specific Frankincense resin types sold at the above links which could make matches a lot more interesting in the future.

The King of Loban is once again a proud statement but in my experience the #1 upscale loban (a masala that is usually created out low rent resins like benzoin, guggul, frankincense etc) is (or was, as it has been a while) Vedic Vaani’s Kawadi Golden Loban. And by upscale I mean a loban that has sort of transcended its roots to a whole different almost painted format with the confectionary side notes now a highlight. This “King of Loban” is also an upscale, but it is still recognizably a loban with the masala color still being grey and the bamboo stick still dipped in the usual green color. But it is also quite refined to remove the lower quality granite and bitter smells (this ends up having a not unpleasant sort of hot pavement vibe) and accentuate the things a loban does best. Bhagwan now has a catalog big enough to check out several related sticks so it’s possibly worth checking out any sambrani or frankincense sticks to learn how those scents work on their own. Higher quality benzoin likely provides the vanilla, balsamic and/or amber notes mentioned on the King of Loban box. I generally find the lowest quality lobans to be among the cheaper incenses on the market, but it really doesn’t take all that much to polish one up and this one definitely fits that bill. Once the scent leaves the rockiness behind you can start to smell sweet notes that are quite beautiful as well as a light cinnamon spice (at first I wasn’t even sure this was the incense) I don’t know if I’ve ever tried in a loban, but it works. And I should mention that King of Loban just goes in a different direction than the Kawadi Golden Loban so they are really two incenses you should check out.

Orange Blossom really doesn’t relate to the previous resin incenses so I am moving to one that while it could fit with last installment’s florals is really more of a fruity floral. Orange Blossom is absolutely orange adjacent but on its own it tends to be quite floral powdery in a way, reminiscent of what you would smell on the, um, blossom. However, this incense absolutely does have a citrus-orange note, one that is surprisingly effective as going directly for a fruity orange sort of scent is usually not a profitable venture in an incense. As this is purportedly sourced in part from the essential oil, I would imagine some trickery was needed to get the juiciness involved a bit more, but involved it is. The mix of these two notes is really half the incense, but there is a sort of champa-adjacent base that plays as much a part. Bhagwan manufactures often use quite a bit of wood powder to capture the oil, but in this case it’s such a light oil, it can’t hide the wood. There’s a bit of a thread of bitterness in here that could have come from any of the ingredients, but it’s not omnipresent in the incense and the base’s halmaddi and vanilla tends to not let that go too far (not to mention a bitter orange also exists). The incense manages to keep some sense of lightness, although I couldn’t help but wonder what the scent might be like as a charcoal. Ultimately whether you would like this probably depends on if you want this much wood in your orange blossom.

Finally, we are looking at Temple Nag, but in this case it’s way more Temple with the Nag (Champa) being a loud presence but something of an invisible one as well. This is ultimately a loban (particularly benzoin/sambrani), but a very different one. It is a hybrid incense that long time users of Indian masalas might wonder why it hasn’t been done before. First of all, there are a lot of Nag Champas out there that do not have a floral oil that is identical with the blue box or even the Happy Hari Gold Nag Champa. I feel the same way about a Bhagwan incense or Monsoon incense that has been named a champa, so it’s possible the starting perfume is similar to one of those. I am not smelling anything I associate with Nag Champa; however, it’s quite possible that the loban base has just transmuted/been transmuted by this oil. That is, the combination really creates an unusual alchemy that creates a mix that I’m not sure I’ve experienced before and it’s a really fascinating experience. For one thing the somewhat bubble gum candy note you find in lobans has been fortified here. Since this looks mostly loban-based one would have to imagine that the vanilla smell is still coming from the benzoin. But with these possible familiar notes, there is a lot of fascinating collisions here at the perfume level I’m not even sure I can describe yet. But I do really like it, it really scratches the itch of finding something novel. Definitely an adventurous stick and perhaps one you’d only find in a catalog getting as large as Bhagwan’s.

Just as spring transforms to summer
Boys grow to manhood,
Not realizing what they leave behind.

May is the time of one of Japan’s busiest holiday seasons known as Golden Week. With four national holidays falling within a seven day period, most businesses close and people enjoy vacation, travel, and family outings. Perhaps the most well known of Golden Week’s holidays is Kodomo no Hi こどもの日 (Childrens’ Day), symbolized by the hanging of carp streamers throughout the country. Traditionally known as “Boys’ Day,” the fifth day of the fifth month is considered an auspicious day to offer incense at Japan’s many temples and shrines as prayers for good fortune and protection for a family’s children. Aloeswood is ideal for such offerings, and Kito Tenkundo’s Juō’s blend of rich earthiness combined with a distinctive sweetness make it an auspicious offering to make.

Juō is part of Kito Tenkundo’s Luxury Line of fragrances. Inspired by the beautiful natural setting of the ancient samurai capital of Kamakura. Described as a “premium sinking-grade aloeswood incense” made “from ancient trees that have lived out their lifespans, then slept underground for centuries, developing a sublime fragrance through a quiet dialogue with the earth,” Juō represents the pure and profound connection with nature found in the ancient hills surrounding Kamakura.

Juō’s muted khaki stick is sweet, with a pronounced caramelized maple syrup note giving it a lively curry presentation. Beneath this lies a smoky brightness, filled with spicy tones that are green, powdery, and earthy in their presentation. At first, the stick seems uni-dimensional with the maple syrup note dominating, but with extended attention, there is a great deal of complexity and depth in Juō’s unlit stick, even without any of its aloeswood yet to be warmed. Unlit, Juō is traditional with a rich sweetness that is multi-layered and complex, filled with maple, fruity, spicy, and dry sweet tones mingling into a lively addicting fragrance.

Once lit, Juō begins with restrained tones of caramel mixed with a woody sweetness. Lighting shows a high concentration of oils, as the stick takes more vigorous shaking to extinguish than most. Warm fruity vanillac overtones take to the stage first, followed shortly afterward by the maple syrup note of the unlit stick, only now more toasted, softer, and reserved. To this, spicy notes of clove and cinnamon are gently added, presenting a light toasted powdery quality. Juō’s sweetness early on is soft and smooth as silk, gently building in the space with a soft earthy tone lush with woody benzoin vanilla and spice.

As the stick warms Juō’s sweetness adds a soft undercurrent of acidic wood as its aloeswood base comes to life. Combining with the initial sweet caramelized vanilla tones, this subtle woody acidity adds a grounded smoothness. Rich, earthy, and venerable, Juō’s sweetness continues to build subtly, mixing elements like a Japanese dessert filled with cinnamon, clove, and maple syrup over the slightly sour fruity tones of aged wood used to bake it. Yet Juō’s aloeswood note is reserved and soft, seemingly seeking out a role in harmony that adds to the other notes rather than commanding over them. The cumulative affect is that of a fragrance that is ancient, alive, and powerful, like the kami that inhabit the shrines to whom incense is offered on Kodomo no Hi. 

In time something remarkably relaxing happens to Juō’s tone: It both expands and contracts at the same time. Part of the fragrance seems to take the listener beyond the conscious mind, expanding awareness in a soft almost hypnotic calm. Yet another aspect wraps the listening in a warm relaxing embrace, driving awareness within, contracting reality into a safe, calming, state. Throughout the acidic woody base note continues to grow as the rich woody vanilla and fruity maple top notes recede from awareness, merging into a singular warm sweet woody tone. The overall affect is one of tranquility and agelessness, allowing the listener to effortlessly drift in Juō’s wake in a truly beautiful experience of relaxation and harmony.

Juō’s after note is lightly sweet, with a smooth creamy powdery quality. The vanilla tones of the burn take on a lighter more toasted quality, mingled with the restrained sweetness like a caramelized meringue with a somewhat marshmallow quality. To this, the lingering aloeswood tone transforms into a slightly green grassy note, combining the bitterness of tea leaves mingled with sweet grass. The result is a space that feels fresh, purified, and calm, the troubles of the day washed away. Juō’s after note is unique in that it is woody, yet not wood forward, instead a balanced result that provides a feeling of being in the presence of something ancient and protective, calm yet powerful. Greeting the listener returning to the space of its burning even hours after its ember has gone out, Juō’s after note is long lasting and distinctive.

An auspicious fragrance fit for Kodomo no Hi, Kito Tenkundo Juō is unique in that it is premium aloeswood incense that is beautifully sweet where its wood base serves to enhance the overall fragrance rather than dominate it. With warmth and sophistication that is both ancient and alive, Juō is filled with a toasted green sweetness, calming tranquil personality, and delightful long lasting after-note.

For this installment we’re going to look at a quartet of recent Bhagwan florals. I had to move an incense (to a later review) from this group that would have helped me better elucidate my overall thoughts about these and that’s that there is some implication from the Bhagwan descriptions that florals are often built from other florals (this additional example is still forthcoming). And not only that but in a couple instances here we’re dealing with a couple names that could create expectations that aren’t necessarily fulfilled by the scent. I should also add that even though the incense links go to Bhagwan’s pages, Exotic Incense is carrying the Bhagwan and Good Incense line in the US as well (and I noticed one in this batch recently so they may be all caught up).

Frangipani is essentially just a name for plumeria, but it’s absolutely one of my favorite florals and in that sense if a manufacturer gets the smell right (as they did here) then I’m going to be over the moon about it. Frangipani goes back to my earliest experience of incenses as a teenager and so it feels like the experience sits back in my memory and when it gets accessed by a new version it triggers this early joy over a scent I had never tried before. We don’t see many frangipani incenses, but the discontinued Dhuni version was a masterpiece, an incense I think was probably Ramakrishna sourced, (note that there is also a thinner version, just Frangipani, that we have not reviewed yet that is just as good. Bhagwan’s Frangipani is clearly from a different manufacturer and gives us jasmine, citrus, and gardenia (I was surprised to see this was the first time I had to add gardenia to our categories list) as notes; however, the composite scent hits the plumeria scent dead on and the incense is even a little squishy. So, this is an incense I can really get behind. However, during various burns, I did notice this sense that the ingredients or notes could separate at times, but it felt like this actually just underlined how beautiful all the notes are. I get powdery, creamy, Valentine’s Day candy, smooth, feminine, and velvet, although not citrus as much (which might have folded into the base some), but it all comes together beautifully. So, if you’ve had trouble sourcing a frangipani scent you like, while I think I’d give the Ramakrishnas a slight nudge ahead (although this could all possibly be because the Special is thick with halmaddi), this is almost equally as beautiful and also seems increasingly complex with use. In the end, though, I wondered if my enthusiasm for this was purely due to how much I like the floral, that is, I doubt if someone created the perfect jasmine that I’d be on board quite this much.

I haven’t been able to get back to my Vedic Vaani project notes in a while and checking them, I don’t think I had finalized this particular incense which is both very common in the catalog but never exported or renamed by other companies as far as I know. In the VV catalog it can vary quite a bit, but the base of the incense usually has some level of vanilla in it (in the dusting and/or the base as well), and it’s always thin and extruded (and in Bhagwan’s case this is also longer than any other version so its probably direct from the manufacturer). The oil mix in the middle is what usually changes and in the Golden Nectar it’s quite well described, both fruity (first stick: peach, mango, tropical, second: apple, pear, grape, peach apricot) and floral like it’s supposed to be evocative of some wonderful ambrosia. You can even get the “golden” in this (maybe more white wine than red wine?) and there’s also a wood powder scent, at least from the dusting that gives it a heft that nicely balances the fruity/floral mix. A very friendly incense overall, as long as you like fruity and floral mixes this should be well up your alley as it has a strength to evince a direction its going in rather than fading into something more generic. (A couple side notes here. 1) I’ve never figured out why the manufacturers stick to a thick, hand-rolled, charcoal base when this thinner extruded charcoal base rarely seems to end up being part of the bouquet. 2) the description of the incense at the Bhagwan page includes plum blossoms. I noticed this right after wrapping up this review and will just note that I didn’t pick up on that on my own through three sticks but it seems fair.)

The main issue with Lotus Queen is it doesn’t remind me at all of any previous lotus incense I have tried and there have been lots of them through the years. I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling a fresh lotus in its natural habitat, and incenses with the name vary quite a bit, but I would imagine the actual scent is not terribly far away from something like the HMS Blue Lotus. While lotus oil can be gotten from the flower, it’s still decidedly way too expensive for use in incenses, so it has to be brewed up in other ways. However, Bhagwan Lotus Queen is something different. What I was immediately reminded of is an incense or two in the Nippon Kodo stable that were formulated as water (element) incenses (the one I found in our archive is the discontined NK Aqua). These use cyclamen as a note, and I think it’s something like cyclamen in the Lotus Queen as well. I would guess this is definitely a synthetic wherever it shows up as this note captures watery notes that would be difficult to duplicate. The Lotus Queen ends up being something like a cyclamen champa paired with this sort of base. I’m not sure it’s a perfect mix of elements even if you know you like cyclamen, but I also didn’t experience any major misgivings over three sticks. It is as at least unusual and not duplicated anywhere else as far as I can recall, but I would not expect a lotus scent.

Analagous to the Lotus Queen the name Night Queen evokes night blooming jasmine, but I’m not sure the incense does although it’s closer in this case. The last time I looked at a Night Queen was an HMS stick, which felt like it had reached some sort of verisimilitude with the real thing (as far as I can tell through the history related in the linked reviews), although once again I’m not completely sure I’ve smelled a Night Queen in its habitat, but it is a form of jasmine which is listed as a note here. But while I wasn’t sure where I landed with the Lotus Queen, I really do like this spicy floral combo whatever it is named. Additional given notes are honey, fruity, tuberose, geranium and a green freshness and all of these things do seem present in the blend. Both the honey and the green quality really help balance the florals out a lot, bringing some really nice touches when your attention is forward. And like the previous incenses, the base is adding some wood powder notes. There’s no sense of hairspray or air freshener and I also pick up some purple-like qualities like grapes or berries which I like but don’t usually associate with Night Queen. If this actually IS what Night Queen smells like it must be a treat indeed as I can easily recommend this subtle, original, and, possibly, conceptual mix.

This is the first of several new installments that will be covering recent new additions to the Bhagwan and Monsoon Incense catalogs. Each installment should be approximately 4 to 5 incenses. As I started this draft I had gone through one stick of all of the Bhagwans sent my way and my initial appraisal was that there were quite a few blends here with multiple notes (or even multiple notes building something like one note), and it got my mind going on the differences between incenses with 1 or 2 notes vs those that start to get above five. I know one of the reasons I find Tibetan incenses fascinating is the combination of lots of ingredients into new aromas, so I was eager to get into this group. You might notice that Bhagwan has numerous aloeswood/oud and sandalwood incenses, but there was actually only one or two additions to those styles, with many of these incenses taking perfume experimentation in some new and interesting directions.

The first incense in this batch was quite a surprise and apparently an Alchemist Secret. I’ve often thought about alchemists in their early labs producing as many bad smells as good ones, but the myth they all have in common is turning lower matter into higher and in that sense a successful experiment in the incense world would be something that smells really nice. In our journey through some incenses with multiple ingredients, I think this one shows how you can arrange the scents so that they merge in a way that creates something new while still having the notes hang around on their own a bit. Interestingly enough, with vanilla and tonka bean at the front of the list, you would think this would be overwhelmingly vanilla scented but it’s actually not as vanilla to my nose as a couple other incenses including the Thai Garden in this installment. I feel like the tonka bean probably refines the vanilla and helps to keep this scent more to the middle, allowing it to become a more complex, spicy incense. There are also musk and caramel in this first list, neither of which I find central to the aroma but they both impart quite a bit of sweetness and parts of both ingredients tend to give this a bit of complexity. The latter group of rose, rhubarb, muguet (lily of the valley), and oakmoss accomplish various things in the scent matrix. The light and attractive spiciness of the incenses probably comes from the way the first group interacts with the rhubarb and oakmoss, with the former providing a sense of piquancy and the latter likely being more central to this feeling of spice (a bit evocative of a cinnamon/clove/nutmeg mix). It’s not a heavy spice, but really well placed to flirt with the florals and push the vanilla/tonka out from being too overwhelming, As someone who tends to find florals better when they’re judiciously applied, I really thought there was a nice balance here and found that over three sticks I was still enjoying it as much as the first stick. I’ve generally been quite charmed by Bhagwan’s experimentations with the fougere style of perfuming and yet still see this as very grounded in the traditional sense.

While I was almost equally impressed with the composite scent in the Khajuraho Temple incense, its thick, very lightly dusted and mostly charcoal base, familiar from a lot of Vedic Vaani sourced incenses, really handicaps this one. This is probably more true depending on how many of these incenses you’ve tried but the simple truth is most of the time the base is an unpleasant part of the palate, even in situations like this one where the mix is really cool. The copal at the top of the list really breathes through most of this like some of the better resin you will find (in my experience copal is one of the few ingredients that is better burned than heated) and the modifications from the vanilla, chocolate, ylang-ylang, caramel and musk tend to compliment the copal without overwhelming it. You can actually sense how lovely the mix is just from smelling the unlit stick, the citrus from the copal in the middle, the ylang ylang floating like a wraith throughout, the musk sweetening and deepening everything The chocolate notes are really sublime and clever but once the stick has been lit for a while the charcoal tends to add an increasingly strong presence to the overall vibe. I’ve experienced multiple incenses with this base with completely different scents on them and very few of them don’t have this barbeque note demanding your attention. If this isn’t something you notice, then maybe the fatigue hasn’t set in and in that case you might get considerable enjoyment out of a neat perfume mix like this.

As soon as I pulled out the Ocean Flower and saw the purple-dipped tip I recognized this very common Indian scent that has been in various catalogs under different names for as long as I’ve been burning Indian incense. I’d even probably put this incense on a top 10 most popular incenses list after Nag Champa and Sai Flora. It’s most commonly found now as Happy Hari Yama Sutra or Temple of Incense Bengal Beauty, but before this I remember it as Honey Dust or Vanilla in the Mystic Temple or Incense from Indian line ups. This scent was found in the Vedic Vaani catalog (circa 2021-2022) as Ballaleshwar in the Ashtavnayak Collection,
Shree Adi Guruji in the Sant Seva Bhakti Collection, and Vedic Divine Om in the Pray with Faith Collection, although I’d imagine none of these are repeatable. I noticed about a 10% variation with the Bengal Beauty and it’s likely the thickness and length of the stick will vary, but all have a very similar scent that I’ve reviewed enough to just refer you to the previous reviews. However, we’re given a pretty neat list of ingredients in the Ocean Flower: amber, vetiver, melon, pepper, lavender, sage, and caramel, although in this incense I found some of these notes to be extremely faint, as well as the vanilla and honey being missing. I would imagine with even such a long historical line that variations at both the incense and batch level will probably move this one here and there, but not enough where I would imagine you wouldn’t notice what it was if you are familiar with any of the previous versions of it. But surely if you haven’t tried it before this is a good place to start, it is something of a classic in a lineage sense.

Vanilla has been a pretty common theme in this most recent Bhagwans and Monsoon batch and while it is not stated as a note on the box, it seems to be the most dominant feature by far in the Thai Garden. While the stick is pretty firm this is still an incense I’d mentally characterize as a champa type. The list of ingredients has coconut, ylang ylang, bergamot, peach and geranium, complemented by vetiver, caramel, orange flower and lily. I’m guessing a lot of these notes are pushing the coconut over into a vanilla contiguous area. Overall, this is a very pretty incense, one of those scents that I’d describe as user friendly. It is however very sweet and reminds me a little of some of Prabhuji’s Gifts incense with the ingredients, several of which are common in modern perfume to incense mixes. While I burned this incense, I could find a lot of the notes listed, but except for coconut they were all fairly subsidiary to this big vanilla champa blast. If you love vanilla I think this incense would be a no brainer, although I might temper your enthusiasm and check out the next series of reviews as there’s at least one or two more (not to mention the Alchemist Secret above) that are in this type of range and you might want to see which one gets your attention the most.

Before going into the sampler notes for these incenses, I wanted to cut and paste the previous Vinasons incense reviews from our Reviews Index for context:

• Agarwood, Deep Woods, Deviflora, Gold, Radha Kasturi (2024)
• Kesar Hina, Musk Hina, Special Hina, Ashtagandha, Ratrani (2024)
• Amber Kasturi, Apoorva, Super Musk, Special Kasturi, Kevda (2024)
• Kesar Chandan, Shahi Chandan, Royal Sandalwood, Special Sandalwood, Wild Sandal (2024)
• Darshan, Frankincense, Guggul, Loban, Vishwa-Sudha (2024)
• Khus, Patchouli + notes on Panadi and Neo Panadi, Durga, Miraj, Swanand (2024)

When I first came across Vinasons incenses starting many years ago, it was usually through samples provided during purchases or perhaps from other traders. This goes back a fairly long time, but before I reviewed the incenses above, I had gotten a less than favorable impression of their line from incenses like Green Rose and a couple of others I don’t remember. Obviously, this impression was reversed by so many of the better sticks in the catalog, but as I was doing this it didn’t make sense to request some of the incenses I thought I probably would not like, so the reviews were not comprehensive. However, I took notes, filed them, lost them, and found them again in addition to receiving a nice sampler package from Pat at Everest Trader that includes some of the above as well as some I had not reviewed yet. So, while these will not be full reviews (although in a couple of cases, I probably did try at least three sticks), I wanted to get these notes up to cover another seven scents I had not discussed yet. Take these largely as initial impressions, I felt that with quite a few of the reviewed Vinasons that a few sticks actually improved my impression of many of them, so it’s worth keeping that in mind. When I post something as Sampler Notes, I’m mostly reducing expectations for thorough reviews due to not having enough sticks to sample or a lack of boxes to picture. But I usually try to get my impressions in place anyway, although for now I will not be linking them.

Dhanashri was completely new to me, I don’t even recognize it from previous lists so I’m not sure how new it is. I got two sticks to try but both seemed fairly static, and one impression I had was that it could be a base for a few other Vinasons incenses. It’s a charcoal and as it burned, I started being reminded of various dhoops I had tried and what was similar between them. I’m not even quite sure what in a dhoop makes a similar smell, but it was the number one note that was nagging at me. I also noticed that the charcoal was loud enough to make up part of the aroma so I would imagine that could be some of the overlap. The perfume is kind of spicy along the clove-cinnamon axis and there’s some brassiness in there that reminds me of a flora so it is likely to be camphor or borneol. Not sure how much this would improve with some more experience because it largely didn’t strike me as having a lot of personality.

I’ve reviewed the Kesar Chandan and the Shahi Chandan but wasn’t even aware there was a Kasturi Chandan. There was a single stick in the sampler and it reminded me of the sandal/desert flora side except fairly drenched with a sweet and somewhat overpowering sort of musk smell. There felt like a bit of plant/herbal matter in the mix as well, but it really feels like the musk tended to drown out most of whatever else is going on in the incense (the sampler was very fresh). Of course this might mean a little age would cure this one, so maybe I’ll be able to check this out again later down the line.

The Lavender is an odd sort and more old school than recent entries coming through Vedic Vaani, Absolute Bliss, Temple of Incense and others. It’s a dry masala and feels not entirely lavender or at least whatever oils or material being used tends to mix it up and not only make it herbal but a little laundry supplement lavender as well. I like at the top the scent really gets a little of the burning lavender scent as well although not too much to overwhelm. Anyway, while I tend to prefer the more modern styles, this one felt intriguing enough that I might learn more beyond the two sticks I tried.

Murli wasn’t far from the Dhanashri, a dark brown masala, mostly charcoal, with the dhoop meets generic spice sort of middle. And like Dhanashri the Murli begs further testing to determine whether it ever really asserts itself. I saw the description “Light woods with a gentle floral lift” which sounded equally generic and murki as I don’t get much in the way of woodiness from it.

[Not pictured] The Vinasons Nag Champa was one I wrote down notes on when I was doing the reviews above, and it was meant to be the starter incense for this group but then I filed the review somewhere and only found it again a couple weeks ago. My first sentence was “if I find time, it might be nice to do a side by side of all the Nag Champas”. Hmm. Anyway, here’s the rest of my (somewhat edited) notes: The day of wet halmaddi nags is long over but sometimes it’s the oil mixes that are the issue and this one just isn’t close enough to a nag champa, champa or otherwise to be in the running for a great incense. For one thing it’s a bit too citrus for the style (lemon in particular). It has some florals, but none in the direction of the name. And while the mix isn’t unpleasant, it’s not particularly noteworthy either. I had the Meena and BG going around the time I sampled the two sticks and while neither are exact, they’re still much more in the ballpark of the scent than this one.

The Special Gulab is a straight black charcoal rose incense and as such a bit of a rose and charcoal mix as well, with the base being unavoidable. This is a rose smell that seems parallel to a confectionary sort of scent like you might find in Turkish Delight. It ends up being kind of a static smell which sort of limits my idea that I’d grow much more into this than the two sticks in the sample. Think of it as a sugar glazed rose flower and not much more. Except charcoal.

Interestingly while the above Nag Champa was not actually in the 20-scent sampler I was sent, its cousin the Yellow Champa was. I had also sampled this one during the previous reviews so was pretty familiar with it by the end of the current sampler notes. It’s definitely a bit more unique. A lot of flavored champas tend to evince a bit of a candle wax scent from the oils added (often from fruits whose scents have to be approximated). So, this one also has a sort of paint-like scent alone with some sweetness in the masala. I’m not sure why it is called yellow, although there does seem to be a banana note, but I’ve never been sure if I’m just reaching for the preconception since it’s light if it’s there. Plus, like the Nag, it’s not really much of a champa, flower or base.

Robins outside my window
heralding spring’s return,
while my incense defies time’s passing.

The arrival of Ranjatai (蘭奢待), the most famous piece of fragrant wood in the incense world, is the stuff of legend in Japan, appropriately documented in the second-oldest written record of Japanese history, the Nihon Shoki (日本書紀, Chronicles of Japan). Said to have divinely washed up upon the shores of Awaji Island in 595 CE, Ranjatai was instead most likely presented several decades prior as a tribute gift from the the Kingdoms of Korea along with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, and was originally known as “Ōjuku-kō” (黄熟香), or “yellow ripe incense,” a utilitarian description of the fragrant wood’s earthy ochre appearance. One of the more than 600 treasures presented to the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji (東大寺) in 756 CE to honor the passing of the temple’s founder, Emperor Shōmu, it is said that originally Ōjuku-kō was to be ceremonially renamed to the more auspicious “Tōdai-ji” in the late Emperor’s honor. But given the nature of incense for burning, this was deemed inauspicious. Instead, Ōjuku-kō was given the ceremonial name Ranjatai, with the kanji for Tōdai-ji obscured within Ranjatai’s name. More than 1,200 year later, Ranjatai is still carefully preserved in the Shōsō-in Treasure Repository at Tōdai-ji under the conservancy of the Imperial Household Agency. Put on public exhibition by the Nara National Museum only every ten to fifteen years, Ranjatai draws thousands eager to view it. It is with this historical context that Shunkohdo has created their own version of Ranjatai in an homage to the most famous incense in all of Japan.

Part of Shunkohdo’s Luxury Line of fine fragrances, Ranjatai is described as a luxurious blend of premium Vietnamese aloeswood and rare natural musk. Made with only natural ingredients, Shunkohdo has created an incense that, like the historical Ranjatai, will age superbly, growing more mellow and deep with and passage of time. By blending the fragrant beauty of such rare ingredients as natural musk and Vietnamese Aloeswood, both considerably more valuable than gold, Shunkohdo’s Ranjatai seeks to be worthy of burning in the kōrō of an Emperor.

Ranjatai’s moss brown stick is ancient feeling, with reserved tones of leather and ancient wood. The stick has a dense rich greenness, rich and earthy, like the forest floor covered with moss. Within this float subtle notes of sweetness, hints of spice, and an animalistic note like the coat of a dog fresh from the groomer. Taken together, Ranjatai’s stick is rich, dark, and complex, with an earthy woody quality of great age and depth. It’s probably one of the most complex stick notes we’ve ever experienced.

Once the ember has been set aglow, Ranjatai begins with a burst of lush woody sweetness that is amazingly beautiful. Filled with notes mixing dry floral and fruity tones with a soft aloeswood sweetness, Ranjatai is instantly addicting. Shortly after, the woody-floral sweetness develops an almost savory quality to it most likely from the natural musk – not quite salty but somewhat spicy gourmand – making Ranjatai’s top notes all the more addicting. With time an additional subtle aloeswsood bitterness develops as a counterpoint to the woody-floral top note as well, adding elegant depth and foundation to the more ethereal sweeter notes to soar over. All together, Ranjatai presents as beautifully complex, luxurious, and full of richness.

As the burn progress, Ranjatai continue to deepen in complexity, adding new notes subtly around the edges of perception that enhance its rich woody sweetness. A soft woody coolness akin to a balsamic borneol adds a transparency and calm, yet remains in the background like history in fragrant form. Notes of toasted caramel and cinnamon add a warmth to the woody-floral top note, broadening the relaxed confidence of Ranjatai’s fragrance. The featured natural musk is marvelous, adding a soft, earthy, powdery warm floral sweetness that is amazingly addictive and enhances the floral sweetness of its aloeswood base.

With time, Ranjatai becomes lighter, transparent, ethereal. The fragrant space it creates is warming, calming, and very relaxing. It is in a rare class in that Ranjatai creates a profound affect upon one’s mood, providing a sense of peace and tranquility that is an uncommon find even among many outstanding Japanese fragrances available. By the end of the stick, the listener is left within a redolent bubble of light woody-floral sweetness with a comforting warmth and expanding camphor-like cool exterior, the surrounding space transformed.

As the burn completes, Ranjatai’s after-note continues to expand, becoming even more transparent. The cool spiciness of the burn moves to the fore, becoming light and airy with a prominent camphor note. Yet the rich floral-woody sweetness remains, only now more translucent, softer, and as an elegant counterpoint. As time passes, the after-note takes on a more woody, spicy-salty tone, rounding out its sweetness with a savory woodiness. Ranjatai’s after note is excellent, with a long lasting fragrance that is a joy to return to even several hours after the stick has been consumed. 

In May 2022, the Shino School of Kōdō held an incense ceremony to honor the spirit of Japan’s third great unifier, Tokugawa Ieyasu, using the most precious fragrant wood in existence: a piece of Ranjatai. Most of us in the incense world will never have such a once in a lifetime experience as listening to the sublime fragrance of a National Treasure of Japan. However, in the realm of the possible, Shunkohdo Ranjatai provides an outstanding listening experience with a fragrance that is marvelously complex, beautifully musky sweet, and filled with a rich aloeswood note of magnificent depth. If the historical Ranjatai serves as the model Shunkohdo’s excellent homage, it must indeed be something truly exquisite.

OK so we’re back and fortunately it was discovered the bitcoin we received for the blog was actually fraudulent. I don’t think we’re going to try that again any time soon! I didn’t think the management changes would be so severe! Anyway, thanks to everyone for the comments, I approved some yesterday, but the rest I let through this morning so there was at least a day before the cat left the bag.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce something we’ve actually been planning for a while and that is our introduction to second reviews. Some of our regular incense providers have been really generous with what they send and so much of the time Stephen or I can actually mail the remaining samples to each other which will then allow us to add secondary reviews to the original ones so you can all get an extra opinion. Check out these links to see Stephen’s most recent additions to the Bhagwan reviews at these links:

Second reviews will generally be second priority to the first reviews and will largely just depend on what time we have to chip in after we roll the latter out. Speaking for myself, having a little budgie move in forced me to change the times and space I was burning incense so she’s not near the smoke, but once I evaluated that, I found a different rhythm which actually seems to be allowing me to get some time in and process things a bit quicker even earlier in the year. So you will also be seeing second reviews from me on some of Stephen’s posts. I’m not sure we’ll roll all of them like this, but I think this catches up with Stephen’s recent work. Enjoy!

Before we get started on this review, we must announce that ORS has been sold to a new enterprise and will no longer be providing reviews of anything but Indian and Japanese charcoals and dipped incenses. The new owners believe that ORS missed the boat on many common incenses more widely available in American stores and wishes ORS to redirect its energy to covering these wonderful scents. Needless to say, we wish both Mike, Michael and Stephen the best with their bitcoin and new plans and hand off this review to Martin Benton who will be starting his series on the HEM line with possibly 100+ single incense reviews. Over to Martin…

Thank you Mike, Michael, and Stephen, I am excited to get started and happy to join the ORS fam. I’ve been burning HEM incenses only for at least 2 years and they are my favorite line out of any incense. So many of these older sticks just smell like burning California forests to me and I need something that will cut through the nonsense and actually smell like something. While Frankincense and Myrrh might be thought of as a holiday incense, I assure you it’s a beautiful scent that I could use all year round and the ingredients thankfully smell more alert and invigorating than the church down the street. Part of this is making perfumes. Why are we going for natural ingredients when they’re all gone and the perfume industry has had so long to get better and better? I don’t know, do you? HEM have thankfully created perfumes of both ingredients and merged them into this wonderful scent! If you don’t have your air freshener handy this is a perfect scent to clear your space and invoke cleansing energies. It’s not bitter and off-putting like the actual ingredients are (sorry wisemen!) but smells powdery and sweet like you could almost just wear it. It’s a banger and the scent lasts for daaays. Don’t miss this! Up next time Hem’s Positive Vibes. I wish you all wellness! Namaste!

A note from management: Bhagwan Incense is now shipping directly from Europe with all US taxes and tariffs included (DDP — Delivered Duty Paid). In addition, US customers can also buy these from Exotic Incense if you want faster local shipping. ORS will have some more Bhagwan reviews coming most likely in April.