Incense in The Wind: HEM Frankincense-Myrrh

This has been my top rated perfumed-charcoal incense for years, though I haven't reviewed it since 2017, so it's certainly time for a reappraisal. I started this blog ten years ago as a way of keeping a record of incense I was burning as I learned about incense. I knew pretty much nothing ten years ago, and while I have learned a lot over the years, I still know very little. But I have noted over the years that, though I came into this with absolutely no prejudice against "perfume-dipped" incense, the incense that tends to hold its place on my Top Drawer World Class Incense listing is masala or masala style or what some incense houses call "natural". Curiously, as I have learned more about incense, so I have learned that many incenses that present as masala or natural, will contain synthetic perfumes, or at least will blend natural oils with chemicals such as DEP. The exact points where masala incenses cease to be 100% natural is sometimes hard to tell, especially when some Indian incense houses will deliberately create the appearance of a masala incense, not necessarily to deceive, but certainly as a selling or marketing point, when producing better quality incense for a more discerning market. What is largely without a doubt is when, as with HEM, the incense house makes no attempt to disguise what they are doing, and they just concentrate on making an attractive everyday incense that smells nice. Because it is so bluntly synthetic and everyday, it can detract from the pleasure. But sometimes, as with a band like AC/DC or ZZ Top, what is wanted is just the refreshing honesty of simple, straightforward, unpretentious boogie rock. Not everything has to be precious. Switch on the CD, relax, and tap your feet as you listen. Light up a perfumed stick, relax, and enjoy the scent.

Anyway. Looking back at what I said 10 years and 7 years ago, I'm pretty much saying the same thing, though I'm smiling at my enthusiasm and naivety. And, also like 10 and 7 years ago, I'm enjoying this scent. The accord is simple - it goes straight for the obvious sweet, sultry, musky notes associated with frankincense and with myrrh, so this is not going to get high scores from me today. The accord doesn't actually do much. It's beautiful, but it's also a little crude. It is, essentially, quite commercial. I still love it, but I recognise that these days it isn't doing as much for me as it used to.

Date: Oct 2023 Score: 36

Second review

Oooh, I like this. Always have. I know some folks look down on HEM (including me at times) for being more of a chemical factory than a traditional artisan incense maker, but I just love the scent of frankincense, and the scent of myrrh, and these sticks smell just like that. I have the real resins (though I haven't yet got round to reviewing them), and this smells damn close to the real thing (hmmm, I might do a side by side comparison at some point).

These sticks give me that sweet, intoxicating and yummy scent in a cheap and easy form. I can light several sticks and place them all round the house. I don't need a burner. So it smells like the real thing, and its handy and convenient. Seriously, what's not to like?

It's each to their own with scents, and I like this one. Whatever HEM put into the solvent they use to create the scent, it works. It smells like solvent on the stick. But like pure resin when burned. Fascinating.

Date: June 2017 Score: 40

First review

An attractively designed hex box of approximately 20 sticks of HEM Frankincense-Myrrh from the corporations' Dual range, which blends together two classic scents. Bought from my local shop for £1.50.

Frankincense and myrrh are both resins extracted from trees - frankincense from the olibanum-tree, and myrrh from the gum-myrrh tree. Unlike many other ancient incense sources, both are still extracted from the original sources. These two are probably the most famous of the ancient incenses, and it's an interesting idea to blend them both in an incense stick, and it's surprising that only a handful of other incense makers do the same thing.

The sticks produce a moderate amount of soft, warm grey to blue smoke with some brown tinges. The aroma is lemon, pine, sandalwood, bits of rose perfume - though less than with other HEM products, cinnamon, and vanilla. It's quite a yummy smell, and is the best HEM incense I've experienced, making me wonder what these incenses would smell like blended together by a more natural, hand-rolling incense company.

The aroma is warm and tranquil, and very calming and relaxing - unlike church frankincense which can be invigorating and uplifting. There isn't much of a lingering aroma - faint wood smoke mainly; the pleasing notes, especially the citric and balsamic ones, fading early. The damp rose perfume, the signature note of HEM, is there though.

The sticks are perfume dipped on a thin layer of glossy black charcoal, crudely applied. The more of these I burn, the more comfortable with them I am, and I find I incline toward them in preference of a number of other incense sticks - and this, for me, is unusual for a HEM product. On the whole an attractive incense, and a HEM product I would be inclined to buy again.

I have bought these again, and I like them even more. They are an incense I look to for producing a reliably attractive and strong scent.

Date: March 2013 Score: 37

***