Incense In The Wind

Radiating Incense In The Wind - a painting by Hai Linh Le

Tuesday 31 December 2013

GR International Fengshui Metal





Square box of eight sticks - 50p from Greenwich Market. Fengshui is a popular incense series - GR International have five different aromas in the series. These are black hand-rolled blanks, with are then perfume dipped. Pleasant soapy camphor notes on the stick; the camphor notes come through on burning, blended with musk, sandalwood and patchouli producing a warm, relaxing scent. This is pleasant and flexible enough for any time of day, though would be more appropriate for the evening - either living room or bedroom. Nice.

Score: 32



GR International



Sunday 29 December 2013

GR International (Sandesh)





GR International were founded in 1970, and are based in Bangalore. The company have started and abandoned a few websites, but incense-sticks-supplier.com appears to be the most recent; they started a blog early in 2013, but didn't keep up with it.  I quite like the incense GR International make. It's not grand or fussy, and is  perfume-dipped, but it's done professionally and with care. Solid, everyday incense to create a pleasant scent in your home. These cones are moulded with what appears to be a mix of charcoal and wood paste, and there's a volatile perfume which has been applied at some point in the process - this is normally done afterwards, in what is known as perfume-dipping,  though essential oils or a chemical compound can be added to the paste when being mixed, and either rolled onto the stick or shaped into cones.

I note that the branding is now GR rather than GR International. And they have a new website GRIncense. Ah, and the similarity to SAC Sandesh, which I noted the other day, is made clearer, as they were both founded in 1970 by D.N.P. Guptha,  and they have the same address in Bangalore.

So GR International and SAC Sandesh are the same company selling the same sorts of incense in the same sorts of packaging - just different brand names.  I will merge GR and SAC into one page. 

Contact details: GR Incense contact

Reviews

 
GR International (Sandesh) Sandalo/Sandal (P)
Jan 2024 - Score: 38↓↓↑↑↓


GR International
Jasmine cones

Score: 37

Score: 36



GR International 
Coconut cones
Score: 22


GR International 
Coffee
Score: 20

GR Rose Incense Cones
Score: 19


GR Meditation Incense Cones
Score: 19


GR International (Sandesh)
Frankincense Incense Cones
 
Jan 2024 - Score: 18 


Incense tried: 19
Highest: 38
Lowest: 18
Average: 29

Conclusion: On the whole I quite like GR International. All the incense I have tried has been perfume-dipped, but the scents have been decently blended to make, on the whole, pleasant everyday scents. I have no major complaints about GR, and I have a certain affection for some of their scents, such as the Sandalo, so I am quite happy to continue buying and exploring. And the Sandalo is a regular purchase which deserves the Incense In The Wind  "Golden Cone".

Having spent a little more time with GR International (now branded as just GR) and expanded my experience, I'm finding that the perfume the cones are dipped in is quite attractive, and initially the scent given off is decent enough for everyday use, but as the cones burn down into the thicker end, so the heat increases and the volatile perfume is burnt off too quickly  and the base material makes itself felt. As the base material is inexpensive charcoal and wood dust, the scent at this point is fairly crude, and useful only for masking bad odours in the toilet.