We did a little scent comparison involving a range of high quality masala incense, and, as a control and out of curiosity, I added this HEM perfumed incense. Perfumed incense, and HEM in particular, tend to be looked down on by some incense connoisseurs. Perfumed incense is, though, India and the world's most popular incense, and HEM are one of the market leaders. Most popular, though, doesn't always mean the most significant, most interesting, most refined, most enriching, etc. It tends to mean: broadly acceptable to most people; instantly appealing, simple, non-threatening, non-challenging, non-demanding, easily assimilated and understood. I find perfumed incense reviews are by far the easiest to do. They often require no effort at all. And you can generally get the whole incense in a few seconds. A top class incense may take a while to work out - not just minutes or hours, but sometimes days. Most people haven't got the time, patience, or interest for that. And something like HEM Patchouli fits the bill. When doing long beer tasting sessions, us beer enthusiasts will sometimes cleanse our palates with water or a plain lager. Perfumed incense can also serve that purpose. Clear the nose, refocus the senses, move away from masala saturation. But also, intriguingly, a decent perfumed incense can offer a scent experience a little different. And this is a decent one. The scent on the stick is clean, fresh, floral, moving toward a newly opened plastic toy on Christmas, toward a mature woman's everyday perfume, to the lobby of a theatre - little glimpses of another world - a world away from nature and plants and woods, into a more modern, more vibrant, more complex world. Both the scent and the reminiscences it brings forth are not as simple as one generally expects of an everyday perfumed incense. This IS interesting. On burning, as is often the case with both natural and perfumed incense, the scent is somewhat less interesting - it becomes simpler. The consensus is that it is pleasant, sweet, lightly musky, and delivers an attractive scent but without any accompanying emotional impact. A pleasant enough room freshener. The promise of the stick has not been delivered in the burn.
Date: Nov 2021 Score: 35
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| First review |
I'm an old hippy, so I like patchouli. I used to wear it as a scent - I made up my own special scent from essential oils - three parts musk, two parts patchouli, and one part civet. Loved it!
Anyway, this a machine made charcoal blank, dipped into a patchouli scent created by HEM. I have been dismissive of HEM in the past. But this is a reasonable everyday scent. It does smell of patchouli - it is warm and soft and inoffensive. I like it.
Date: July 2017 Score: 33
Long live old hippies.
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