I really like incense.
Jan. 25th, 2011 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snarpI have a pretty large collection of cheap incense that has gone mostly unburned for years. My college dorm rooms all had smoke detectors, and in Japan, my adventurous spirit being occupied with other endeavors, I just burned Nippon Kodo Mainichi Koh all the time. So I'm now going through the pile, in preparation for getting rid of the stuff I don't like.
* I still like Nippon Kodo Mainichi Koh, and thus still have Low Tastes.
* Same with Triloka Aphrodisia - these are the two I've got really big stocks of. This is a very spicy, warm, sweet scent, but not food-like. Sort of pointing in the same direction as BPAL's Snake Oil in terms of tone, I think.
I've bought other Trilokas, but haven't really liked them. The thing about them is that they've got a definite house theme, which here translates to "everything's got a lot of this one particular ingredient in it." Possibly benzoin? It works really well in Aphrodisia, but I feel like it's clashed in all the other stuff of theirs I've tried.
* Nippon Kodo Kangetsu Aloeswood is nice. I think it's the first aloeswood I've actually liked. But then, it's also the first above-$4 aloeswood I've ever bought, which may be part of the issue. I got it for $6, which I thought was high; turns out no. I'm not sure if I like it enough to spend $10 on another tiny roll.
* Maroma Encens d'Auroville is packaged very prettily and smells like nothing in particular. I've got Into The Night burning right now, and all I can tell about it is that there's some smoke in my room. I've also tried Fern And Moss and plain Musk, which were a little more distinctive at first - Fern And Moss definitely herbal, Musk definitely a sweet musk scent - but faded to just a colorless smokey scent after a couple minutes.
It may be, though, that the problem is just the age of these particular packets. I don't know exactly how old Into The Night and Fern And Moss are, but I'm sure it's more than five years. (Musk, however, is a sample that I got pretty recently, and it has no excuse.) I have a packet of Snow Musk here that I remember really liking in high school; I may try that and see if it has the same fading-out problem.
* I like Padmini Maaya, but it gets kind of overpowering. I can't really identify what's in it. It's sweet, dry, kind of spicy, and what I'd call a cool scent, with some kind of really intense floral behind it.
* I still like Nippon Kodo Mainichi Koh, and thus still have Low Tastes.
* Same with Triloka Aphrodisia - these are the two I've got really big stocks of. This is a very spicy, warm, sweet scent, but not food-like. Sort of pointing in the same direction as BPAL's Snake Oil in terms of tone, I think.
I've bought other Trilokas, but haven't really liked them. The thing about them is that they've got a definite house theme, which here translates to "everything's got a lot of this one particular ingredient in it." Possibly benzoin? It works really well in Aphrodisia, but I feel like it's clashed in all the other stuff of theirs I've tried.
* Nippon Kodo Kangetsu Aloeswood is nice. I think it's the first aloeswood I've actually liked. But then, it's also the first above-$4 aloeswood I've ever bought, which may be part of the issue. I got it for $6, which I thought was high; turns out no. I'm not sure if I like it enough to spend $10 on another tiny roll.
* Maroma Encens d'Auroville is packaged very prettily and smells like nothing in particular. I've got Into The Night burning right now, and all I can tell about it is that there's some smoke in my room. I've also tried Fern And Moss and plain Musk, which were a little more distinctive at first - Fern And Moss definitely herbal, Musk definitely a sweet musk scent - but faded to just a colorless smokey scent after a couple minutes.
It may be, though, that the problem is just the age of these particular packets. I don't know exactly how old Into The Night and Fern And Moss are, but I'm sure it's more than five years. (Musk, however, is a sample that I got pretty recently, and it has no excuse.) I have a packet of Snow Musk here that I remember really liking in high school; I may try that and see if it has the same fading-out problem.
* I like Padmini Maaya, but it gets kind of overpowering. I can't really identify what's in it. It's sweet, dry, kind of spicy, and what I'd call a cool scent, with some kind of really intense floral behind it.
