Incense of the Day

Got 2 sticks of Tensei by Tennendo on, usually I use 4, but I am trying to cut down on the amount of Japanese incense sticks I need. I am still getting a nice, lovely, chocolate, floral, delicate but sometimes also very dominating (which I like those parts) notes, with a hint of woodiness, but hard to really get that note with all the beautiful resin based notes. These sticks are a must try for anyone who like sticks. I used a fuck ton when I first got them and was, quite frankly, addicted to them lol, so I took a break and now I only need 2 instead of 6 now that I am familiar with the scent profile (well atleast more so than before). The break also helped me get the scent back to normal, and not being blind to the scent but rather, knowing the profile better with burning the hell out of them, then taking a good, deserved break.

Lovely sticks 😀

Good job, Tennendo. On the vendors site it says it is reminiscent of Kyara, never tried wild kyara before, but it probably is somewhat like Kyara, with how much premium aloeswoods are in them, since it isn't just one premium aloeswood, it is multiple.
 
Enjoying some Yamadamatsu Kayo with some Redbreast 12. Really trying to be more mindful of paying attention to my incense and not taking the fine woods and resins that go into these for granted.
 
Started off in my bedroom after needing a lie down with burning/heating at high temp, cultivated white kynam which is very high quality, 5grams has lasted me a month, as you only need 2-4 50mg pieces. Anyway, this isn't burn of the day, its INCENSE OF THE DAY!!! So, again, I went for a lie down and my first incense (which I hardly use) was 4 Minorien Fu - In sandalwood sticks, very lovely sticks. Now I am burning some Tensei by Tennendo with the same amount of sticks to get that extra oomph, I need atleast 2 sticks with any Japanese sticks that I am not wafting in my face. I use 2 sticks of Tensei when i want more of a subtle experience, but even then because it has so many high end aloeswoods in it, with plentiful amounts each stick and potentially some plant based musk, but if it did it would say musk, but IDK, it does smell kinda musky, but that could be the various premium aloeswoods that are in each stick.

Tensei is one of my favourite sticks ever, and up there with my favourite Aloeswood sticks, they smell absolutely divine. Sweet, floral, chocolate notes, resinous and slightly warm woodiness.
 
Just had some Gyokushodo's, Jinkoh Yosei, on. Still burning but will be out soon. I noticed the sandalwood the last few times I burned them, but now I can smell both sandalwood and the Vietnam aloeswood and it with these ingredients (unknown quality of woods, but should be quite decent) it is kinda, creamy, milky, oud-y notes. With a resinous note in there sometimes. It is amazing (if you go back you will see) how when I first lit it, I could smell a really strong oud resin note, and nothing else (except maybe a little bit of creamy sandalwood) but the whole profile seems to have changed the more I get used to or, "listen to it".
 
Baieido's Tokusen Kobunboku. Such a strong Indonesian aloeswood with the spices added on make it a nice Oriental smelling stick, and also adds on to the aloeswood. It is a real woody stick, real woody. It also has some resinous notes, that the spices and herbs really add on to these notes, and the scent is kind of a woody, somewhat resinous aloeswood, a touch of sandalwood to just add on to the woodiness (wouldn't be surprised if they used lower quality sandalwood with some sap wood mixed though, but it definitely doesn't have a ton of sandalwood, but enough there to keep it woodier). It definitely has a silky sweet, bitterness to it, the bitterness is NOT unpleasant that in the way I find raw myrrh to be unpleasant, it has a nice silky sweet smooth bitterness to it, sour maybe? This is my second time having a box of these as there is 80 in a box, and I go through different brands of sticks and ranges. I have a good Japanese stick collection, not as impressive as a lot of people here, but I have like a few low quality Indian and like 1 medium quality Indian sticks, but over 6-7 boxes of Japanese sticks. I was also only introduced into incense at start of the first few months of last year, but didn't get into it heavily till around 6 to 8 months ago.

This stick also gives off a sour, and bitter dark chocolate scent.

A must try of all scent lovers, unless you dont particularly enjoy sticks.

Soon, I will be getting sticks from Temple of Incense, a small UK formed Indian style incense company by two Indian sisters, they make the best, and highest quality incense sticks that are Indian style that I have ever smelled. Their Oudh is also very, very good. I tried 1 box the first time I got into incense and I was blown away, it was such a nice warm, relaxing smell. It felt like resin oozing out of the stick, that's the way I remember the stick, anyway.
 
Just burned Misho (Gentle Smile) by Shoyeido in their premium range. It is very nice, and quite complex. At the start of the burn it is pure sweet resin from the aloeswood, then about 5-10 mins or so into the burn you start smelling a definite nice wood note, then a sour note comes in, as well as balsamic notes here and there, and some sour/sweetness. These all start acting together instead of the notes that were in past dying off, they all play apart in the "musical piece of incense" until the end, and it ended on a deep, rich sweet, woody note.

Divine sticks.
 
Oudamberlove said:
Seijudo Kyara Seiran

What I smell is mostly kyara, I thought I mixed it up with Enju, but no, I lit Enju too, and they’re not the same. The smell in Seiran pops out more like with Shiragiku, possibly the added essences?
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what i see enju concentrated green oil, the seiran is green+purple kyara and that unique elegance from purple kyara
 
Got some Tensei by Tennendo sticks on right now, window slightly open to give the smoke a freedom of movement and my heating on because its around 0-1c... not cold, not warm, just right. Tensei is so lovely, it is a great multitude of different premium aloeswoods from the Japanese house of Tennendo. It has mainly a resinous feel to it, being chocolatey, "golden" like sweetness to it, relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time, hints of a musky scent too. It is like a pure aloeswood resin in the sense that the wood note is very quiet.

Also, sometimes when I light these, the more it burns I also get a floral + chocolate note. The chocolate note starts first, then the florals come in and out. Kikoh blog helped me realise this. 😉

Also when the stick(s) are burning more and more the wood reveals itself more and more, with all the notes intact. Somehow with sticks I wouldn't say there's a definitive top, middle and base note, in the sense of oil or raw burning of wood, but in the sense that it starts with top notes, mid notes then ends on base notes, but the notes that gets picked up during the burn of the sticks, I notice that these notes dont end when another starts.
 
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Starting today off with Seijudo's Kotonoha Sandalwood sticks of 4. Just their daily range as that is all that is available in the biggest Japanese vendor in the UK, he does have a large amount and grades of sticks, I have been trying to help him out in buying more and more super grade sticks from different houses. Anyway, this sandalwood is nice and woody, quite creamy, not much butteriness but still a slight hint of it and the more the stick burns the more the butteriness get woven into the air by the smoke, thus, the more you smell it combining with those other normal Sandalwood notes. It is somewhat dry, as a natural Indian Sandalwood should be, but different regions can of course have more of a wet note. Most daily sandalwoods I get from Japanese houses (that are sticks) have this dry note, but I believe Kotonoha sandalwood is one of the driest, not sure why... maybe because it (as far as I know) literally has no other additional, "herbs and spices", as most Japanese sticks, and is pure sandalwood powder. This stick every now and then is enjoyable, but I have a whole host of sandalwood sticks, ranging from trying nearly all of the daily range of Shoyeido's sticks, except maybe 1, maybe 2, that I haven't tried (which are sandalwood based, with other ingredients however to really change the profile, I find how amazing it is that all the daily range Shoyeido sticks are basically sandalwood based but all smell different, and only 1 with aloeswood in them, "White Clouds", it amazes me how they can all smell EXTREMELY different, but all in a sandalwood way, and ofc the White Clouds smells like a distant cousin to the rest in that range)

As the stick is burning I sense more of that buttery note, it is starting to dance between creamy and a real good dollop of butter, with an excellent wood component, with no real sap notes to talk about, which is nice. Although, sometimes the super dryness of this stick can be seen as a sap note to some, it is really just Indian Sandalwood. Maybe sometimes I get a semi-"offensive" whiff of spice, but most of the time the spiciness is non-offensive and is a note from the sandalwood used.

Nice stick from time to time.
 
Have some, "White Cloud" on by Shoyeido in their Daily Range. It is the most expensive in their range because it isn't just sandalwood with different spices and herbs to create different smelling sandalwood incenses, it does actually have some noticeable aloeswood in it, actually, quite noticeable, very different from the other Daily Ranges. Instead of 5.99 - 8.99 for a box of 35 8.6" sticks roughly, this box costs £14.99, because of the aloeswood, for some reason though they dont say they have aloeswood in them on the ingredients on the box, but on Shoyeido's website they clearly state it, and it hasn't been changed much at all, and still has it in it, you do get those aloeswood notes for sure.

This stick is a nice entry to premium Japanese aloeswood + sandalwood sticks. It smells like a low to lower mid quality aloeswood done just right with the mixture of sandalwood and other aromatics that the Japanese love to use (to their great benefit and skill, I must say). Even though, it most likely isn't a premium aloeswood, it still has no offensive notes of white wood, even though I am sure the aloeswood they use in this stick is mostly white wood with some resin formations in the wood, or maybe just lower quality wood that has a lot of white wood and equal amounts of resinated wood because the notes are quite nice and shall I say, even quite complex, especially for a Daily Range (or starter range). It has that nice quality sandalwood smell, nice and creamy, woody, buttery notes, with that aloeswood being somewhat "milky", very woody (distinct from the sandalwood wood note), quite fruity, and maybe tarty? With hints of aloeswood resin, some berry notes as well, that I didn't even realise that note (even though I have smelled it and recognized it before but not in this detail or expression) until writing this. It is very sweet as well, and I put that down to the aloeswood as Indian Sandalwood isn't very sweet (although, it does depend, and some can be, but most sweet sandalwoods grow in other regions, even though they are the same s. album, trees and plants growing under different conditions will have slight differences in aroma.

All in all, very nice stick, and affordable if you want to get a start of your aloeswood/agarwood journey.
 
Burning Doc’s processed Cambodian today

This is the blend where he added actual Cambodian oud oil into the stick itself. Hands down this might be one of the best “processed” incense he’d offered.

I immediately get golden, warm ouddiness. Imagine sweet amber, honey, and gentle fresh hay. It’s quickly followed by spiced pipe tobacco and fennel. There’s hints of anise and fruits in here as well. This almost smells like an attar that’s wafting through my space. 10/10
 
Castingshadows said:
Burning Doc’s processed Cambodian today

This is the blend where he added actual Cambodian oud oil into the stick itself. Hands down this might be one of the best “processed” incense he’d offered.

I immediately get golden, warm ouddiness. Imagine sweet amber, honey, and gentle fresh hay. It’s quickly followed by spiced pipe tobacco and fennel. There’s hints of anise and fruits in here as well. This almost smells like an attar that’s wafting through my space. 10/10
Click to expand...
Nice to see a review of this.
I didn't grab anything during this most recent release, but I was curious.
Maybe he'll try this method again sometime if it was successful.
Still hoping for a killer sinking grade filipino from him (or anyone, really 😉)
 
Simla House said:
Nice to see a review of this.
I didn't grab anything during this most recent release, but I was curious.
Maybe he'll try this method again sometime if it was successful.
Still hoping for a killer sinking grade filipino from him (or anyone, really 😉)
Click to expand...
I’m weird when it comes to pure agarwood sticks. I actually think this smells better than just about every stick I’ve burned over the years including some of sinking grade Filis. Whatever he did with this he nailed the radios and prep work. I’d say this is even better than KZ’s sinking grade sticks.

i wish I got more now.
 
Castingshadows said:
I’m weird when it comes to pure agarwood sticks. I actually think this smells better than just about every stick I’ve burned over the years including some of sinking grade Filis. Whatever he did with this he nailed the radios and prep work. I’d say this is even better than KZ’s sinking grade sticks.

i wish I got more now.
Click to expand...
ok, well now you've got me curious.
 
First incense of the day was 2 sticks of Pride of Kyoto, lovely sticks, I really do love them, so use them very sparingly. Now, I thought, let's have a cheeky Satya stick lol. I only have Musk and NagChampa and another one by them, the rest is all Japanese, but Musk by Satya is my favourite from their company, they did that stick really well. It is not overpowering, it is nice and "musky", with a soft, sweet scent to it. I put these on from time to time, not very often, even though they are cheap, I just dont like using cheap Satya sticks too often, even if they do smell good. Japanese are far better, and if I used the Satya Musk all the time they would become sickening, but that can also go with using the same round of Japanese sticks all the time, reason why I put on the musk stick. 😀
 
Byakudan by Baieido. A sandalwood stick that is really, really good for the money. I got 80 5.5inch sticks for £10.99, amazing how you can get such good quality sandalwood sticks at 80 a box at such a low price, amazing. It is a pure sandalwood scent, but a tad spicy with the herbs and spices, but most other than being a little more spicy than normal sandalwood, the spices and herbs are just crafted into the stick to project the sandalwood and work with it. I am also thinking they are using a decent to high quality sandalwood as well, since it smells quite rich woody, light cream milk, with quite a bit of butteriness.

Excellent job, Baieido. Lol. Imagine if the Japanese incense houses were on this forum and also official artisans too? Would be crazy. 🤣
 
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