Shoyeido – Daily Incense Mini-Sampler
This sampler includes 1/3 long sticks of each of the 8 varieties of the line known in Germany as “Natur & Tradition” – which apparently is called “Daily Incense” everywhere else and is grouped with a few other varieties.
The attached flyer, which you can see above, lists some ingredients; however, in various shops, you can find more detailed or slightly different information.
Interesting is the note at the bottom stating that each variety uses “over twenty different natural substances.” So, the ingredient lists are just a small excerpt.
This sampler cost 1.30€. The copyright date on the flyer is 2014, but I am not sure if this also indicates the samplers age.
1/3 stick corresponds to a length of about 7cm. This is merely long enough to get a first, very general impression. It may be enough to find out whether you overall like or dislike a scent. Please keep this in mind when reading the following reviews.
There seems to be another sampler with about 10cm long sticks, but I have only found it on Shoyeido‘s USA website so far.
Kyo-nishiki | Autumn Leaves
Ingredients: Patchouli, cinnamon, benzoin, sandalwood, and other spices.
Autumn Leaves are quite sweet, what doesn’t bother me for this scent. It matches the spicy warmth of cinnamon, which even has a slight sharpness, reminding me of the gingery spiciness in Diamond. They spread a very warm, invitingly cosy scent, and I do perceive an aspect that conveys the impression of damp autumn leaves.
This composition does an excellent job of painting a mood: trees in warm autumn colours; the transition of the seasons, with cooler days when the scent of damp leaves clings to your shoes as you enter the heated house where some spiced hot chocolate is waiting for you.
Nokiba | Moss Garden
Ingredients: Sandalwood, styrax, patchouli, and spices.
Moss Garden is similarly sweet to Autumn Leaves, but it doesn’t evoke associations with sweets for me. Its scent seems to be settled somewhere between Autumn Leaves and Golden Pavilion. Instead of the smell of damp leaves, Moss Garden has a very soft, slightly animalistic aspect, but it doesn’t remind me of goats (as with Golden Pavilion).
I think I prefer its scent over Autumn Leaves, but I have to say that Moss Garden doesn’t manage to conjure a picture as Autumn Leaves does. The scent is far from what I imagine a mossy garden to smell like.
Kyo-zakura | Cherry Blossoms
Ingredients: Styrax, cinnamon, clove, sandalwood, and spices.
Cherry Blossoms sounds utterly uninteresting to me because cherry blossoms actually have barely any scent. The limited list of ingredients from Shoyeido always makes it seem like everything should smell more or less the same. So, what should Cherry Blossom smell like?
The scent couldn’t be more unexpected for me: Just by sniffing the unlit stick, I’m greeted by a now familiar smell: Reiryo koh – an ingredient reminiscent of fenugreek, giving compositions a note I want to describe as umami. (I go into more detail about this in the review of Haku-un | White Cloud.)
When lit, my surprise continues because the first note I encounter is bitter. For a moment, I’m reminded of Emerald (out of the Shoyeido Gemstone series) until the scent shifts to a slight plastic note, making me think of the smell of a hot hairdryer. There is also a slight parallel to the ‘goat note’ in Kin-kaku | Golden Pavilion.
Only then do I smell Reiryo koh, blending with the composition’s sweetness. It takes a few more moments, and I begin to perceive a peculiar fruitiness.
Compared to Gozan, I find Kyo-zakura significantly sweeter and indeed somewhat floral.
Imagination knows no bounds, but who would envision cherry blossoms like this?
The scent is somehow interesting, but I’m not sure if I like it.
Gozan | Five Hills
Ingredients: Patchouli, clove, sandalwood, and other spices.
Compared to Kyo-zakura, I find Gozan not bitter but sour. However, if I burn it without this comparison, I do find Gozan primarily bitter.
I also suspect a trace of Reiryo-Koh here; it’s more a hint of umami, though, and I’m not entirely sure about it.
The bitter note seems familiar. In the Gemstone series, two varieties I’ve also tried smell bitter: Sapphire [discontinued] and Emerald. Sapphire has at least a vague similarity to me, but it seems sweeter and somehow softer, perhaps woodier.
Gozan certainly seems more complex and richer in body. It has edges but is still balanced. When it has been burning for a while, I smell a slightly piercing note that reminds me of smouldering plastic or a blacksmith’s forge. The initially mentioned sour aspect is part of this, along with the umami and a very subtle sweetness.
The better-diluted room-note is fruity in a quirky way, though I can’t put a name to it. Yet, the bitter note and a slight umami scent always accompany it.
Like Kyo-zakura, I find the scent somehow interesting, but I couldn’t form a definite opinion based on the sample.
Below you will find the previously published detailed reviews of the varieties for which I bought a full pack. In each article, I also briefly compare the sticks from the packs to those from the sampler, as they differ.
There also seem to be differences between the sampler and the full packs of Autumn Leaves and Moss Garden. I found an old Reddit post about this.
