Yichen · 易壁

Natural Agarwood · 天然沉香

Ingredients: agarwood, nanmu

Price: ~ $31 (approximately €27) for 20-30 sticks of 18-21cm length.

Since I found Natural Sandalwood rather disappointing, I didn’t expect much from Natural Agarwood. But I’ve done the sticks an injustice; they’re actually good.

The approximately 1.5mm thick sticks are fragile, which could be an indication that as little binder as possible was used.
The raw scent is a weak, warm-woody tone.

The fragrance when burning has a typical agarwood character, with a balsamic, sweet, warm note. Overall, the smell is rather woody and dark. Occasionally, an association to mild pipe tobacco arises.
In one session, I noted a somewhat scratchy wood smoke note, of which I wasn’t sure whether it came from the quality of the wood or perhaps from the binder. Turning on my mini-fan helped.

I find Natural Agarwood overall quite round and pleasant. The quickly burning sticks, however, have barely been enough for me to get more than a first impression.

Natural Cliff Cypress · 天然崖柏

Ingredients: cliff cypress, nanmu

Price: ~ $28 (approximately €24.50) for 20-30 sticks between 18 and 21cm length.

I suspect cliff cypress is what others sell under the name ‘Thuja’: Thuja sutchuenensis.

The sticks open with a classic woody-dry smell that reminds me of fireplace smoke or campfires. Over time, though, a more characteristic smell builds up, which exhibits the typical green and mineral freshness of thuja incense sticks.

I’ve compared Natural Cliff Cypress with the Thuja sticks from Pinny Culture and Zeetoon that I reviewed last year and have to say that Yichen’s version has a clearer and more defined character.

The sticks are very light, ‘soft’ and surprisingly flexible. They burn relatively quickly.

Er Su Jiu Ju · 二苏旧局

Ingredients: agarwood, sandalwood, amber, frankincense, jasmine

Price: ~ $20 (approximately €17.50) for 30-40 sticks of 21cm length.

Er Su Jiu Ju are the only sticks in the shop where a specific length is given.

When Yichen use ‘amber’, they mean pine resin, as I was told upon enquiry.
According to Yichen, this is apparently often called 琥珀 (‘amber’) in Chinese incense jargon, although the actual Chinese term is 松脂. The latter is translated by Google Translator as ‘rosin’. Rosin is the solid, resinous material that remains after steam distillation of resins. So their ‘pine resin’ could also be colophony.

Like Goose-Pear Pavilion, the sticks are only 1mm thick and there’s a certain similarity in fragrance as well.
Already the raw scent has a similar character: woody and sweetly fresh, with a hint of resin and a slightly floral note.

Every time I light one of the sticks, the first thing I smell are off-notes similar to cigarette smoke or the burnt smell that many herbs and flowers give off when burning.
It takes almost a minute before this settles and the actual aroma cores through. Then the smell is quite lovely and actually rather similar to the raw scent. Unfortunately, a trace of the burnt note flairs up again in between.
It smells like a less potent version of Goose-Pear Pavilion from the red sample set; less resinous, but with a very subtle fruity-floral note.
I recently burned Tobiume by Baieido and reminded me a bit of Er Su Jiu Ju. It’s a shame I can’t compare the two any more.

Despite the small diameter, the burning time of these sticks is noticeably longer than most other varieties, which is probably due to the resins.

Rose · 玫瑰花香

Ingredients: sandalwood, rose flower petals, amber, nanmu, cliff cypress

When Yichen use ‘amber’, they mean pine resin, as I was told upon enquiry.
According to Yichen, this is apparently often called 琥珀 (‘amber’) in Chinese incense jargon, although the actual Chinese term is 松脂. The latter is translated by Google Translator as ‘rosin’. Rosin is the solid, resinous material that remains after steam distillation of resins. So their ‘pine resin’ could simply be ‘colophony‘.

Price: ~ $23 (approximately €20) for 20-30 sticks between 18 and 21cm.

The raw scent of these rose sticks is rather inconspicuous but does remind of dried rose petals.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing of the rose fragrance left in the burning sticks. The smell is powdery and soft, with a hay-like sweetness, but also has a strong off-note that’s typical of burning plant material like petals. It simply smells burnt.
Over time, the burnt smell decreases and a rather generic-woody note mixes in underneath. Sometimes I think I can pick out a bit of the cypress wood.
The sandalwood listed as an ingredient must be the same as in Natural Sandalwood, which I describe below.

I find the after-smell unpleasant, if not very strong.

Jiangzhen Incense · 降真香

Ingredients: jiangzhen wood, nanmu

Price: ~ $23 (approximately €20) for 20-30 sticks between 18 and 21cm.

Jiangzhen Incense (called Natural Jiangzhen Incense on the website) has a dark-woody smell for me. It triggers a diffuse déjà vu: the smell of an antique piece of furniture, I see noble, dark wood before my inner eye…

There’s a spicy note that’s a bit pungent, and a faint, almost medicinal smell.
With the second sample, I also perceive a subtle sweetness and I like the smell better than the first time.

Hoi An Agarwood · 惠安沉香

Ingredients: agarwood, nanmu [the description text calls it an ‘agarwood blend’.]

Price: ~ $39 (approximately €34) for 20-30 sticks of 18-21cm length.

These agarwood sticks (written ‘Hui’an Agarwood‘ on the website) have a spicy smell, or this interesting pungent note of certain agarwoods, that can sometimes appear as green. I’ve smelt it (albeit much more pronounced) in different ‘Kinam’ incenses.
It mixes here with a gentle, dry wood smell and is accompanied by a balanced sweetness.
I find Hoi An Agarwood quite characterful but unobtrusive.

The sticks are fragile and burn quickly.

Natural Sandalwood · 天然檀香

No ingredients are given for Natural Sandalwood, only a list of things that it doesn’t contain.

Price: ~ $23.50 (approximately €20.60) for 20-30 sticks of 18-21cm length.

The smell is described as ‘deeply woody, soft, with a naturally sweet undertone’.
What exactly ‘Natural Sandalwood’, is, is not revealed.
I always find such namings odd; it raises the question of how much more natural this sandalwood is than that of the other varieties, especially since Yichen emphasise the naturalness of the ingredients in all their products anyway.

I smell very little softness in the smell. It’s woody, the way incense made from light cedar wood also smells woody; with a slight pungency if it hasn’t diluted strongly enough in the air.

It has the character of rather inexpensive sandalwood; I find no sweetness.

Laoshan Sandalwood · 老山檀香

There’s no ingredients list for Laoshan Sandalwood, but the description states that ‘Laoshan Sandalwood’ is used in the sticks, which usually means sandalwood from India.

Price: ~ $28 (approximately €24.50) for 20-30 sticks of 18-21cm length.

These sticks have the milky-soft sweetness you’d expect from Indian, or specifically Mysore sandalwood. The smell has a relatively strong woodiness with slight spice.
It’s a classic sandalwood fragrance.

Aged Mugwort · 陳年艾草

Ingredients: mugwort, cypress, nanmu

Price: ~ $15 (approximately €13) for 30-40 sticks of 210cm length.

With mugwort, I’d have expected a strong bitter note even in the raw scent, but quite the opposite: the fragrance of the raw sticks is surprisingly sweet, almost floral; it reminds me of mild herbal tea.

Lit, you’re immediately greeted by the familiar tart to bitter herbal smell. The aroma is robust, earthy-herbal, but not harsh. The sticks lack the quickly arising burnt off-notes of burning greenery; it’s a remarkably ‘clean’ herbal fragrance.
Even when burning, there’s still a hint of the sweetness initially noticed.

Mugwort (and tart herbal fragrances in general) aren’t a genre I feel drawn to, but Mugwort have nevertheless impressed me.

New Sandalwood · 新山檀香

Ingredients: sandalwood, nanmu

Price: ~ $13 (approximately €11.40) for 20-30 sticks of 18-21cm length.

The description reveals that ‘New Sandalwood’ refers to sandalwood from newer sources of cultivated sandalwood. It also states that compared to ‘Old Mountain Sandalwood’ (which usually means Indian sandalwood), it has a lighter fragrance with fresher aroma and delicate woody notes.

The light, yellowish colour suggests it won’t be Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum), however ‘white’ sandalwood (Santalum album) is also cultivated in Australia.
Another, perhaps more plausible, source for this sandalwood is Indonesia, where Santalum album and variants of it occur naturally and are also cultivated.

The smell of these sticks is quite full and clearly recognisable as sandalwood. It has little sweetness, but instead has the almost salty or sour, buttery-soft character of some sandalwoods.
It’s a full, woody smell, underlaid with a very fine spiciness.

Hai’nan Jiangzhen · 海南降真香

Ingredients: jiangzhen wood, nanmu

Price: ~ $37.50 (approximately €33) for 20-30 sticks between 18 and 21cm.

The description in the Yichen shop doesn’t reveal how Hai’nan Jiangzhen and Jiangzhen Incense (in the yellow sampler) differ.
Upon enquiry, I was told that Hai’nan Jiangzhen wood comes specifically from the Hainan region in China, whilst the other jiangzhen comes from various regions. The wood from Hainan Jiangzhen is much higher quality and smells distinctly different.

Hai’nan Jiangzhen has a rather fascinating fragrance. Even the raw scent is unusual: sour, waxy and medicinal.

When I light a stick, I smell (as with the other version) a dark, woody note that reminds me of antique furniture, but this isn’t the dominant note here.
An unusual sweetness strikes immediately; I’d roughly place it between honey and styrax balsam, including a pinch of the pungent note that pure styrax has.
Added to this is a surprising florality. It vaguely reminds me of lilac or also lilies: a heavy, sweet blossom fragrance.
Sometimes, the smell also reminds me of pipe tobacco, but not the smoke. It’s more like the smell that lingers in an empty packet.

Hai’nan Jiangzhen has a lot of character; it’s an unusual fragrance that you won’t find in common incense sticks.

Goose-Pear Pavilion · 鵝梨帳中香

In the sampler, the variety is labelled ‘Goose-Pear Incense‘, on the website it’s called ‘Goose-Pear Pavilion‘.

Ingredients: The AI-generated image giving the ingredients speaks of agarwood, sandalwood and pear, showing the image of an actual pear with it. However, Goose Pear incense is made with ‘goose pear’, which is actually a type of quince.
In the description text you read ‘This blend typically contains agarwood, sandalwood, clove, frankincense and other soft herbs […]’
I inquired because of the discrepancy.
Regarding the AI image, I was only told: ‘AI is not correct 😅 do not trust that.’ So Yichen are advising me not to trust the AI image they themselves use in their product description. Splendid. 😐
My question about the correct ingredients was answered very evasively. They only said ‘mostly sandalwood, agarwood and pear’.

Price: ~ $23 for 30-40 sticks of 18-21cm length.

These sticks are strikingly thinly extruded; the diameter is only one millimetre.

The fragrance differs drastically from all the ‘Goose Pear’ incenses I’ve tried so far, and in an extremely unexpected way:
Even after the fourth try, my nose interprets the smell as a relatively typical ‘Three Kings’ concept, characterised by a blend of frankincense, myrrh and benzoin. About 2 years ago, I started playing around with this blend, both as loose incense and in the form of sticks. I made one variant with (Australian) sandalwood as a base; the smell of Goose-Pear Pavilion reminds me exactly of those (though without a recognisable myrrh note, which mine have).

The base of the fragrance is woody, but it has a distinctly resinous note that combines with a strong sweetness, which I can’t help but interpret as frankincense and benzoin.
I’ve searched for a smell I can link with agarwood, but I kept landing back at the three kings.
Beyond that, there’s a fine floral note that I can’t name.

The fragrance of Goose-Pear Pavilion is lovely. It feels round and balanced, with a warm, relaxing character. Given the small diameter of the sticks, I find their throw impressive.