Hari Darshan – Noor – Dehn-Al Oud and Oud Topaz

I admit, I was seduced by the pretty packaging.
However, upon closer inspection, this is sloppily processed.

The price per box is €2.75 (purchased at Ephra World Shop), it contains 15g, for me, there were 9 sticks each, so 31ct per piece – that’s quite a lot, considering that these are apparently machine-made incense sticks. Burning time 35–45 minutes.

Even though they mention very different main notes, they smell extremely similar to me.
They both smell like I imagine the smell in a gentlemen’s club like e.g. the “Diogenes Club” in the Sherlock Holmes movies: old leather furniture, antique books and various aftershaves and men’s perfumes that mix with the smoke of cigars.

I grabbed them for a last time today to burn them outside on my balcony, side by side.

Dehn-Al Oud names “oud, leather, resins, tobacco” as notes. The raw sticks smell old-fashioned, like men’s perfume, dry-spicy and tart, almost bitter. When burned they are definitely drier than Topaz and tobacco-like; a tart, austere men’s fragrance that manages to be quite flat overall, but still intrusive, scratchy and unpleasant.

In comparison, Oud Topaz is a little softer, fresher and even more perfumey. I find an oakmoss note in it (once again), but it isn’t mentioned in the description: “oud, saffron, patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood”. Where might they have hidden the sandalwood? The smell is likewise tart and somehow old-fashioned. Surprisingly, I smell a leather note on the raw sticks with these, even though it’s a note mentioned for Dehn-Al Oud but not these.

The Noor line consists of 2 more scents: Oud Ruby and Oud Crystal – Ruby seems to be the most popular in general. After these two, however, I lost all interest in finding out whether one of these is actually better – well, perhaps out of sheer, morbid curiosity, should a sample come my way. I won’t throw away any more money on it.

Even though I think Topaz is a bit better in a direct comparison, I give both the rating: 1.0
Neither shows a sooty flame when lit, smells chemical or like plastic, I don’t wonder if someone wants to poison me with them, but I really find them terrible.