Cycle Brand – Dasara

I bought Dasara along with Yagna based on r/Incense recommendations.
A pack costs €4.45 at Ephra – 14 sticks that weigh approx. 25g. Not only are the sticks rolled with a generous amount of masala, they are also quite long, just over 23cm. The unit price is 32ct. Like other Cycle incense sticks, these are also sealed in a non-resealable bag.

Like Yagna and Manmohak Oudh, Dasara also has an animalic smell, although in these incense sticks I actually find it obtrusive and distracting. The fact that it is the dominant note in the aftersmell doesn’t make it any better.
There’s something quite interesting about the composition, I want to like it but repeatedly fail.
But I think they’re ok outside. I often burned them in the garden, and there I realized that the smell reminded me of horse stables. I kept thinking that the horse smell was coming from one of our neighbours who’s a horse keeper – only that the wind was coming from the wrong direction…
My friend Silver says she finds some sandalwood in Dasara, and rose, but that seems a bit synthetic to her. “It’s like a very jammy synthetic rose” are her exact words.
In addition to the stable note, I smell a balsamic sweetness and a strange freshness that I have noticed in other incense sticks too, but have no idea what it could be. There’s also a floral tone to it, and sometimes I think I recognize Silver’s roses, but maybe just because I’m looking for them.

I don’t find this smell “offensive to the nose” but they are definitely not for indoors if you ask me. Outside, where you don’t have to smell them constantly – and, above all, the after-smell doesn’t linger in rooms and clothes – I get along with it. In homeopathic doses, so to speak.

I just re-read the review on Incense in The Wind. Steve Pereira also writes about sandalwood and roses and is quite enthusiastic. So, dear Dasara, “It’s me, not you.”
Rating: 2.0