Natural Incense Company – Angels – Michael

Mid-2022, I bought a bunch of packs from the Angels line on kleinanzeigen.de. The regular price is between €4-6 per pack. They are also sold in a slightly different packaging design by Fiore d’Oriente (who own the Natural Incense Company), which are more expensive. A pack contains 20g/10 sticks of 23cm/9″ length. The burning time is stated as 60–80 minutes, but in my experience, they burn even longer.

Michael is described in this shop as having a frankincense scent, but I can’t detect that at all. The scent clearly has a resinous quality, but I can’t find any frankincense, even as a hint. However, in one of my early notes, I mentioned that the scent reminds me of Orthodox rose incense.
It has a balsamic, aromatically resinousness quality, not a tart, citrusy, or conifer-like one.
The fragrance is very soft, almost silky, with a fine, fresh component. Above all, it’s sweet and, to my nose, remarkably floral. This powdery-sweet aspect makes me think of lilac or violet. The composition feels round and balanced.
In the after-smell, I notice similarities to other ‘Frankincense’ called incense sticks, like those from BERK and Pure or even Mother’s – which also don’t really smell like actual frankincense resin.
My suspicion that these cases actually refer to loban (also known as sambrani or Calcutta block-benzoin) is reinforced. Loban is a mixture of different resins, which is heated and cast into blocks. In India, the word loban is used synonymously for incense or resin incense, but can also refer to certain resins, particularly guggul and Boswellia serrata (Indian frankincense).
Just as in German, many things are referred to as ‘Weihrauch’ that do not come from the genus Boswellia, despite being the proper name for these resins. ‘Weihrauch’ literary translates to ‘holy smoke’, therefore often it is used as a word for incense in a sacred context. If you ask Google to translate ‘Weihrauch’, it tells you that it means ‘incense’, and it’s no different with ‘loban’. No wonder this leads to confusion.

To me, the scent of Michael feels dreamy and calm. It is an enchanting, enveloping fragrance that allows one to relax and let the mind wander.