Aromandise – encens ecologique: Opium, Aphrodisiac, Oriental Musk
You can read the main article about the encense ecologique line here, there you will also find information about prices and possible sources of supply (in Germany).
Aromandise‘s extremely friendly and helpful customer service provided me with a list of ingredients for all varieties of this line. Again, many thanks for that!
Opium
Ingredients: wood powder, natural mineral, Peru balsam, vetiver essential oil.
Opium is one of the fragrance genres that I just don’t seem to like, no matter how tempting the ingredients and description sound.
Unfortunately, my impression of Opium corresponds to my previous experience, but at least I don’t find the smell downright unpleasant.
Essentially, these Opium smell to me like aromatic, slightly sweet wood smoke with a hint of a floral note. It almost seems as if their scent has disappeared.
Aphrodisiac
Ingredients: wood powder, patchouli essential oil, natural mineral, essential oils of ylang-ylang, geranium and lemon, balsam of Peru.
Aphrodisiac doesn’t excite me either, although I generally like scents of this type. Similar to Opium, Aphrodisiac seem a little stale. It’s a vaguely aromatic smoke smell, somewhat earthy, minimally sweet, and I can smell an idea of freshness.
The strange thing is that the Patchouli variety is incredibly good, and everything appears to be fine with Ylang-Ylang and Rose Geranium too. So I don’t think it’s the age of the sticks.
Oriental Musk
Ingredients: wood powder, honey, natural mineral, resin, ylang-ylang essential oil.
Oriental Musk does not have a particularly strong scent, but a very pleasant one. It’s sweet and quite typical of Musk in its softness. Especially for “white musk” scents, although these often seem to be of synthetic origin, which excludes the ICEA certificate, these line of incense sticks got.
The honey is noticeable in the sweetness. In the background, I notice a pleasant woodiness and occasionally an interesting spice appears, which emphasizes the warmth of the scent.
I don’t think Oriental Musk is outstanding – there are far more interesting scents compared to other musk incenses – but they are beautiful in a simple way and are one of my favourites from this line.