Jeomra’s – Natur pur – Amber
Georg Huber (Jeomra) became aware of me on Instagram in mid-2023 and offered me samples of their (then) entire line of in-house incense sticks, which of course I accepted with pleasure.
Amber is one of the currently 10 varieties of “Natur pur” (pure nature) line. A sampler, which contains 2 sticks of each scent, is available for €26.90.
Amber is available from €11.90 for 10 sticks, there are also packs of 20 and 50. In the best-case, this makes a price per stick of around 94ct; if you buy a pack of 10, you pay €1.20 per stick.
The burning time is given as 60–70 minutes.
Ingredients: Sandalwood balloon dust, beech charcoal, joss powder, Siam benzoin, labdanum, Peru balsam, essential oils; Coating: Sandalwood balloon dust.
Balloon dust is a very fine powder that is produced when processing wood. The airborne wood dust is filtered out of the air by passing it through a fabric balloon – hence the name. In the case of valuable, aromatic raw materials such as sandalwood, this by-product is collected and used for further purposes. You can see a short video about it here. Due to its fineness, Balloon dust is ideal for making incense sticks.
Peru balsam is closely related to Tolu balsam. Both come from variants of the balsam tree Myroxylon balsamum and have a soft, balsamic-sweet scent. Benzoin Siam is another very sweet-smelling balsam resin with a scent reminiscent of vanilla. Labdanum is the resin of cistus, its scent is very complex; I find it heavy, sweet, balsamic, floral, sometimes leathery or smoky.
In addition to vanilla and styrax/storax (Liquidambar), these are classic fragrance components of the Amber genre.
I love Amber incense sticks, and Amber was one of the first varieties of the line that I tried. Nevertheless, I had to take a lot of time with this review. When I got the samples, the Amber sticks were quite newly made. With my own incense sticks (and also loose blends) I have repeatedly found that they need a certain amount of time to mature. This phenomenon is also known from perfume production. Scents take a while to harmonize. For incense sticks, the period of about two months seems to be a significant threshold. And so I found Amber a little unbalanced when I first tried it. The benzoin seemed to be over-present to me and the composition just hadn’t quite “grown together” yet, although even back then it smelled very pleasantly soft and mild.
Today I lit Amber again for the first time in 3 months and I think it smells a lot rounder now. I can still clearly smell the benzoin, but the labdanum is just as present and gives the composition its balsamic depth and some of its complexity.
The scent has something smoky about it, but not in a negative sense. It’s the mysterious smokiness that I know from raw labdanum, not a biting, harsh smell of smoke.
Nevertheless, as with Jeomra’s Patchouli, I feel like I’m missing something in the composition; a darker, grounding component that counteracts the sweetness.
However, the afterscent is a joy in itself. This is where the Amber character really comes into its own. The individual characters of the ingredients fade or become one. What remains is an extremely pleasant, aromatic and balsamic smell that is still subtly present into the next day.
The incense sticks are also very economical and can be easily divided into several burns.
Jeomra’s Amber is soul-balm, made in Germany, and something for lovers of sweet, balsamic smells, especially if they value purely natural, high-quality ingredients.