Elbenzauber – Parijat
This is another pack from Arkanum des Lichts, a low-priced online retailer that I unfortunately cannot recommend. I paid €3.90, while the regular price for a pack (15g) is €4.50.
Since the thickness of the hand-rolled sticks varies, the number of incense sticks inside ranges from 9 to 14. I had 13. The burning time is stated as 40–60 minutes.
If you’d like to know more about the brand, you can read the main article here.
On the brand owner’s site, it says about Parijat: “The ground flowers of magnolia, geranium, and lotus combine with a little dammar resin to create a floral fragrance that is uplifting and relaxing.”
An acquaintance of mine in India, who makes incense, has taught me that Parijat is the name of this plant. It’s one of the many flowering plants often wrongly labelled as ‘jasmine’. But when I read the sticks’ description, I think this is more likely just a fantasy scent.
I’ve revisited Parijat from time to time, but I simply can’t seem to connect with the scent. It’s not bad, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.
The scent is rather subtle. For me, it has a strong powdery, or slightly dry aspect, which gives it a pleasant softness. At the same time, it’s slightly tart, which, together with the sweetness of the fragrance, reminds me a little of caramel that’s been slightly overcooked. Sometimes I find the sweetness reminiscent of vanilla, but I can’t really settle on that.
Finally, Parijat has a noticeable woodiness and a slight spiciness, which, together with the softness of the fragrance, is quite pleasant. The scent is also floral in a non-specific way.
Although I find Parijat rather subtle, the fragrance quickly becomes a bit dull if it doesn’t have enough space to unfold. I find the sticks most pleasant when I place one in the next room and the scent is drawn towards me with the airflow from the tilted windows.
The night scented jasmine is not technically a jasmine, but it looks and smells like one. And you know what they say – “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” Or put another way – “If it looks like a jasmine, smells like a jasmine, and people call it a jasmine, then it probably is a jasmine.” Or “A jasmine by any other name would smell as sweet”.
All that being said, if they have used magnolia, geranium, and lotus, then while it aint a jasmine, it may well smell like one. And it gets into that debate about “natural”. For me, to be natural it should be what it is, and not a substitute. For other people, natural means it comes from nature. Well, most synthetic scents come from nature, but there has been some human intervention to arrive at that particular scent. Well, isn’t there also some human intervention when three non-jasmine scents are combined by a human to create a jasmine scent? People draw the line between natural and synthetic at different places, and it’s each to their own where they draw the line. For me the primary issue is does it smell good. The other stuff, such as is it natural, is it technically a wombat, lines up after how much I enjoy the scent.
haha.. very interesting point of view, Steve!
My preference is that things should be as natural as possible. But I certainly wouldn’t favour natural over human-made if the natural smelled awful while the human-made smelled wonderful.
The only true natural incense is pure resins, woods, and plants.
Once you get into sticks, etc, the incense is of course human-made. But it becomes more convenient to use. And scents can be blended to make something new and original. So there is another example of how human-made incense can be preferable to natural.
Of course, all this is just riffing off the notion that scientists regard a flower that we called a jasmine, and that looks and smells like a jasmine to not be a “true jasmine”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cestrum_nocturnum
And then expanding from that into the whole synthetic v natural debate in the incense appreciation community (this debate doesn’t occur in other scent appreciation communities, such as perfume and candle, where what is primary is the aesthetic quality of the scent).
I think that sometimes when people burn incense they enter into something quasi-ritualistic, where purity matters. And I think that for many of us, me included, that quasi-ritualistic aspect is present in our attraction to incense as a means to perfume our homes.
Absolutely, and that’s exactly how it should be. For me, the appreciation of art takes precedence over the choice of materials. As long as no harmful substances are involved, there’s no reason for bias.
Only those working in this industry truly understand how challenging it is to achieve performance with so-called natural materials. Without the support of carefully blended synthetics, their presence often goes unnoticed.
As for Parijat, it’s unique. While not a true jasmine, its fragrance falls within the same olfactory family. The Parijat tree holds deep significance in Hinduism. When in full bloom, its blossoms release a captivating scent that fills the entire surroundings. With thousands of flowers in a single tree, they gently fall each morning, creating a natural carpet of fragrance and beauty. Parijat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctanthes_arbor-tristis