Old Mountain Sandalwood Clouds (AliExpress)
My friend Povilas sent me three of these Sandalwood Clouds at the end of 2024, which he had purchased from the AliExpress seller Lotus Incense Way. The shop is still accessible via the link, but no products are displayed anymore. We don’t know whether it has closed or simply stopped selling to our countries. I’ve had similar experiences with other shops, even though friends in other countries could still see products.
AliExpress offers countless similar products, many in identical packaging with only slightly different labels. It would be interesting to find out whether the incense spirals inside are actually the same.
According to the promotional texts, incense of this type is made without binders or fillers. They are pressed into shape.
Image provided by Povilas – Thanks! 🙂
The label translates to “Indian Old Mountain Sandalwood”, which is the term used in China and Japan for Mysore Sandalwood.
The smaller text on the right is the slogan: “Treasures of Traditional Chinese Culture.”
The plastic tube contains 15 cloud-shaped incense coils, each measuring about 4 cm in diameter. Povilas paid €14.89 for them, so around €1 per cloud. I estimate the burning time to be about 45 minutes.
Each cloud is individually packaged in plastic containers resembling coin capsules, which also contain a ‘ceramic felt’, intended as a burning surface for the coils.
Some time ago, I purchased an incense holder with a lid, which also used such a felt pad. I found that it gave off an unpleasant smell and didn’t seem as fireproof as claimed.
Because of this experience, I don’t fully trust these ceramic felts. However, I still burned half a spiral on the provided one inside the plastic capsule. It worked flawlessly, and this time I didn’t notice any unpleasant smell.
The clouds have a strong, natural sandalwood scent. It is quite woody-dry and not very sweet, so the milky character of sandalwood doesn’t come through as much. It reminds me rather of Santalum album from Indonesia than Mysore, but it’s still a good, authentic sandalwood fragrance. In fact, they somewhat resemble the scent profile of Jeomra’s sandalwood sticks, although those sticks are significantly richer.
The huge amount of single-use packaging, on the other hand, really bothers me. I understand that these pressed spirals are delicate and need careful packaging, and some might find the capsules convenient, but for me, they’re more of a deal-breaker. There must be a better, less wasteful way to package and safely ship this type of incense.
Old Mountain Sandalwood Clouds smell seriously good, and I’m impressed by the density of the scent. However, the price of €1 per piece is quite steep, and I don’t think they’re worth it for me, especially considering the excessive single-use packaging.
Your link works for me, though I note the url locates to Germany. You could try the general non-country specific url: https://incenseway.aliexpress.com/store/518914
Thank you, Steve, I will change the link out, just in case.
They do work both for me, but there are simply no listings shown in the shop. Do you actually see any products?