Thuja and Sandalwood Incense Sticks from Temu
All three samples come from Steve (Incense in The Wind); he sent them to me in May 2025. He bought them on Temu; I’m linking his reviews under the respective varieties.
Tai Hang Ya Bai | Thuja
Steve identified these sticks as cedarwood in his review, but I’m fairly certain that it’s actually thuja.
Because the smell didn’t convince me as ‘cedarwood’ and Steve mentions that he’s not entirely sure about the translation, I googled ‘Tai Hang Ya Bai’ and found several search results that translate it as ‘thuja’. Among them was this listing for sticks in almost identical packaging to the ones discussed here. The listing mentions that thuja is also called ‘Western Red Cedar’ or ‘White Cedar’, which explains the confusion.
The scent is woody and smoky, with a green freshness that has a touch of a mineral note. Furthermore, the fragrance has a very subtle sweetness that actually reminded me of cedarwood, initially. The power of suggestion, I suppose.
I find these sticks of similar quality to those I reviewed here. They don’t suit my taste, but for people who like thuja and campfire smells, they’re surely well suited.
Chen Hua Ya Bai | Thuja
I’m very puzzled by the name difference of these two thuja sticks. When I google ‘Chen Hua Ya Bai’, apart from Steve’s review, I only find listings for wood carvings and wooden beads. Perhaps they’re different thuja species?
As for the scent, these thuja sticks have hardly any character to me. The smell reminds me only of campfire or fireplace smoke.
Lao Shan Tan Xiang | “Ould Mountain Sandalwood”
‘Old Mountain Sandalwood’ is the common name in Japan and China for white sandalwood from India (whereas ‘New Mountain Sandalwood’ means Australian sandalwood.)
The smell has a certain similarity to a note that I’ve picked up in a number of affordable ‘sandalwood’ incense sticks from India, but it absolutely doesn’t smell like actual Indian (or any) sandalwood.
It has a peculiar freshness which, in these sticks, smells almost a bit citrusy. It’s not exactly a perfumed smell, but also not one that I’d ever smelt in natural, pure sandalwood.
I find the smell quite interesting, but wouldn’t be tempted to buy them.
Steve mentions in his review a short version of the Old Mountain Sandalwood sticks that bear the same logo but seem to come from different manufacturers. He also sent me two sticks of these.
I’ve already used them up and didn’t plan a review, but I’d like to mention that I found these markedly different to the long sticks. They smelt unpleasantly perfumed, and I found their smoke highly disagreeable and not natural feeling.
This is what the short sticks look like:
