Nandita – Original – Palo Santo
I received these two extruded and perfume-dipped sticks from my friend Steve; here‘s his review.
In Germany, you can find them for example at Ephra World; they sell the 15g boxes for €1.95.
The raw smell of the sticks is vaguely reminiscent of cedar oil, with a piercing acidity and a really strange, artificial sweetness that’s settled somewhere between cake cream and a failed sandalwood interpretation. Steve describes the sour smell as “fairly sharp balsamic vinegar“, which I find very apt.
The smell’s very unpleasant to me; something in me resists lighting a stick, but if I want to write this review, I’ll have to bite the bullet ;P
Once lit, the strange, sour note hasn’t disappeared, but it’s less pronounced.
The cent in general is extremely sweet, like cheap chandan sticks, with an extra portion of artificial-feeling sweetness that reminds me of saccharin, plus equally artificial vanilla aroma.
In the after-smell, the acidity comes to the fore again.
This peculiar smell poses a parallel to Mayan Prophecies from Green Tree, in which I detected an acidity reminiscent of vinegar. Interestingly, Palo Santo also appears in their description.
The smell is hard for me to bear, yet I can imagine there are people who might enjoy these sticks.
But frankly: calling this scent ‘Palo Santo’ is an insult to actual Palo Santo wood.
Green Tree is a white label brand, made by an unknown source. And, as I’ve recently learned, Nandita is a brand owned by an Indian retail chain, Acharya Products, who specialise in selling and distributing incense. It is unclear if Acharya/Nandita have their own incense production facilities (I’ve asked, and not got a response), or if they use a white label source.
It is possible that Green Tree and Nandita are made by the same source. Both brands, along with New Moon (the Shah’s own brand) and Goloka, are distributed in Europe by the Shah family who own WonderIncense. I’ve been told various stories that Goloka are now outsourcing. And conflicting stories about Nandita (that they make incense for others, and that others make incense for them). It is difficult sometimes to know exactly what is going on in the Indian incense industry, but Green Tree, Nandita, and Goloka do seem to be related in various ways with the Shah family.
Interesting.
Yeah, I’m rather sure Green Tree white label a few brands (or possibly, a view brands share the same source as Green Tree). I was wondering if Green Tree – Hand of Fatima was made by Goloka (I found a picture of a Goloka incense of that name that seems to no longer exist) and I was suspecting that Green Tree’s Native Soul line might be the same as Hari Darshan Tribal Soul.
Nandita was another brand I had already connected to Green Tree. There are a couple of not-so-common variety names they share.