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content/blog/incense-review-faircense-vanille-benzoe.md

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+---
+title: "Incense Review: Faircense Vanille-Benzoe"
+description: "Reviewing the Vanille-Benzoe incense sticks from Faircense."
+date: 2025-12-13
+tags:
+  - Incense
+  - Incense Review
+synopsis: "Reviewing the Vanille-Benzoe incense sticks from Faircense."
+mastodon_id: "115714827196492988"
+---
+These sticks appear to be made of masala hand-rolled onto a rather thick bamboo splint. The scent on the stick is fairly muted for an Indian-style stick. This usually indicates more of a reliance on whole-botanicals rather than oils and other concentrates. In the burn, the benzoin is very prominent, revealing a bit of that plastic note that benzoin can have at high percentages. There is a warm vanilla note also, but I wish it was stronger against the benzoin. I do tend to like vanilla incense, but vanilla really isn't the focus here: there's none of that tobacco and dried-fruit richness that can come with vanilla-forward sticks. I also detect something of a nutmeg, stale-cinnamon, and general baking-spice note, a play-doh note, and, although quiet, the scent of the rather thick burning splint that supports the masala.
+
+The fragrance strength is reasonable; strong, but not so much that I can't share a room with it (although I do have the door open and the ceiling fan on low); the fragrance strength is probably on par with Tennendo's vanilla sticks. I prefer benzoin as a supporting player, so I don't know that I would choose to buy this stick myself, but I'm not mad at it either.
+
+This stick was kindly sent to me by Irene of [rauchfahne.de](https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/), whose review  [can be found here](https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/2024/08/24/pema-of-tibet-faircense-amber-vanille-benzoe-en).
+

content/blog/incense-review-premanature-amber-deluxe.md

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+---
+title: "Incense Review: PremaNature Amber Deluxe"
+description: "Reviewing the Amber Deluxe incense sticks from PremaNature."
+date: 2025-12-13
+tags:
+  - Incense
+  - Incense Review
+synopsis: "Reviewing the Amber Deluxe incense sticks from PremaNature."
+mastodon_id: "115714827196492988"
+---
+These sticks appear to be made of a masala hand-rolled on a bamboo splint with a light dusting of wood powder. In the burn there is a prominent sandalwood fragrance that strikes me as very natural; it has that sort of mineral and/or metallic top-note that you find when putting exceptionally oily sandalwood chips on the heater. In the background I find a gentle barnyard animalic note that reminds me of gold ambergris. On top of this is a melange of bright white
+floral, bergamot, and white musk notes that provide contrast and a light, complex, and gently fruity acidity to the sweet, woody base.
+
+The stick projects plenty, but I haven't yet found the strength overwhelming even in my small apartment, currently hermetically sealed for another bitter Chicago winter. The brighter notes do tend to crawl into my nose and sit there, leaving a cooling sensation in my nostrils much like a menthol cigarette. This is usually a sign that the fragrance is far too strong, but I'm having such a nice time that I'm not apt to complain about it.
+
+This stick was kindly sent to me by Irene of [rauchfahne.de](https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/), whose review [can be found here](https://blog.rauchfahne.de/en/2025/10/11/premanature-amber-deluxe-en/). This stick was also reviewed [on Ratnagandh](https://ratnagandh.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/premanature-amber-deluxe/).
+