Olfactory Rescue Service

As introduced in my previous review, Asayu is a new Japanese company who are managing to do rather well with a sleek and polished modern incense line that is growing over time. I think of their incense to be similar to the types of scents Shoyeido or Nippon Kodo do with single ingredient blends aimed at a larger market, but Asayu’s scents are a bit more upscale than that and tend to be much better incenses than the ones you find in the Overtones or Morning Star lines (they are also correspondingly priced). None of them have struck me as being anything but a really careful and elegant approach to a particular scent. In a market today where expensive woods are starting to really disappear, it’s not a surprise Asayu don’t cater to that market (although I would love to see it), but I have yet to see an incense blend they do that isn’t legitimate. So I’m happy to get some samples from them to review some more incenses. I also want to remind readers of the coupon posted here, it will help you get 15% off of their incenses through December. The code to use is ORSHOLIDAY15.

Asayu’s Patchouli really pops off the fresh stick just from opening the box and it’s a somewhat refined but familiar patchouli aroma you’ll recognize from essential oils and other Japanese sticks (Indian patchoulis go in all sorts of directions of which this particular scent might be merely one). But some of the baseline patchoulis in, say, the Shoyeido catalog tend to have some sweetening going on. Asayu’s patchouli is unapologetic in giving you a patchouli aroma as is, without any noticeable adulteration outside of the base, although it actually is somewhat reminiscent of the patchouli notes in some of Shoyeido’s daily blends. The oil really sort of presents the aroma more like the leaves of the herb when it burns and so the aroma is very authentic and very autumnal in a way that is really quite striking. It’s neither a hippy patchouli nor a new age one, it is very aligned with Japanese traditional incense. Once again I am always struck by the balance of Asayu’s blends, they never feel like they’re tilting in the wrong direction. Even the finality of the burn leaves a fresh and clean feeling, nothing is cloying or overwhelming. Patchouli is an interesting aroma in that it is general popular enough in the West to be common in incense lines, but despite that it isn’t always to every user’s taste. It’s less an ingredient of depth than of breadth. In Asayu’s case I think it hits both the leaf and some sense of the oil, and it would also be a good introduction to the scent if you’re not sure what the herb smells like.

The next four scents for review come from a handsome sampler Asayu provided. This sampler has five aromas (eight sticks each) and I already covered one of the incenses in the previous installment (Sandalwood and White Sage). The remaining aromas are two traditionals and two low smoke incenses. I have a theory about reviewing things, which is basically something like don’t poorly review a country album because it’s not rock and roll. This is something I usually apply to low smoke incenses, I not only don’t seek them out with intent but offer fair warning to companies who want to provide them for review (I’ll be fair, but not enthusiastic if that makes sense). With that said a great deal of the Japanese modern market would not be selling them if there wasn’t some level of popularity, so I just wanted to provide these comments before I provide my thoughts a couple paragraphs down in case it feels like I’m putting the finger on the balance. And occasionally I absolutely do come across an occasional low smoke stick that I like, it is not impossible (Baieido’s Hinoki comes to mind right away).

But let’s start with the two traditionals. One is a Frankincense. I think originally frankincense was not always a common aroma in Japanese traditionals but I know some of them over the last decade or so have been tailored for western audiences. We have covered Tennendo Frankincense and Minorien Frankincense in the past that were quite good, not to mention Shoyeido’s Incense Road Frankincense is a modern treat (but not strictly frankincense in a purer sense). Those in the above-mentioned Overtones and Morning Star (not reviewed) lines were not to my taste though, the former struck me as too sweet and the base in the basic Morning Star line is usually problematic. Across Indian and Japanese scents, frankincense can differ quite widely in approach. Asayu’s stick actually does smell like a quality Catholic church resin blend in a traditional Japanese base, so it actually differs from a lot of the other ones I mentioned that are more stylized (it’s probably closest to the Minorien, but it’s a little more polished). I’ve gone on the record that it’s tough to beat something like a good hougary frankincense on a heater, but you do need a set up to do that (if this sounds intriguing Mermade can take you in this direction). But as a stick incense, Asayu avoid going too sweet, a classy step which really puts this blend up with the others mentioned. I’d suspect some of this aroma comes from a reasonable essential oil or absolute but if I was told some resin was in this I’d believe it. It flourishes in slightly colder temperatures, for me it felt like the resin breathed a lot more in the morning. It is an idiosyncrasy of my own tastes that I’ve heard from a lot of readers who prize Japanese frankincense sticks more than I do, so keep that in mind checking this one out in case you think I’m underselling it. Asayu’s entry is very nicely done and of course in a sampler like this one you can check it out before stocking the 40g box, but note the 40g boxes contain a LOT of incense). I absolutely think fans of Japanese frankincense sticks will warm to this right away.

Hinoki (Cypress) incenses are actually very difficult not to do well, even the inexpensive Nippon Kodo Ka Fuh Hinoki is quite good. Asayu present what I’d classify as a fairly woody Hinoki, and while the resinous qualities of the cypress are distinguishable, they do not get quite as loud as either Baieido’s Hinoki or the Nippon Kodo Ka Fuh. When it comes to cypress I’ve always liked the loud and proud Bosen Pythoncidere, but this is not an incense ready for Japanese tea ceremonies, it’s pretty much a resin hammer. Asayu’s Hinoki reminds me more of the Hinoki in Kunjudo’s Kozanmai assortment although I think this is an improvement on a similar approach. So, with this map established, it’s basically my instinct to seek out the green resin or oil in a hinoki or cypress incenses. In the end it is actually there in the Asayu Hinoki, it sort of sits almost cooly underneath the woodier notes rather than on top of them and I don’t think this is an accident, it’s more like an intentional choice of Asayu’s incense creators. It’s kind of a reminder that the company has a level of vision that becomes a bit more apparent with each new incense they release. Overall, the Asayu Hinoki is really one of the milder versions of a cypress that you can find, it’s very elegant and much more about a woody take than resinous one. And of course the more you use it the more you’ll discover that it’s quite well crafted and holds some secrets for repeated uses.

So, part of my struggle with low smoke incenses is they can be hard to pick up in my smoke saturated environment or maybe my nose struggles to pick up something this quiet. The Asayu Agarwood Low Smoke is kind of fascinating in the sense that there really is a solid attempt to not just foist off something average under the imprint. As I tried to absorb this, I noticed all sorts of charry and darker notes, aspects I would absolutely not expect from either a low smoke aloeswood or even an inexpensive traditional. I mean there is something of a tiny sweetness down there, but this is still a Japanese incense and the thought of heating or burning aloeswood so its resin releases is still a governing factor of what scent this is trying to achieve. But even with all my considerations, it’s a scent that is not only faint, but surprisingly diverse, I had to pick up the stick and wave it forward to catch all that I did (literally everything from charrier notes, to varying aloeswood contours, occasionally something like what a barbeque smells like – possibly the charcoal – and even occasionally some surprisingly good sub-notes). I’d also have to be within sitting distance to even notice I had incense on. Would it vary for you? I would think it would for casual users, in many ways low smoke incenses are more for homes that don’t usually use it, to provide an aroma without the smoke after-effects. I would be hard pressed going on record saying you can get a legit agarwood incense in this format, but in a field where approximation and imitation is just going to continue to grow as rarer and more expensive ingredients become impossible to use, I was at least happy to see the scent of the wood respected rather than be given something more reminiscent of a low-end Nippon Kodo approximation. Will it be popular? Probably out of my ability to predict. I would only add that the charcoal base (visible in the picture) usually used in low smoke incenses is also a presence one can’t actually get entirely around, it is part of the aroma. On the other hand, casual users are likely to get the casual effect they were looking for, I found I enjoyed this most lighting a stick when I was busy and then occasionally noticing it as I sat or walked near the burning stick.

What about the Sandalwood Low Smoke? Well it’s similar in volume, but where the Agarwood Low Smoke felt like there had to be a pitch of some sort (in the sense that agarwood aromas can vary so much that you still have to sort of aim at one), the Sandalwood gets surprisingly close to intimating the more quality end of the wood. This would be of course in the Japanese sense of the usage, where the oils aren’t turned up to deafening and the more crystalline aspects of the resin are more accentuated. The base, as previously, stated, fights against this a bit (that barbeque like subnote does indeed seem to come from the charcoal), but overall this is a reasonable attempt at the format and scent, within the prescribed limitations of course. I’m assuming Asayu were able to do this as charcoals normally base oils, but the faint aroma still feels nicely authentic, even aiming at qualities I would describe only in Mysore sandalwoods. I would only add that it feels like there have been some friendly adjustments as well, an increase in the spicy, cinnamon-adjacent notes for example. It’s a tribute to the creators that they’ve managed to bring something with some personality out of such a small scent and I would imagine this would definitely be a pleasant sandalwood incense for those preferring low smoke.

I do wonder if perhaps the charcoal sub-notes might not be as noticeable if they weren’t paired with wood notes (they don’t tend to work in florals for me either, but in herbal or spicier blends perhaps)? One of the reasons I considered this is because charcoal is prominent in most incenses today at least across the Indian and Japanese markets and I often question why they can interfere in one incense while being almost unnoticeable in another. Perhaps with low smoke incenses there just isn’t enough volume to get over that hump or perhaps it’s the difference in low smoke charcoal. But even with my impressions, the format never disappears and seems to do well as, perhaps, an alternate to candle oils or air fresheners. In this sense both of these seem to hit their marks.