KEEP IT REAL

Arm yourself with the knowledge to reduce the chances of getting scammed with fake wood.

BY SMELL

The most reliable way is to burn it. The smell produced from a genuine piece of agarwood will be more fragrant than a counterfeit. Of course, sellers are unlikely to let you set fire to their merchandise, but one way to tell fake agarwood beads at room temperature is the strength of its scent. Genuine beads exude a gentler fragrance you can only detect when holding it close to your nose, while you can smell fake ones from a distance. And despite its many different fragrance profiles, it should always smell pleasant, not pungent.