Incense sticks are a convenient alternative to traditional powders and resins. But how are they made? And do they have different effects than cones or powder? Fortunately, incense has the same effect on the olfactory system, whether it comes in powder, cones or incense sticks, but sticks can be an easier way to enjoy scent at home. Below, we take a look at the techniques used to make incense and highlight some top sellers that made it through the ages.
Incense is one of the original ways to enjoy scents, allowing ancient people to enjoy fragrance at any time of the year. Not every plant is native to every area, or in season all-year-round. By saving petals, resins, and oils, we can enjoy the benefits of plants from around the world any time we need.
Burning incense in powder, cone, or stick form is still popular for:
Religious practice and rituals: From the beginning of civilization, religious practices and rituals have been a big part of culture. Often saving the finest aromas for important ceremonies, incense is still a vital part of many spiritual practices.
Spiritual and energetic cleansing: Many cultures believe that energetic build up in spaces and around objects can interfere with our energy levels, feelings, and productivity. For centuries, burning incense has been a routine practice for many people to shift unwanted old energies and make space for new things.
Air freshensing and cleaning: Stale odors, old food smells, and stubborn smoke have always been a problem. And incense clears them out quickly. Essentially the original air freshener, incense helps you create your home’s signature scent, without using heavy chemicals.
Relaxation, mindset, and meditation: Stimulating the olfactory system to encourage calm and reduce stress, incense can help a busy mind to focus, clearing racing thoughts and leaving space for good sleep and more intentional thinking.
Focus, study, and productivity: Promoting clarity and improved memory, scent from incense can enhance study and lengthen the time your mind stays productive.
Read more: Uplifting Incense Scents to Beat the Winter Blues
To turn natural spices, flowers, and resins into incense that burns on a stick, these fragrant plants and resins are crushed into a paste and mixed with a binding powder. This sticky paste is then hand rolled onto natural bamboo sticks and often dipped by hand into even more oils and scent powders. This rolling process is a time-honored tradition with many parts of the world using their own techniques passed down through the ages.
This careful rolling and dipping process allows the best of the fragrances to remain in the incense and provides a convenient method for burning. As incense sticks burn, they leave behind only traces of ash, without creating heavy wood smoke or lingering odors of burning.
Cultures around the world have burned incense for millenia. And some of these traditional scents are still popular today. Blending these original resins with delicious new scents we discovered along the way, incense is now available in a wide range of aromas. Here are some best sellers that never go out of style.
Read more: 10 Incense Scents that Smell Like Sweet Treats
The most popular incense scent in the world, Nag Champa uses the unique champa flower, petals from exotic frangipani, and grounding sandalwood as a base for this deeply calming, floral incense. Perfect for mindfulness, cleansing, and quickly freshening a room, the earthy notes in this top seller can clear unwanted smells away quickly, leaving behind a comforting and familiar scent.
A relaxing blend that fully embraces the relaxing scent of jasmine, with notes of delicate lily, exotic ylang-ylang, and warm vanilla sugar added to create a full-bodied, calming scent perfect for meditation and mindfulness. Jasmine Wild Berry Incense is delicate, but long-lasting, a popular choice for freshening your home without leaving an overpowering and heavy scent behind.
Earthy and floral, Patchouli Wild Berry Incense Powder blends the timeless scent of patchouli with sweet jasmine, delicate frangipani, and warm cedar for a softer version of this popular choice. Delivered as a powder to give you maximum control over the scent in the room, this traditional incense method also allows you to custom blend powders to create your signature scent. Often used during meditation and mindfulness practice, the grounding effects of patchouli help to focus your mind and calm busy thoughts.
Read more: Traditional Incense for Spiritual Cleansing
Another traditional choice that promotes emotional wellbeing, self-love, and overall tranquility. The unique and floral scent of rose is not just for romantic settings, as this popular aroma is a great mood-booster and helps the mind to feel more balanced.
The go-to for calm, relaxing vibes that promote better sleep, Lavender Wild Berry Incense remains popular for good reasons. It has a long history of being burned to improve mood and interacts with the part of the brain responsible for the fight-or-flight response. An easy to way to create chill vibes at home, this top seller is a great compliment for meditation, yoga, prayer, and journaling.
A rich, deep incense from the unique red sap of the Dracaeno Draco tree, Dragon’s Blood is grounding, relaxing, and promotes deep thinking and meditation. Blended with added notes of amber, earthy sandalwood, and musk, this old favorite clears out old musty room smells with ease.
When bright, fresh, and productive vibes are needed, Rosemary Incense from Satya is a best seller with an uplifting aroma. Stimulating mental clarity and improved memory, Rosemary is a great incense choice for study, deep work, and improving alertness. It also leaves your room with a fresh, clean aroma that clears out musty air and negative energy with ease.
Making incense is a special skill like cooking or baking, and each incense “recipe” is carefully created through years of working with scents. At Nothing But Scents, we love the convenience of hand-rolled incense sticks so that everyone can enjoy the power of scent without the extra work.
If you’re feeling creative, you can consider blending your own aromas by mixing powders and experimenting with scent profiles. But when you need the power of incense right now, our incense sticks are the way to go.
Across the world, ancient cultures independently created wood and herb resins for burning scent. Ancient Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, African and Mesopotanian cultures all developed incense-like products for use in rituals and ceremonies, with the more modern and recognizable incense cone format being invented in Japan in the 1800’s.
Used by ancient civilizations for thousands of years, the earliest evidence of incense burning appears from around 3000 BC in the region that is now Sudan, with use of burning resins and scents thought to date from up to 10,000 years ago.
Yes, by blending resins, herbs, and spices, you can make your own custom-blends of incense at home. It is a time consuming process that takes some time to learn, so most people prefer to choose from ready-made blends for everyday use.
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