Which frankincense incense should I buy?
Choose your frankincense form first: resin granules you burn on a charcoal briquette, or a stick you light at the tip and set in a holder. For a stick, buy one whose maker lists its notes and describes the smell, as Looshi Change does: frankincense, cooled by sea air.
Choose the form first: frankincense resin if you'll light a charcoal briquette for it, or a hand rolled stick if you'd rather light it and set it in a holder. Then pick a stick whose maker names what's in it and says how it smells. Looshi makes artisanal incense, rolled by hand with real ingredients, with grounding scents from across the world.
What does frankincense smell like?
Frankincense smells like a fresh, woody resin, and Burnt Beech's guide to frankincense incense says its perfume-like scent is commonly described as fresh, earthly, pine-like and balsamic.
Burnt Beech adds that frankincense incense has peppery and citrus notes too, though its woodsy essence is at the forefront.
That description gives you a test before you buy. A frankincense stick should smell, lit, the way its label reads, and the frankincense in it should smell of resin and wood.
Should you buy resin or a stick?
Buy resin if you're happy to tend a charcoal briquette, and a stick if you'd rather light it and set it in a holder.
St. Patrick's Guild sells its frankincense church incense as traditional resin granules, and its safety line says the resin requires fire safety carefulness when lighting with charcoal briquettes.
A stick asks less. Burnt Beech describes incense sticks as fragrant aromatics and combustible wood powders that form a paste, set around a small stick, usually made from bamboo. Because the aromatics are already in that paste, there's nothing to measure and no briquette to light.
What to look for in a frankincense stick
Look for a stick whose scent is in the paste and whose maker names what's in it, because then the label tells you what you'll smell.
Named notes and a smell described in plain words give you something to check once the stick is lit. A stick with a scent name and nothing else leaves you guessing. Whether the scent is rolled into the stick or added afterwards is its own question, and the guide to hand rolled or dipped incense answers it. The same test holds when you're choosing sandalwood incense.
Looshi Change does this: its page names three notes, sea salt, lily and frankincense, and says the sticks are rolled by hand by women artisans in Karnataka, India, with nothing dipped. The scent is in the paste each stick is rolled from, with no synthetic fragrance, and the stick burns on upcycled coconut shell, not coal.
How frankincense smells in Change
Change pairs frankincense with sea salt and lily, so the room smells of frankincense cooled by sea air, with a trace of green lily.
The page describes frankincense as a balsamic resin with a bright, citrus edge, lily as a delicate green flower and sea salt as cool and mineral. Together, it says, they smell cool and bright, never heavy: Change's own character, not a rule about frankincense.
A verified customer called Change “One of the absolute best available, anywhere.” For a second scent beside it, The Sanctuary Duo is two boxes of 20 hand rolled sticks, Change and Rewild, and its page calls Rewild earthy and quiet.
How to burn a frankincense stick
Burn a frankincense stick in an open, well-ventilated room, secured in a holder, and let the scent come to you.
- Pick an open, well-ventilated room, and a corner of it for the stick.
- Secure the stick in a holder made to catch the ash.
- Light the stick, then sit back across the room from it.
Securing the stick matters because it sheds ash as it burns, and the holder is there to catch it.
If frankincense cooled by sea air sounds like the one, see Change Incense Sticks.
Frequently asked questions
What are frankincense incense used for?
Frankincense incense is used to scent a room and in church services. St. Patrick's Guild, which sells frankincense church incense, says frankincense is still used today by many churches, and it calls its resin an excellent choice for liturgies and for churches, chapels or the home.
What's frankincense incense good for?
Frankincense incense is good for giving a room the smell of resin and wood. Burnt Beech describes its scent as fresh, earthly, pine-like and balsamic, with peppery and citrus notes. You can burn it as resin on a charcoal briquette or as a stick in a holder.
What does frankincense incense smell like?
Frankincense incense smells of resin, and St. Patrick's Guild describes its frankincense church incense as having a distinctive, somewhat sweet aroma. A stick also carries whatever else is in its paste: Looshi Change pairs frankincense with sea salt and lily, so it smells of frankincense cooled by sea air.
Is resin or stick easier to burn?
A stick is easier to burn, because you light it and secure it in a holder, with no briquette to tend. St. Patrick's Guild sells frankincense as traditional resin granules, and its safety line says they require fire safety carefulness when lighting with charcoal briquettes.
How do you burn a frankincense stick safely?
Burn a frankincense stick in an open, well-ventilated room, and always secure it: in a holder, or upright in something heatproof with a plate to catch the ash. Looshi's two ceramic holders, in the incense holders collection, are made to catch it, though a draught can carry ash past any holder.
Sources
The Discovery Set
Can't pick a scent? Try four.
Any four of our eight scents, two sticks each, $20. And the full $20 comes back as credit toward your first box. Make room for four.
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