What is a good gift for grandma, grandpa or both grandparents?

Give the Looshi Forest Edit: three scents for one day in the forest, from a bright morning hillside to rain soaked woods to the warm gold of dusk, so each grandparent finds one they love. Incense is a good fit for grandparents who enjoy a room scent they can notice, but not for anyone very sensitive to home fragrances. Looshi makes artisanal incense, rolled by hand with real ingredients, with grounding scents from across the world.

Why The Forest Edit suits both grandparents

The Forest Edit suits a couple because it holds three different scents, so two people with two tastes each find one to love.

Vivacity is fresh and awake: lavender, petitgrain and cedar, clean herbs and dry wood, like a morning walk on a cedar trail. Rewild is earthy and quiet: vetiver, musk and redwood, a room that smells like a forest after rain. Calm is warm and enveloping: labdanum, vanilla and amber, the warm gold of dusk.

The set is three boxes of 20 hand rolled sticks, lit one at a time and in any order, so they can match the scent to the hour. A scent for the room also answers the grandparent who seems to own everything, the same thinking as what to give someone who has everything. For a smaller pair, the bundles hold duos of two scents.

Which scent to give each grandparent

Match the gift to the room each grandparent loves most, because each scent is made to give one experience.

If they love	Try	Why
A warm, cozy room	Calm Incense Set	A box of Calm, warm and enveloping, and a ring to hold it
The woods and the outdoors	Rewild Incense Sticks	Earthy and quiet, a forest after rain
Both, or you're unsure of their taste	The Forest Edit	Three scents for one day in the forest
Trying incense for the first time	Any pick plus a holder	A holder keeps the burning stick secure

A grandparent trying incense for the first time also needs somewhere to burn it. The two ceramic holders are the round Ring Of Serenity and the long Wave Of Senses, and which one suits is a matter of taste.

A single box for grandma or grandpa

A grandmother who loves a warm, cozy room gets the Looshi Calm Incense Set, because it's a box of Calm and a ring to hold it, so the scent and its holder arrive together.

Calm is warm and enveloping. Labdanum is a dark, warm resin, softened by vanilla and given a low glow by amber, and together they smell like a dim room at the end of the day, wrapped around her.

A grandfather who loves the woods gets a box of Looshi Rewild, an earthy scent that carries him where the forest breathes. Vetiver, musk and redwood smell of wet earth and old trees, earthy and quiet, never smoky or sharp. A single box makes a fine gift whenever one scent clearly fits the person.

Is incense a good gift for grandparents?

Incense is a good gift for a grandparent who enjoys a room scent they can notice, and the wrong one for someone very sensitive to home fragrances or who wants a scent as faint as a reed diffuser's.

Pass on a little advice with the gift, because how it's burned matters. Light it in an open, well ventilated room, in a corner, and let the scent come to them. Always secure the stick, in a holder or upright in something heatproof, with a plate under it to catch the ash.

The full steps are in how to burn an incense stick properly, worth sending along with the box.

Giving it for Christmas

For Christmas the gift stays the same, because Looshi is for anyone, of any faith or none: it's never incense for one religion.

How it's made is part of the gift. Every stick is rolled by hand by women artisans in Bangalore, in Karnataka, and Richa's family has made incense since 1972. The scent is in the paste the stick is rolled from, never a coating or a dip, with no synthetic fragrance, and it burns on upcycled coconut shell, not coal.

If you're buying for both of them, start with The Forest Edit.

Frequently asked questions

Is incense a good Christmas gift for grandma?

Incense is a good Christmas gift for a grandma who enjoys a room scent she can notice. The Forest Edit gives her three scents to choose from through the day, while the Calm Incense Set gives her one warm, enveloping scent and a ring to hold it. Skip incense if she's very sensitive to home fragrances.

Does a grandparent need an incense holder?

A grandparent needs something to hold the stick secure, either a holder or something heatproof that keeps it upright. The Ring Of Serenity and the Wave Of Senses are both food-grade ceramic and safe under a burning stick. Keep a plate or heatproof surface beneath it too, since ash or a stick can fall past any holder.

What if I don't know which scents they like?

Give The Forest Edit, because its three scents run from fresh and awake to earthy and quiet to warm and enveloping, so two tastes have a range to choose from. The Discovery Set holds four scents from eight, two sticks of each, but the buyer chooses the four at checkout, and the person who receives it can't choose their own.

Is incense safe if my grandparents have a pet or a bird?

With a bird at home, your grandparents shouldn't burn incense around it. Around other pets, they can burn it in a well ventilated room, keep the pet out of the immediate area, never leave the stick burning unattended, and stop if the pet shows any sign of irritation.

How big is one box of incense sticks?

A box of Looshi incense sticks is 9.5 inches long, 2.1 inches wide and 0.7 inches high, and it holds 20 hand rolled sticks. That slim size fits easily in a stocking or a small gift bag, and The Forest Edit is three of these boxes, one each of Vivacity, Rewild and Calm.