Which vanilla incense should I buy?
What's blended with the vanilla turns vanilla incense sweeter or warmer: dessert notes push it sweet, and an amber with labdanum makes it warm and resinous. Pick the amber kind if you want your room to feel cozy rather than like a bakery.
Buy a warm, resinous vanilla incense, the kind where vanilla is blended into an amber with labdanum, if you want your room to feel cozy, and a sugary one with dessert notes if you want it to smell like baking. What's blended with the vanilla is what turns it sweeter or warmer. Looshi makes artisanal incense, rolled by hand with real ingredients, with grounding scents from across the world, and one of those scents is a warm vanilla.
What does vanilla incense smell like?
What vanilla incense smells like depends on the notes blended with the vanilla and on the stick itself, so the word vanilla on a box tells you only part of the smell.
Floral Street's guide to amber fragrances says gourmand ingredients such as vanilla, tonka bean, caramel or honey amplify amber's sweetness. Those are the notes that push a vanilla blend sweet.
A stick adds a smell of its own. Burnt Beech's guide to vanilla incense notes that with sticks or cones, the scent of the wood powders will also be present, so a vanilla stick smells of its wood as well as its vanilla.
Why do vanilla and amber go together?
Vanilla and amber go together because, in perfumery, vanilla is one of the classic parts of amber itself.
Floral Street's guide calls amber a carefully constructed accord rather than a single note. An accord is several ingredients blended so they smell as one, and the guide says classic amber accords are shaped using ingredients such as labdanum, benzoin and vanilla.
Within that blend, the same guide says, vanilla smooths the composition with a creamy, comforting sweetness.
The Perfume Society traces amber as a perfume ingredient to the late 1800s and the invention of synthetic vanilla, called vanillin. So amber and vanilla have been partners since amber first appeared in perfume.
What does labdanum add to vanilla?
Labdanum adds a dark, resinous warmth to vanilla, because labdanum is the resin at the heart of amber.
Perfume Playground calls labdanum the key component used to recreate the scent of amber in perfumes. Olfactorian's entry on labdanum resinoid describes a warm, ambery-balsamic scent with leather, honey and earthy undertones.
Floral Street's guide says labdanum brings a deep, resinous warmth with a softly leathery edge.
If resins are what you like, the guide to choosing frankincense incense covers another one, and our guide to Looshi's warm and woody scents helps you pick among the warm ones.
How do you choose between sweet and warm vanilla incense?
Choose a sugary vanilla if you want your room to smell like dessert, or a warm vanilla blended with amber and labdanum if you want it to feel cozy. Looshi Calm is the warm kind.
Calm's page describes a heart of labdanum, a deep resin with a warm undertone, wrapped in creamy vanilla and given a low glow by amber: warm and enveloping, never sweet like a bakery. Lit, Calm has the feeling of a dim, lantern-lit room at the end of the day.
A verified customer wrote, "The vanilla is an interesting and warm smell that really does feel cozy." Calm is hand-rolled, not dipped, and made with wild honey, natural resins and aromatic woods, with no synthetic fragrance.
If you'd rather smell Calm before buying a box, it's one of the eight scents in the Discovery Set, with four of your choice and two sticks of each, and the Calm Incense Set is a box of Calm with a ring to hold it.
To see Calm's notes and the room it makes, start on the Calm incense sticks page.
Frequently asked questions
What is vanilla incense good for?
Vanilla incense is good for giving a room a warm, sweet smell, and the notes blended with the vanilla decide which kind. Dessert notes make it sugary, while amber and labdanum make it warm and resinous, a good fit for a quiet evening at home or friends coming over.
How do I get my house to smell like vanilla?
Light a vanilla incense stick in an open, well-ventilated room, set it securely in a holder, and let the scent come to you. Pick a warm vanilla with amber if you want cozy rather than sugary. Looshi Calm, with labdanum, vanilla and amber, is one warm option.
What does amber incense smell like?
Amber incense smells warm, sweet and resinous, because amber in perfumery is an accord built from several ingredients rather than one material. Floral Street's guide to amber names labdanum, benzoin and vanilla as the classic parts, with labdanum giving a deep, resinous warmth and vanilla a creamy sweetness.
What is labdanum?
Labdanum is a resin perfumers use to build the scent of amber; Perfume Playground calls it the key component used to recreate amber in perfumes. Olfactorian describes its smell as warm and ambery-balsamic, with leather, honey and earthy undertones, which is why it gives amber its depth.
Is amber the same as ambergris?
Amber and ambergris are completely different, despite the similar names, according to Floral Street's guide to amber fragrances. The guide describes amber in fragrance as a constructed accord, inspired by resins and built from several ingredients, and ambergris as a natural substance formed over time and found at sea.
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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