Incense can be made easily at home with a few basic tools and a mixture of aromatic ingredients.

Ingredients are as follows:

Plant Material

Herbs, flowers, roots, wood and bark. Some good choices include holy basil, rose, saffron, sage, mugwort, patchouli, cinnamon, sandalwood, aloeswood, agarwood, cedar, juniper, and pine. This will be your largest portion of ingredients.

Aromatic Resins and Oils

Tree resins, essential oils and concentrates. Suitable ingredients include frankincense, myrrh, pine resin, dragons blood and amber. This will be a much smaller portion compared to the herbs and wood. If too much resin is used, the incense will not burn continuously in stick or cone form. 

Binding Ingredient

This ingredient allows your incense to hold shape and prevents it from crumbling. Binding ingredients include cinnamon, makko (used in Japanese incense), gum ghatti and tragacanth gum. Makko has a pleasant, woody aroma while the latter two have only a mild scent. 

Turn Everything to Powder

Powder each of your ingredients separately (woods with woods, herbs with herbs, resins with resins) which will make the process easier. You can use a coffee grinder, blender or mortar and pestle. For wood, roots and bark it is helpful to purchase the ingredients in powdered form. A somewhat course grind is okay, it can assist burning. If the grind is too course, the incense may burn unevenly or go out completely. 

Dry Mix

Now is when you get to test your recipe. Dry mix the ingredients (except for essential oils) until uniform. If you want to test the smell, ignite a small pile or throw a pinch on charcoal or stovetop. 

Wet Mix

Slowly add a small amount of warm water and mix until you've formed a workable paste. It should be much like dough for baking bread. If too much water is added, the mixture will be runny or too sticky to work with and you will have to let it dry or add more powdered material. If you're using essential oils, now is the time to mix them in.

Shape your Incense

Gently roll your incense dough on a table or cutting board to form incense sticks or shape cones by hand. If by chance you have a playdough extruder, you can make near perfect sticks. 

Dry your incense in a warm area with good air circulation. It can take 3-4 days to fully dry depending on the thickness of your sticks. 

The world is full of aromatic ingredients to choose from so experiment a little to find a recipe that suits your nose and the noses of the ones you love. 

Article and images by @ironwood