Hi guys. I bought some incense from a shop in Springfield called PennyLane and this place is seriously awsome. band shirts, incense, oils, posters, cd's, nick-nacks, you name it from the 60's and 70's hippie stage. Well, they were selling incense sticks for 10 cents each in a variety of flavors out of plastic containers, so i bought like 5 bucks worth, and i tried buring some of the desert sage, and it smelled just like smoke. no flavor. they're even all the way around, and the ash just falls with no inner core still attached. Is it just bad incense, or what? Please help
My guess is that the incense you bought was cheaply made, maybe almost as bad as dollar store incense. I'm probably right too, because 10 cents for a stick is extremely cheap. When I started buying incense I bought some incense like that and it just smelt like smoke, no flavor like you said, and lots of ash and no core. My advice: Buy some decent incense like Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa that comes in blue boxes.
Or Shanthimalai nag champa, comes in the red boxes. Both the red and blue nag champa smells really nice. Next time you go buy that ^^
I usually buy mine from a local store called Natural Mystic. They have handmade good quality sticks on sale just like the op described....10 cents a stick and they are great. Some of it is a bit overpowering for my taste, but it's just as good quality as nag champa, if not better.
thanks for the help guys. One time I bought some from Dollar Tree when I was just beginning to get interested in 60's culture, Acid & Psychedelic Rock, etc and they not one smelled like smoke, but one half of it burnt in about 10 minutes and the other took like 45 minutes. I also bought a pack of incense called the Bob Marley incense pack. it's like a variety brand i guess, and i got sandalwood. I'll set it all of and see how goot that is and get back to you all.
all of them smell like smoke. so i guess got ripped off. oh well. and also, when i do get some decent quality stuff, should i put them in a box or an airtight container when im not using them so they remain strong smelling? that's just something i thought would make sense to do. it couldnt hurt i suppose. thanks again for all of the help guys. anyone else who feels like posting their ideas and opinions, feel free to do so
Couldn't hurt keeping them sealed. But not too long ago I found an old stick of nag champa that was sitting around loose for probably over a year.....lit it up and it smelled like new!
nice. yeah, i think my first time i bought incense, i bought them from a casey's general store. they were about 4" long, and just the compressed incense powder. to tell you the truth, the strawberry version didnt smell half bad. better than the stuff i had before. anyways i didnt seal them and they still smelled decent a week afterwards. for what they were anyways
Why nott ry clicking on one of the banners here on Hip Fourms and buy your incence there.. that's why we have them up so ppl can find good products here.. Just a suggestion sh
Here's the skinny on incense - at least as much as I know about it: if it says: "Hand dipped": Means that it's usually sawdust glued to a stick (think fireworks punk) dipped in fragrance and/or essential oils. It's going to smell like perfumed wood smoke at best and like plain wood smoke at worst. These are the ones that you find at the dollar store, in Target and Walmart, and in the open containers at your local head shop (although the latter is going to have a better fragrance.) Avoid the ones that are very uniformly rolled, as these are machine produced and the least likely to be pleasing. "Masala" sticks: (my personal fav.) Masala is a Hindi word meaning a mixture of spices. These are made of a blend of herbs, flowers, resins, aromatic woods (usually sandalwood/chandan), and/or essential oils. They're typically hand-rolled onto bamboo sticks. They're very uneven looking, but they typically have a very fragrant, flowery, and/or earthy aroma (not so woody). Most of the Satya offerings are of this variety. (Satya "Sai Baba Nag Champa" is said to be the most popular incense in the world.) Charcoal sticks: These are just like the "hand dipped" variety, except that the charcoal burns with less of the wood smoke smell and more of the pure fragrance. They usually smell about the same lit as unlit, so you get a pretty accurate idea of the aroma just by taking a whiff of the package. Brands like HEM and Tulasi are mostly charcoal sticks. I think they're a pretty good choice, for the most part. Dhoop: This is incense without the bamboo stick. It can be in a cone shape, stick shape, logs, or even tar-like putty that you can mold into whatever shape you like. They can be made from any combination of the above mentioned types, so some may be woody smelling, while others are flowery and earthy, and others are more purely fragrance. Some manufacturers will produce a cone version of their more popular stick incense; however, because the cone may have no wood involved, the cones may smell quite different. There is also "resin" incense, although I have no experience with them. Agarbatti is just a Hindi word for stick incense (literally translated, it means "stick of Agar wood.") Chandan is another word for Sandalwood. It's frequently the base or binder for many different kinds of incense.
hey man, thanks a bunch for that information. i really appreciate it. and thanks for taking the time to type it all out. and shameless heifer, i'll check that out now
