Incense of the Day

[SophMarie]

as far as I can tell:

Japanese incense houses don’t "lie" — they simply never tell you enough to misunderstand them correctly.

The same applies to kyara.

Seems like kyara is a category and an ideal, not a literal promise about ingredient percentage or aroma dominance.

Saying something is “kyara” means the blend is expressing a classical kyara lineage: depth, sweetness, softness, balance.

Not that it contains a meaningful amount of top-grade kyara resin or that it will smell like raw kyara when burned.

A trace still counts, and often it’s about honoring the category rather than loading the formula.

The same logic applies to agarwood, ambergris, musk: these are category truths, not proportion claims, often included for lineage, fixation, or ritual completeness rather than overt smell. We tend to read these as ingredient claims - whereas Japanese houses mean them as expressions.

This is becoming ever more relevant as more houses are dropping natural ingredients and aroma chemicals are getting more advanced.

Hopefully this can save someone the thousands of dollars I had to spend to figure this out, lol.

One of the incense sites I buy from -- Kikoh, I think -- explained it in nearly identical terms. They didn't say so outright, but it came down to price. The cheaper sticks were honoring the category. The expensive ones attempting to replicate the experience.

 

[skiros]

Gyokushodo - Fragrant Elephant Series - Refreshing Sandalwood. One of the cleanest and enjoyable sandalwood. Refreshing yet has that mellow milky notes you expect. The only down side is, that it is very subtle.. a good sign that it is not perfumed. The stick is dark in color surprisingly.

Look forward to trying the spiral version of this next.

 

[Oud_Dude]

A little hodgepodge this evening. I got some Boswellia frereana in the mail and had never used it before so I tossed a nice looking piece in there and my goodness, it’s like this eucalyptus/menthol explosion. I’ve got sinus issues and this is amazing. I bought the rest.

After a bit I got curious and added some juniper resin, Lodgepole pine resin, and some Boswellia carterii. Now it’s bubbling away and smells great. Once it’s all melted nicely and gooey, I’m gonna dump in a scoop of lavender flowers and turn it off, carry it to the bedroom, plug it in, and bid you all good evening!

 

[Simla House]

Yi Xin Craft Incense: Dragon's Breath In Winter

I love witnessing the permutations of his classic ingredients in new compositions.
Very enjoyable.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Samadhi - Kangiiten. Not one for quiet contemplation as it's very smokey and a bit harsh up close. The stick itself smells strongly of that curry note and something sweet and herbal. Combusted and fumigating from a distance it's very nice. Sandalwood floats in and out as do other notes I can't put my finger on. Not too dissimilar from Kings Aroma by Shoyeido or perhaps Pride of Kyoto but a little less spicy.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Kikujudo Koboku Ginmi - Indonesian sandalwood.
Sweet, not particularly sandalwoody but nice. At least it doesn't smell of perfume.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Kikujudo Koboku Ginmi - Vietnam agarwood.
The description says: This incense is made with a generous blend of high-quality Siam agarwood sourced from Vietnam. It features a gentle sweetness that stands out beautifully, balanced with refined bitter and spicy undertones for a calm and sophisticated aroma.
This is not bad at all.It DOES smell like agarwood and not perfume.

 

[skiros]

Kikujudo Koboku Ginmi - Vietnam agarwood.
The description says: This incense is made with a generous blend of high-quality Siam agarwood sourced from Vietnam. It features a gentle sweetness that stands out beautifully, balanced with refined bitter and spicy undertones for a calm and sophisticated aroma.
This is not bad at all.It DOES smell like agarwood and not perfume.

This is one of the better finds for me last year. Enjoy!

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Kangiiten - Rei-Un Koh incense powder.
Wonderful woody and spicy blend gently heated. Fills a room nicely.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Kangiiten - Rei-Un Koh incense powder. Heating more of this today. I've just added a small chip of CK on the top. This is one of those incense blends that I bought and used as a combustable incense trail. It did not appeal to me at all. Just very dry and a bit harsh. For some reason it did not occour to me to simply heat it on my sub? Anyway, this is what I'm currently doing and it's amazing! Totally different scent to when I was actually burning it. I get spice and a variety of dried fruits!

 

[Joe]

Something delightfully bitter.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Sejiudo Gokuhin Jinko Nichigetsu. No having to read between the lines with this stick description. Simple and pure high quality Vietnamese agarwood. There is nothing perfume like or bad after smelling taste with this mini stick. I'm too much of a novice to get too deep with what's going on here but....it's very, very nice and that will have to do.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Sejiudo Gokuhin Kyara Enju. Description says : Crafted with an abundance of Kyara, the highest grade of agarwood, including the rare and most esteemed Ryokuyu Kyara (green-oil kyara). To me this also smells like a stick that has real agarwood or in this case, kyara. The notes are subtle (gentle). Quite woody and not particularly sweet. The description also says this stick is a good representation of all five tastes in kyara. I need serious practice with this one.

 

[Joe]

Here’s something different for incense of the day - this was a frankincense-infused bloody mary I had in Muscat.

Clarified tomato juice and vodka underneath, spices and luban in the mousse on top; give it a stir and sip through a straw. Really strong frankincense flavour.

Apparently it’s very common to drink infusions made out of resins over there (minus the vodka!). Myrrh soaked overnight in water and drunk first thing is apparently goo

I read somewhere that is can have pain modifying effects.

 

[Mr.P]

I read somewhere that is can have pain modifying effects.

psychoactive effects of frankincense!

 

[Joe]

psychoactive effects of frankincense!

@Mr.P , my artist friend, I had a diffcult time reading the paper, it IS highly technical, but I did read the whole thing from intro to acknowledgements (which is strange, cause I can read Derrida without problems). But I have one question that the paper didn’t state, does incensole acetate (IA) have an odor? It is an isolated from olibanum, but does it smell and if it does have a smell, I’m going to start using it for sure!

Also, I’m not up-to-date on my Bible readings, but wasn’t Jesus offered a cup of wine with myrrh in it to numb his pain on the cross? I know he was embalmed with aloes (oud), but didn’t he refuse the cup of wine with myrrh? I have to look it up…. I also have to look up if incensole acetate (IA) Has an odor profile… Doing these now!

 

[Mr.P]

@Mr.P , my artist friend, I had a diffcult time reading the paper, it IS highly technical, but I did read the whole thing from intro to acknowledgements (which is strange, cause I can read Derrida without problems). But I have one question that the paper didn’t state, does incensole acetate (IA) have an odor? It is an isolated from olibanum, but does it smell and if it does have a smell, I’m going to start using it for sure!

Also, I’m not up-to-date on my Bible readings, but wasn’t Jesus offered a cup of wine with myrrh in it to numb his pain on the cross? I know he was embalmed with aloes (oud), but didn’t he refuse the cup of wine with myrrh? I have to look it up…. I also have to look up if incensole acetate (IA) Has an odor profile… Doing these now!

let me know what you find, I don't know what the molecule itself is like in isolation. I've read that the essential oils of frankincense have none of it, so it seems distilling strips the oil of of that main psychoactive molecule. Absolutes, CO2 and other solvent extracts on the other hand will contain IA.

 

[Joe]

psychoactive effects of frankincense!

Okay, so IA does have an odor, but its impact is very low according to what I read. “Its importance in frankincense is far more pharmacological than olfactory”

 

[Joe]

let me know what you find, I don't know what the molecule itself is like in isolation. I've read that the essential oils of frankincense have none of it, so it seems distilling strips the oil of of that main psychoactive molecule. Absolutes, CO2 and other solvent extracts on the other hand will contain IA.

I want it!

 

[Mr.P]

Okay, so IA does have an odor, but its impact is very low according to what I read. “Its importance in frankincense is far more pharmacological than olfactory”

i've always liked the solvent extracts and resin much more than the distilled oil, perhaps subconsciously I'm enjoying the IA and not actually the difference in smell.

at one point I compared a bunch of different solvent extracts - an extract (co2 I think) of Boswellia serrata had the highest % of IA by far. I don't know if this is generally true.