Ingredients and Formulas
Incense is made from a complex mix of natural ingredients which
have a strong and distinctive fragrance when warmed or burnt.
Natural Ingredients
There is a wide range of subtle, bold and complex fragrances to explore in Japanese incense, from woody to floral, fruity to spicy, earthy to warm and astringent. These fragrances are created using all natural ingredients.
Discovering your favourite incense for different occasions is a journey of exploration.
Incense Formulas
Most incense is created from a complex recipe of multiple blended ingredients. These ingredients range from the commonplace, like everyday herbs and spices, to exotic and rare, like amber and spikenard.
Machillus is a non-fragrant bark that burns evenly and is the base substance of all Japanese incense. The main base note is usually a wood – sandalwood, agarwood, or hinoki.Â
 Other ingredients are included in careful proportions to create complex fragrances. These ingredients include a wide range of flowers, spices, fruits, herbs, roots, bark, resins and oils. These blends can produce complex and sophisticated aromas.
Ingredients we list
Some of the incense on our website is made according to recipes that are very old, kept secret, and only known to a few people in an incense company.
We list ingredients where we can, but we cannot ever list the complete formula on our website.
Single Ingredient Incense
Some woods, like sandalwood, agarwood and hinoki, are naturally complex and can be used as a single ingredient incense for a single complex, aromatic note. This is a little like single-estate chocolate or coffee. When the ingredient is excellent quality, there is value to be had from focusing on that single ingredient alone for a full, rich experience and fragrance.
We stock a variety of single ingredient incenses. See examples of Sandalwood, Agarwood and Hinoki below.
Sandalwood
Sandalwood single ingredient incense has a robust and sweet scent, and the fragrance varies according to where the tree was grown.
Agarwood
Agarwood, also known as Kyara, is the best known wood used as a single ingredient incense. Agarwood is classified according to age, place and how resinous it is. This is some of the most expencsive incense available the world over. Agarwoods from different places all have a different note, and pure agarwood is often enoyed as a single ingredient. Connosoirs will collect single-note agarwood incense like people collect single estate tea, chocolate or coffee.
Hinoki
Hinoki is the Japanese cypress. As a single ingredient incense it is delicate and soft with a refreshing, slightly astringent, citric scent.
Musk and Ambergris
The musk and ambergris scents used in our incense is all plant based. They are a careful combination of ingredients that come very close to the original fragrance. The reason the substances were included in fragrances is because of the complex and beautiful scents.
