Incense

Our loose incense was created as a way of using up every drop of perfume we make here in the perfumery.  Saturated filters and jars coated in perfume are added to bins and boxes of resins and dried aromatic plants, where the basic components of incense are aged and cured for a period of three months to three years.  Resins are often cured separately, saturated in essential oils, botanical perfume blends, codistilled essences from the garden or forest, or tinctures full of fragrance and aromatic medicine.  As the resins bind with the plant perfumes, they take on new shine and new ways of burning.  The perfumes gradually merge with the bright resin scents of pinon, copal, frankincense, and spruce.  Barks of cedar and juniper, petals of flowers, and the million and one aromatic spices and leaves we have to choose from are placed in bowls of glass or wood, and mixed with their own separate infusions of fragrance.  This way, when we blend all of our colorful components together, there are separare perfume profiles ready to blossom and merge when heat is applied. 

It is fire that brings to life these essences, just as it was fire that drew them through the distiller, into the bottle, and back into the living heart of these incense gardens.  Making loose incense allows me to utilize many aromatic components and materials that may otherwise go to waste or just get composted. 

For those suffering from soul loss, deep bereavement, shunning, or social exile, incense can be a pathway through to the soul that others may not understand, but the old soul within us remembers.  Wordlessly, incense enters as soft smoke, enveloping and protecting, giving a much needed break to the soul hypervigilant from warfare or the heart broken back by too much loss.  The ecosystem inside of incense can be like a safe house, where we can rest knowing the scent has a way of collecting our minds and spirits for us.