Things You'll Need:
- Incense sticks
- oil based fragrance
- DPG
- tray
- plastic bags
- container to hold fragrance
- (all will be explained)
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Step 1
The first step is to get all of your equipment ready. You will need a tall glass. It should be about 10" tall and about 1-2" in diameter. No top is needed. If you want to make more than one fragrance, you will need a different glass for each fragrance. Many dollar stores sell vases that are tall and thin and will work well.
Next, you will need to buy the unscented incense sticks, fragrance and DPG (dipropylene glycol).
Any search engine will send you to sites that sell these products at wholesale costs. The more you buy, usually the less expensive it is.
Many wholesale sites will sell all of the products that you need to make incense. If you buy from one site, you can save on shipping charges. -
Step 2
When you have all of your products and are ready to go, make sure to have a clean work space. Take one of your tall glasses and put one stick of incense inside of the glass. Put a marker on the outside of the glass (such as a line from a water proof marker) about 1/2 the height of the incense stick. This will let you know how far up the fragrance should come to cover all of the incense sticks. Keep in mind that the more incense sticks you add to the glass, the higher the liquid will go.
Now, pour the DPG into the glass only HALF way up to the line you just made. Pour your fragrance the rest of the way to the line. The DPG dilutes the oil without diluting the actual fragrance. It also helps eliminate the black soot that usually rises when the stick is being burned.
Once the mixture of DPG and one fragrance is made, gently place the unscented incense sticks into the glass until the fragrance comes just above the thick part of the incense stick. You don't want to cover the entire stick, because you don't want the oil on the handle. If there isn't enough fragrance to cover the thick part of the stick, either add more sticks or more fragrance.
Let the sticks set overnight. Make sure that nothing will bump into the glasses. -
Step 3
After the incense sticks have soaked overnight, you're ready to dry the sticks. It's best to have a tray that has slats or small holes in it so that the air can flow over and under the sticks. You can also use a cookie tray. Just make sure you do NOT use it for anything else but the incense sticks.
Take the sticks from the glasses and tap them lightly to let any excess fragrance drip. Place them on the tray and fan them out so that each stick will be able to have air flow. This will dry them. I usually put the trays on my deck and let the air and sun dry them.
Once their dry, you can put them in zip lock bags. Make sure that you label the bags with the fragrance or you will not remember later.
When you lite a stick, let the flame burn for about 30 seconds and then blow it out. You will get a nice, white stream of smoke along with a fragrance that will fill the room.
