How to Make Incense With Natural Ingredients

Incense adds a smoky fragrance to the air.

Incense is an alternative to burning candles or spraying air freshener when you want to add fragrance to your home. Incense comes in many forms, such as on incense sticks, in cones and pellets or as a loose powder. While you can purchase all of these forms at the store, making your own incense with natural ingredients is an alternative that allows you to choose your fragrance, as well as the form in which you make your incense.

Things You'll Need

• Mortar and pestle
• 1 tablespoon pliable resins
• 1 tablespoon dried sandalwood
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender
• Wax paper
• Ceramic jar with lid
• Sand
• Incense burner
• Matches

Instructions

1. 

   Grind up your ingredients with a mortar and pestle.

   Place 1 tablespoon each of the pliable resins and dried sandalwood pieces into your mortar bowl. Use the pestle to grind the two ingredients into a fine powder. Using pliable resins will allow you to form your finished product into a shape, such as a pellet, rather than leaving the incense powder loose.

2. Add 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers and leaves to the mortar. Grind up the fragrant herb to mix it in with the first two ingredients.

3. Pour the incense ingredients onto a piece of wax paper. Begin to knead the ingredients with your hands to start working in the pliability of the resin. Knead the ingredients as they begin to ball up and form a mixture similar in consistency to cookie dough.

4. Form the incense into pellets about the size of an almond in the shell. Place the incense pellets in a ceramic jar with a lid and leave them there to dry for two to three weeks.

5. 

   Incense burns to release its fragrance.

   Sprinkle a little sand in the base of your incense burner. Place a dried incense pellet on the sand and light it with a match. As soon as the flame burns out, you'll be left with a burning incense pellet that will release its fragrance through the smoke.

Tips & Warnings

• Substitute any dried herb, spice or flower to create your own fragrance.

• Keep burning incense out of reach of children or pets, as it can cause burns if touched.

References

• Lifestyle: I Love India: How to Make Incense
• Scents of the Earth: How to Make Incense