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Cream lumps of frankincense resin on a black backgroundDried cloves on a white backgroundPieces of sandalwood, a classic incense aroma

34 entries

Materials

The resins, woods, spices and flowers that make up incense.

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Woody

A mature deodar cedar on an Indian meadow

Cedar

Dry, pencil-shaving wood that adds structure to a blend.

Hinoki foliage and small cones

Hinoki

Clean, lemony wood of the Japanese cypress, a familiar aroma in Japanese incense and traditional houses.

A juniper branch with pale blue berries

Juniper

Crisp, resinous mountain conifer central to Himalayan offering smoke.

A piece of dark-veined Bursera graveolens wood

Palo Santo

Fragrant South American Bursera graveolens wood with notes of citrus, mint and resin.

Pieces of sandalwood, a classic incense aroma

Sandalwood

Creamy, milky heartwood of Santalum species and the backbone of Indian and Japanese incense.

Resinous

A piece of agarwood, the material named on Atma incense in the Gaharu line

Agarwood (Oud)

Dark resin that forms in infected Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees. Deep, bittersweet and prized for centuries; the finest Japanese grade is called kyara.

Copal and other incense on a market table in Mexico

Copal

Clear, citrusy, pine-fresh tree resin burned in Mesoamerica since pre-Columbian times.

Pale grains of dammar resin

Dammar

Light, clean tree resin from Southeast Asian dipterocarp forests and a long-standing Indonesian forest product.

Cream lumps of frankincense resin on a black background

Frankincense

Bright, lemony, pine-like resin tapped from Boswellia trees in Arabia, the Horn of Africa and India.

A thorny guggul shrub on a dry slope

Guggul

Smoky, slightly sweet gum resin from Commiphora wightii, used in Indian ritual and Ayurveda.

A tear of mastic on a tree trunk

Mastic

Pale, piney, gently sweet resin from the mastic trees of the Greek island of Chios.

Orange lumps of myrrh resin

Myrrh

Bitter, medicinal, warmly earthy resin from Commiphora trees of Arabia and northeast Africa.

Balsamic

Benzoin resin blocks, one of the types of incense from Styrax trees

Benzoin

Vanilla-sweet balsamic resin from Styrax trees of Sumatra and mainland Southeast Asia.

Umbrella-shaped Dracaena cinnabari trees on Socotra

Dragon's Blood

Deep red resin from Dracaena trees and from the fruit of Daemonorops rattan palms. In Sumatra and Kalimantan the rattan resin is known as jernang.

The crown of an Ailanthus triphysa tree

Halmaddi

Soft, balsamic resin of Ailanthus triphysa, part of the traditional nag champa formula. India banned extraction by the 1990s because crude tapping killed trees, so it is now scarcer in incense.

A white Cistus ladanifer flower among sticky leaves

Labdanum

Dark, leathery, ambery gum from Mediterranean rockrose shrubs.

Liquidambar orientalis trees with orange leaves

Storax

Sweet, cinnamon-tinged balsam from Liquidambar orientalis of southwestern Türkiye.

Sweet

Blocks of honeycomb filled with honey

Honey

Binder and sweetener in kneaded incense and ancient recipes such as kyphi.

A clump of green sweetgrass

Sweetgrass

Vanilla- and hay-scented grass that is braided and used in many North American Indigenous traditions.

Floral

A yellow-green ylang-ylang flower

Cananga (Kenanga)

Sweet yellow tropical flower, listed among the traditional ingredients of Javanese ratus.

Frangipani in Bali, the reference for the Kamboja variant of Gentong Tiga incense

Champa (Champak or Frangipani)

Creamy, heady tropical blossoms. The champa of nag champa is described as either champak or frangipani.

A jasmine flower, the reference for the Dupalo scents line Melati

Jasmine

Heady, sweet white flower and a staple of South and Southeast Asian ritual.

A pink damask rose

Rose

Rich, honeyed petals used in perfumed resins and bakhoor.

Spicy

Cinnamon sticks

Cinnamon

Warm, sweet bark and a classic companion to resins and woods.

Dried cloves on a white background

Clove

Hot, sweet spice native to the Maluku Islands of Indonesia.

Herbal

Camphor tree crowns that do not touch each other

Borneol

Cool, camphor-like crystals historically traded from Barus in Sumatra. Used in small amounts in Japanese and Chinese blends.

Lavender flowers, the reference for the Lavender variant of Gentong Tiga incense

Lavender

Clean, soft, herbal-floral aroma associated with calm evenings.

Pale mauve rhododendron blossoms

Rhododendron

Aromatic high-altitude leaves used in Himalayan incense blends.

A silvery white sage shrub

White Sage

Sharp, herbal Salvia apiana from Southern California and Baja California.

Citrus

A lemongrass clump with long arching leaves

Lemongrass

Bright, grassy lemon aroma that is widely grown across tropical Asia.

Earthy

Serrated green patchouli leaves

Patchouli

Dark, earthy, damp-forest leaf. Indonesia produces most of the world's patchouli oil.

A green leaf rosette of Nardostachys jatamansi

Spikenard

Musty, root-like Himalayan aromatic with a long history in ritual use.

Bundles of vetiver roots

Vetiver

Dry, earthy, smoky root of a tropical grass.

Smoky

Round yellow flowers on a Vachellia seyal twig

Acacia Wood

Smoky wood such as talih, the heartwood of Acacia seyal, which is burned for the Sudanese dukhan smoke bath.

Photo credits (34)

Photos were resized, converted to WebP and may be cropped for display. Each keeps its original license.