How to distinguish a good incense? In addition to the price, for beginners, there are four simple methods that can quickly identify the quality of incense.
1.Smell the incense before lighting. The aroma of high-quality natural incense is soft, mild, and natural, not a strong pungent scent. Many incenses on the market have added chemical fragrances, the fragrance is rich and strong, but if you smell it carefully, the fragrance is not natural, some are even pungent, we do not recommend buying and using this low-quality incense.
2.Smell the aroma after lighting. Use your sense of smell to feel whether the aroma is soft, the higher the quality of the incense, the softer the aroma, you can smell it at a closer distance without feeling uncomfortable. After low-quality incense is lit, some will produce a peculiar smell, even choking the nose and causing tears. If a stick of incense produces a lot of smoke and impurities after burning, it is mostly due to the poor quality of the incense material itself and improper blending. There are also some incenses that are filled with cheap wood powder, which will also cause large and strong smoke.
Here I should special mention that there are some high-quality "essential oil incenses" on the market now, which are blended with fragrance essential oils. For example, I have used some Japanese brands' cherry blossom and fruit-flavored incense sticks, the scent is also quite delicate.
However, compared with natural herbs incenses, the scent of essential oil fragrance is more direct, rigid, and lacks change. The best way to judge is that the scent of essential oil incense does not differ much before and after ignition. While pure natural herbs fragrance has layers and changes, and the scents before and after lighting are different, and the longer the storage time, the better the integration of incense materials, and the more charming the fragrance.
3.Good incense does not burn your skin. After the incense is lit, if you can extinguish the flame by swiping your thumb and forefinger through the flame's head without feeling any pain, then it is natural incense.
4.The temperature of the incense ash. If you flick a section of incense ash that has just been extinguished onto the back of your hand, the ash from incense made from chemical incenses will burn your skin because the added burning aids cannot completely combust. Incense that has added limestone filler, you can distinctly feel residual heat from the ash but it won't sting. If it falls onto your hand without any sensations, like a feather gently landing, that indicates the incense is 100% purely natural, without any added substances.
Lastly, the most important rule is to feel it with your body, not by listening to what other people say. You don't have to be an expert in incense culture, your own nose is enough to make the judgment. Just relax, take a deep breath, and feel whether the scent is comfortable and gentle. On this point, I believe enjoying incense is like wine tasting, tea drinking, or coffee savoring, the higher quality the product, the more delicate, gentle, and pleasing to our senses.
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