Incensed

I've blogged about my candle habit, but I've recently developed an incense habit, too. I guess there are worse things.

It started when I went into a little Buddhist store and saw these cool incense burners. One was shaped like a dragon, and I've just finished writing a novel (first in a trilogy) featuring a dragon, so I felt drawn to it. The coolest thing was, when you put the cone of incense in the burner, the dragon blew smoke. Wow!

I had to have it. So then I also had to have some incense for it. Because I couldn't deny my dragon his smoke.

I was such a novice that the store clerk had to show me how to light the incense and use the burner.

That was last November. Then, in December I discovered stick incense. Which I like so much more than the cones, if only because I find lighting the sticks and cleaning up after them to be a bit easier. There's also the feeling that the scent burns more evenly. BUT. Down side is that the sticks don't last as long.

Okay, so the first kind of sticks I bought were a brand known as HEM. I like them pretty well. My Dragons Blood smells great, but my Myrrh is a bit weird smelling, sometimes leaves a bad aftersmell. Those are the only ones I have by them, so it's not a very large sampling. I'd need to buy a few more by them to have any real opinion.

Next I bought a huge variety pack of Satya incense sticks. Wow. I really like most of these, though there are a couple that don't work for me. The Jasmine is way too strong. Like, headache inducing. But overall, I'd definitely buy these again.

Just recently, I also bought a few boxes of Divine incense sticks. They are somewhat different from what I guess are more traditional scents in that they are "natural flora incense." I've liked most of them, though the White Sage left a charcoal smell in my office. Since I've never burned any other white sage sticks, I don't know if this is common. These are nice for a change—scents like Lavender and Rose—but for the Patchouli I prefer the Satya ones. The Divine sticks do definitely have a sweeter smell on the whole, though, if you like that.

Okay, those of you who like incense: tell me what kind(s) and scent(s) you enjoy.