Smokeless Incense and Other Options

Smokeless incense and other options

I love incense, well actually I love scent of all kinds.  Certain smells can evoke all kinds of wonderful feelings, emotions and memories.

White musk takes me back to the mid 80’s and the perfume I used to wear.  Anything with sandalwood reminds me of my husband and his aftershave.  Frankincense is the scent I associate mostly with Glastonbury.  Cinnamon and cloves are the scents of the festive season (my favourite time of the year).  Each one individual and unique.

However, incense can not only set of smoke detectors in the house but can also cause issues with those that suffer from asthma.

I often get asked what other options people can use, here are some of my suggestions.

Smokeless incense oven:

This is just pure genius.  Discovered on a recent trip to Glastonbury in the Fairyland Aromatics shop.  Beautiful glass incense oven.  You pop a tealight in the bottom, a small amount of sand in the top and sprinkle the loose incense in.  The heat from the tealight warms the incense and releases the scent without the smoke.  One was added to my collection…and I have used it regularly ever since.

Oil burner:

You are probably all familiar with the oil burner.  A tealight goes underneath and essential oil in the top.  The heat from the tealight warms the oil and releases the scent.  The first time I used one, it burnt.  Lesson learnt, I then added water in the top with the oil in. Although the water evaporates quite quickly too.  Further experimentation and I now pop a bit of candle wax in the top and add the essential oil to that.

Wax melts:

Used in the oil burner mentioned above.  A lot less fuss and no worry about it burning!   There are some lovely scented wax melts out there.  Be wary of purchasing those with synthetic fragrance.  They smell of chemicals and I am pretty sure they are full of them too, you don’t want to be inhaling that!

Smokeless oil burner oven:

A homemade version of the smokeless incense oven.  Using an oil burner, pop your tealight at the bottom as usual.  Then sprinkle a thin layer of sand in the top dish, pop loose incense on the top and et voila!

Scented spray:

You can make your own cleansing and purifying mist by using a spray bottle filled with distilled water (boil the water in your kettle and let it cool) and adding a few drops of essential oil to it and popping a rosemary, sage or lavender sprig into the bottle.

Microwave incense:

Let’s get techie…pop a heat proof bowl of water in your microwave, add a good dash of something like lemon juice and heat for a couple of minutes.  It fills the room with a gorgeous scent.  You can add lots of different ingredients, cinnamon and clove work well too.  Just make sure you have plenty of water.

Simmering incense:

Using the same principal as microwave incense, fill a saucepan with water and add your ingredients.  Items such as cinnamon sticks and slices of citrus fruit work well.  Simmer gently to fill the house with a lovely scent.  More details can be found here https://www.kitchenwitchhearth.net/post/simmering-incense-by-sue-perryman

Diffuser

A piece of kit you will need to purchase, it has a water reservoir that you add a few drops of essential oil to, you plug it in and switch it on and vapour/mist is released into the air.

Scented candles

A good reliable option to get scent into a room.  As with the wax melts, I would personally check to make sure the scents are natural.

What do you use?

I would love to hear about what you use?