Am I the Only Incense Freak Out There?

Everything else
1

First, I did search this, but have a feeling the word incense also comes up when people get angry about something so I didn’t see a topic on this.

Second, before you leap to conclusions, I just enjoy the smell, I’m not using it to cover up anything (I’m sober and have been a good while), unless it covers up a tad of cat smells (they’be been pretty well behaved and use their litter box religiously, but still).

I have a variety of types I picked up and am partial to, but wouldn’t mind experimenting a bit too. Apparently Nipon Kodo makes a lot of the brands I like (Goldfish, Butterfly, Wisteria, Osmanthus, Jasmine, Bloom amongst them).

And I like their Tequila Sunrise…

Generally, sandlewood is a favorite too, I don’t stick to any particular brand here.

I’ve noticed some of the Japanese incenses can get extremely expensive (believe it or not) which makes me a little wary of trying something “scent” “unseen”, but I am open to further experimentation, so suggest away (or feel free to tell me, Nixxter, for a guy, you encourage your feminine side a bit much, I have a thick skin!).

I tend to like floral scents a lot (in flowers, one of my enjoyable discoveries over the past five years has been the delight of tuber roses, they ain’t all that much to look at (small, star like blossoms) but their scent is very unique, and can be powerful to those with a scent sensititivy (like my wife - I keep the incense, and the fragrant flowers down in my lair and away from her). At the same time I find many of the traditional lillies overpowering and not pleasant or appealing, it’s a fine line.

2

Just so you know (and you seem to), people will assume that a man who burns incense smokes the pot.

3

Good point Robert. I stopped doing that (whips out a slide rule) about 28 years ago. Pretty sure all applicable statutes of limitations have run by now…

But I retained my love of fine scents; it’s just pleasing and makes me feel happy somehow. Since I don’t smoke tobaccy either, I don’t think that burning a stick of incense a day poses much of a health risk to me, but always open to new information.

4

Filling up a house with smells drive me crazy. I don’t like scented toiletries, I hate scented candles, I hate scented oils, and I hate incense.

I get exposed to that stuff and within minutes I’m developing a headache. I can’t even enter stores that specialize is selling stinky things like Yankee Candle or Body Shoppe or Sephora.

I like the way the air smells/feels after a strong thunderstorm.

I like the smell of the ocean (the plain whipped up saltwater smell, obviously if there’s been a garbage spill or a fish kill the ocean won’t be smelling so great).

I like the smell of good food cooking.

I like the smell of freshly cut wood, like you can get at a lumber yard or a carpenter’s workshop. (That does not mean I want to be inundated with sandalwood or cedar aroma though).

But “perfume-y” smells, musk, patchouli, florals, all that kind of stuff. Ugh. Miserable.

5

Do you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain?

6

This post saved me a lot of typing.

7

what he said.

8

I had a feeling I was in a minority here, for example, my wife has a pretty extreme sensitivity to scents, so I am very careful to either burning incense, or keeping any of the stronger scented flowers down in my basement lair.

It’s fine that the rest of you chimed in who don’t care for this, what I’m really looking for is those who do like it and have some different ideas for me that I might enjoy, so let them share that (or, you can let the thread go into obscurity).

9

A lot of people here like incense that smells like thread-shit.

10

BTW, I wasn’t trying to say I didn’t like incense. My wife burns it sometimes, and it smells nice. Some flavors smell a little too…burny? I don’t know how to explain. They smell acerbic, maybe? But some smells are quite pleasant, especially after you put out the incense and just let it linger.

I was just warning you that if you have people over, they may well make assumptions, even if they aren’t true.

11

You of all people, Robert, were not the people Jerri and I were thinking about. People I have over know I have been sober a long time, and if they are new to our house, they can make any assumptions they want, it’s certainly not illegal to be sober and it says more about their mistaken assumptions than it does about me.

I took her remark to mean that most (but not you) used this as an opportunity to be judgmental and disparaging about the fact that I do enjoy incense and to use it as an opportunity to tell me about all the wonderful things they enjoy smelling and how those are somehow superior to this particular taste of mine.

It’s all cool, I let things like that go, and if there are some folks out there who like and enjoy incense, by all means, feel free to share!

12

Passive aggressive much?

13

The problem with incense is that it’s to pervasive- it’s too good at doing what it does.

I enjoy pleasant smells, just like any other pleasant sensation. However, I want it to be more controllable. For example, flowers that you have to get close to sniff. The same with a good wine or reasonably applied perfume. Heck, I even like sniffing pleasant unlit incense.

But burning incense is the heavy metal concert of the scent world- it can’t be shut out and there’s no volume control. I’ve never encountered any incense that I thought was subtle, in the manner that all of the pleasant smells listed by Hugin are subtle. Rather, they’re all formulated to take the subtle briney smell of the ocean up to fish kill level, to use Hugin’s terms.

Maybe I’m more of a scratch-and-sniff sticker guy.

14

Judgmental much? If you have something nice or useful to share, please do, otherwise why don’t you let me be?

15

Oy. For the record, incense is indeed a pet peeve of mine because in my life the people who have tended to like it, or like scented stuff in their environment at all times seem to be really oblivious to how overpowering and misery making it can be for others.

The other scents I mentioned simply as a defensive thing, to demonstrate that I was capable of finding some smells pleasant, just not most things commercially designed to be fragrant.

16

Try some real Indian made stuff, not the cheapie perfume-oil added sticks. I prefer…well uh no links for me. It’s called Nag Champa. Teh Google it if you must.

Yes, I also enjoy the incense and I am not covering anything up. I hear ya.

17

Incense. Head shops. It just reminds me of the sixties and seventies.

A little goes a long way. For brief periods it’s okay, but that’s it. I prefer to smell the ocean or the forest or if it has to be smoke, a barbecue.

18

Correct.

19

Ditto.

20

Thank you everybody, I’m just going to end the thread at this point. I had no idea it was a controversial subject that people would make assumptions about my usage of it.

I use it very sparingly due to my wife’s sensitivity. In fact, up until the last week, I had burned one stick in five weeks. It still doesn’t change the fact that I like it, and the lingering smell of it and was interested to learn about other forms of it that other people enjoy and use.

Yes, I am well aware it can be overpowering, probably more aware than most people who responded on this thread.

I value the overall respect that people accord each other on QT3, over many years, too much to go any further with this - it’s not a woe is me thing either, but there are certainly those who somehow are taking my remarks as offensive or aggressive, and I work very hard to be a good and decent human bean myself and treat others with respect. This is the last place in the world I want to cause anybody any ill feelings towards me.

There are plently of other places I can learn more about this - it’s just been my observation that the people here are well informed, have eclectic tastes and are very willing ordinarily to share information freely. Not sure what nerves I touched here, or maybe people just have strong opinions either way about incense, sheesh, I wouldn’t have thunk it but I try to remain teachable so there you go.