Let's Get (Meta)Physical

Our sense of smell and how it’s connected to memory and sense of space can take us back to specific moments in time - years, or decades, before. Creating a new world for yourself in your own environment can be a way to add layers to our memories and shape shift the moment we’re all experiencing.

Transforming your space is a primal desire, and the ritual of burning incense is a way to transform and transport without physically going anywhere. The alchemy of incense is wonderful, how suddenly the air you inhabit feels tangibly different and your mind subtly shifts directions. You've added a layer to your environment that wasn't there moments before.

Unlike candles that are meant to feel like an invisible partner in the room, the presence of incense commands attention. They announce themselves boldly and then linger, inhabiting two very different personalities.

These incenses have been a part of my life for years. When I feel like I need to teleport to a different world, they’re my magic carpet.

If you've ever walked through a rose garden on a warm summer day, that's what this incense captures; the luscious scent of roses, the warmth of the earth and the subtle fragrance of honey. They truly take me somewhere else when I burn them, the Tuileries in Paris, or maybe a languid garden in the English countryside. I close my eyes and can practically hear the soft buzz of insects, warm smell of petals soaking up the rays and the feeling of the summer sun on my face without ever leaving my living room.

I often wonder what Joni Mitchell’s house in Laurel Canyon was like back in the heyday of the 60’s music scene in Los Angeles. I imagine a hazy layer of incense filling the air while musicians talk and play late into the night, lounging on tapestry covered couches and surrounded by lush houseplants. When I conjure those images, the Holy Smoke incense is the “scent soundtrack” playing in my mind. This incense has a headiness to it, a richness that speaks of exotic markets in other far away lands and the scent envelops you in a deep, rich velvet feeling.

Finding the perfect incense holder was a Quixotian task for me until I found this one. Handsome. Versatile. Equal parts elegant and utilitarian. It has a hole for stick incense, a space for catching ash, an area for burning cones or papers. And in a pinch it can be even work as an ashtray.