Dipped incense, which may also be advertised as “hand-dipped incense”, “double dipped incense”, or “soaked incense”, is made using incense “blanks” that are dipped in fragrant oil. A blank is an unscented stick or cone of incense that only includes a “base” and a “binder”. Instead of using plant materials to scent the incense, the blanks are dipped in oils. The advertising terms “hand-dipped” and “double-dipped” make it sound like a high quality product, but the reality is that the materials used in making this type of incense are often inferior and unnatural.
Both the blanks and the oils used for dipped incense are often low quality and fake. The idea of dipped incense is fairly new in the long history of incense. They were originally manufactured with high quality materials and were a decent substitute for the real thing. Originally, blanks were made of Sandalwood powder and a type of glue. Modern blanks, however, are made using any wood powder available. In addition, most blanks are made in countries with few or no regulations over them and may contain anything, including saltpeter or unhealthy adhesives. Likewise, the oils the blanks are dipped in are not pure or natural.
Instead of using essential oils, commercial incense makers use synthetic fragrance oils. There is no known health risk associated with pure synthetic oils, but dipped incense manufacturers often use impure oils. Many commercial incense makers and oil sellers add an “extender” to their oils to stretch their supply. The most commonly used extender is dipropylene glycol methyl ether, or DPG. DPG is a chemical that can double or triple the volume of oil without adding much scent. It is relatively harmless in liquid state, but may produce poisonous gas when burned!
Most dipped incense makers are not out to sell an inferior product and many truly believe they are using quality ingredients. The sad reality is that incense makers can’t control the quality of the ingredients they use. Few people who dip could afford to have their blanks tested for dangerous chemicals. They might never add DPG to their oils, but they have no way of knowing if the company that sold them the oil added DPG. Many wholesalers “cut” their fragrance oils to increase profits and never tell the incense makers who buy the oil from them.
Despite all the above warnings, if dipped incense is made with a high quality blank and only pure fragrance oil, it should be perfectly safe. There are many dedicated incense dippers who make an honest effort to make a quality dipped incense use only the best ingredients but, unfortunately, it’s impossible to know what quality dipped incense offers – even if you make it yourself.
Horaayy..there are 3 comment(s) for me so far ;)
i’m sory ican’t read your post.
i’m indonesian people.
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I like the aroma of incense. Unfortunetly my wife doesn’t so I’m out of luck.
I’m sorry to hear that Dan. Perhaps she has only experienced the cheap artificial type which can have very strong fake scents like Strawberry and can be very irritating to a lot of people. Natural incense should smell like the fresh outdoors and should be very subtle and not overpowering. Think about the smell of the woods or a boquet of flowers or perhaps a spicy scent like cinnamon or vanilla. There is many many different scents available so maybe she just hasn’t found one that’s agreeable to her yet. I would recommend buying a sample pack and testing each one out to see if she likes any of them! Good luck