Have you ever wanted to try loose incense with a coal? Here are someone my favorite winter holiday incense blends from Scott Cunningham’s, The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, & Brews. These blends feature the scent of holiday spices and can even be used during the Fall & Autumn. They are my favorite blends yet, and I hope you love them too!
This one of my favorite witchy spirituality things… my box of curiosities and one of my favorite books when it comes to self-care and recipes, “Incense, Oils, & Brews.” This box holds all of my herbs that I use for incense. All of the herbs that I use for medicinal purposes are not in this box, those herbs are in my kitchen. If an herb in my kitchen goes bad or out of date, I move them over here and use them for incense. I do not ingest anything from this box. But enough about that, let’s get into my favorite Winter, Yule, and Christmas incense recipes, so you can make them in time for Yule and the Holiday Season.
I like to keep my loose incense in little plastic baggies because its easier on storage. In this house, our favorites are a blend from Mabon (Fall Autumn Equinox), Yule from I.O.B., Jupiter from I.O.B., Mini Sage Smudge Sticks, and F&M Frankincense and Myrrh.
Frankincense and Myrrh is good to use any time of year. In this household, the scent of frankincense & myrrh has special feelings associated with it because of the memories it evokes. You can use scent to transform your space and mindset, read more about it here.
We like to use these incense blends year round because of their holiday spice scent. The scent of the holidays contains our favorite scents as a couple. My husband’s cologne even smells like holiday spices and our favorite cake any time of the year is carrot cake which is filled with holiday spices.
Jupiter #3 from I.O.B.
one part clove
one part nutmeg
one part cinnamon
1/2 part lemon balm
1/2 part citrus peel
I used dried orange peels that I dried myself. Jupiter incense is a blend that we like to use whenever we aren’t sure what scent we’re looking for, or if we don’t have a particular “scent craving.” Jupiter Incense is our default incense blend.
Little Teeny Tiny Sage Bundles
I made these tiny sage smudge sticks a few years ago. This is sage from the grocery store that we had leftover from a roast recipe that we were cooking at the time. I really like these because of the tiny nature and the transportability. You can also use these up pretty fast compared to the big sage sticks.
Jenny’s Autumn Spice Incense
This incense has apple, oak leaves, bay leaf, frankincense and rosemary in it. I made this one more than a couple of years ago and its lasted us really long time because we don’t use loose incense that much. We use it for special occasions to set the tone and set the mood. The recipe from I.O.B. is really similar to the one that I made:
Mabon Incense from I.O.B.
two parts frankincense
one part sandalwood
one part Cypress
one part Juniper
one part pine
half part oak moss
a pinch of pulverized oak leaf
Yule Incense from I.O.B.
two parts frankincense
two parts pine needles or resin
one part cedar
one part juniper berry
I like to find incense recipes online and then adapt it to what I have in my herb stash in my box of curiosities. And also what I have access to grown locally or at my grocery store. We tend to use a lot of citrus peels in our incense blends. I like the lightness that it gives and how it brightens up each incense blend. You can use these loose incense blends as potpourri too! Just put them in the little dish and viola!
If you have animals, I wouldn’t recommend leaving it out loose in the dish. Get a jar or container that has holes on the top of it like a spice jar to keep little paws and tongues out of it.
I really like that you can use herbs for a lot of different things when it comes to scent. Incense, Oils, & Brews was one of the first books that I got into when it came to creating my own loose incense. This book has a lot of really really great recipes for oils, lotions, soaps, and incense. It’s a really great book to have in your collection. Whether you’re witchy or not, this is a super super great book for seasonal scents and for self-care and body product scent ideas.
Do you make any loose incense? What are the blends that you use? I’m always looking for new blends and new scents. Also, do you use any of these to make your own lotions, oils or personal self care products? I’d love to know in the comments down below.
The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews, by Scott Cunningham is a really great introduction into creating your own incense and oils. I have yet to venture too far into the brews 😉 The book is a really great addition to your shelf for DIY Self Care, Homemade Body Products, and of course for transforming your space with scent, which I have talked about before.
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What are you doing today to connect to your spirituality?
L I N K S M E N T I O N E D
Mini Smudge Sticks (from the archives! check out that old owls&indigo logo!!!!)
Use Scent To Transform Your Space
The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews, by Scott Cunningham