In a nutshell
As a European specialist in quality incense for almost 30 years, our goal is to make incense known and appreciated by an ever-wider audience. Encens du Monde is about the richness of cultures and traditions, and the refusal to reduce incense to a simple perfumed medium. The desire for naturalness, the search for spirituality, the pleasure of olfactory journeys, these are the values that we defend every day, respecting the planet and its inhabitants: Sustainable Development, Fair Trade and Ecology are at the heart of our identity.
Manufacturing
Genuine incense sold under the Les Encens du Monde brand is produced using traditional manufacturing methods. The ingredients used are natural raw materials of the highest quality, using an artisanal production method, in stark contrast to the incense soaked in solvent baths and synthetic perfumes generally available to the general public.
Stages of incense manufacturing
- Mixture of raw materials: wood and plant powders, herbs, spices, aromatic resins and essential oils
- Mix and knead until a paste forms
- The resulting paste is extruded into long strands (similar to spaghetti) and cut to size. They can also be rolled by hand into cones or bamboo sticks, depending on the origin of the incense.
- They are then dried naturally in a humidity-controlled room and packaged.
What is incense used for?
Incense has been used for centuries by the world's greatest civilizations. It was used in Ancient Egypt, by the Greeks and Romans, by the Mayans, by the Hebrews, in India, China, Japan... and in France! Incense was, and still is, used in certain religious rites to honor the gods, promote spirituality and accompany prayer.
In China, Tibet, and India, doctors also used incense to soothe and heal. Today, incense continues to be used daily in Asia.
Herbosense incense range
Japanese Incense Rolls Range
Perfume
Incense allows you to perfume your home, surround yourself with a pleasant, stimulating or calming aroma, and feel good.
Because the act of perfuming is much more than just a contemporary practice. It is a real need that has been part of the human condition since ancient times.
In a society that stimulates our visual and auditory faculties, our sense of smell is becoming less and less sought after. Nowadays, we shop in supermarkets and use GPS to find our way around, so our olfactory faculties have naturally become impoverished. And yet, they are essential for our balance and quality of life. Recover your sense of smell with Les Encens du Monde!
Well-being and the art of living
Incense made from natural aromas has a direct influence on our mood and feelings, just like cuisine, music and literature.
It is a true art of living, and each aroma has a specific effect. Woody incense calms, floral incense stimulates the mind and sweet aromas comfort and soothe. That is why we recommend adapting a fragrance to each of the different rooms in the house.
They can also be used to personalize a space, perfume an interior and create a sense of well-being in a room. Incense accompanies you in your daily activities, perfumes and deodorizes, and allows you to travel while staying at home.
Today’s lifestyles are often stressful and require relaxation. Aromas are the ideal way to promote physical and mental relaxation. The body recovers and the mind is ready to take greater control of itself.
Pyramid Summer Incense
How to use them?
- Choose a suitable incense holder: The incense holder varies depending on the type of incense you choose: resin, stick, cone or wood powder.
- Adapting the fragrance to your mood: choose an incense that suits the mood you want to create. Whether stimulating, relaxing or calming, the fragrance of the incense is important to put you in the right mood! Use our technical sheets, available on the product pages, to guide you in your choice.
- Get inspired by Asian customs and use incense in your daily life!
- Light the tip of the incense stick and blow out the flame.
How does incense work?
It is not the fire that releases the aroma. That would burn the aromas. There is a heat gradient below the incandescence point. When the molecule is brought to the correct temperature, it is emitted. It is also not the smoke that carries the aroma. In practice, enjoy incense by blowing the air towards your nose and not by inhaling the smoke.
Did you know?
Aromatic molecules are recognized by aromatic receptors in the nasal cavity, which transmit their signal to the brain. The brain reacts by regulating the body and acting as a poet. These effects are studied by Aromatherapy and Aromachology.
Aromambiance incense range
Top notes, middle notes, base notes.
When we immerse ourselves in the aroma of an incense, we first discover the lightest notes, or top notes, followed by the heart notes, those we either love or hate. Finally, we have the base notes, which form the structure of the olfactory score. These expressions, head, heart, are not insignificant. In practice, aromas "resonate" particularly at these different levels of the body: the head and its cerebral activity, the heart and its emotional activity, and the lower part of the body, its balance and stability.
An expression of traditions
An expression of territory and history
Incense is the heritage of cultures and traditions.
Japanese incense expresses its delicacy and traditions through a number of poetic images, while Indian and Chinese incense express an entire history, such as Ayurveda and Feng Shui.
Feng Shui Incense Metallic Element, Patchouli
Range of Ayurvedic incense sticks
Used daily in these cultures, incense is an integral part of everyday life.
Les Encens du Monde offers you an incense made using ancestral know-how, focusing on manual production methods and the use of recipes handed down over the centuries.
Made by traditional incense houses in Japan, India and China, our incense sticks will take your senses on a journey to discover the olfactory heritage of these lands.
For what occasions?
Aromachology, the science of olfactory phenomena, explains the benefits of using incense to relax, stimulate or calm. Fragrance plays a role in our psyche, and lighting incense helps combat stress, take care of your well-being and help you concentrate. It’s the ideal way to forget about your worries and pamper yourself!
Lighting genuine incense also means taking action against the standardization of taste and the disappearance of traditions: an incense made with ancestral know-how, traditional recipes and natural ingredients. There is nothing like it!
Regulations relating to incense
Incense is considered by European authorities to be a chemical mixture. Therefore, it is subject to the same regulations as chemical products: Reach and CLP. This is why our packaging is labelled to inform consumers of potential hazards and precautions for use.
Naturalness and quality are our watchwords
What the 100% natural logo guarantees:
- 100% of the ingredients are of natural origin:
Plant origin: plants, trees, from which we collect the richest parts from an aromatic point of view by simple mechanical action (wood, plants, algae) or by heat (steam extraction) or by extraction with natural solvents or solvents of natural origin (water, ethanol).
Mineral origin: rocks and pigments extracted by mechanical means or by the action of heat.
Animal origin: only products obtained without cruel processes (honey).
- An environmentally friendly production cycle: respect for international agreements (Washington, Cites), production locations and methods that guarantee the least possible pollution and a progressive approach.
- Compliance with health and consumer protection standards: CLP labelling, allergens. Constant efforts to reduce VOC and fine particle emissions.
What the ICEA logo guarantees:
ICEA is an independent certification body that verifies the naturalness of products and is one of the two leaders in organic and ecological certification in Italy.
ICEA carries out regular inspections and analyses to verify the natural origin of ingredients and the absence of synthetic molecules in finished products.
Every year, this organization collects samples of all products sold with these logos, which are analyzed in the laboratory using chromatography.
If synthetic products are identified, even in very small proportions (pollution of the ingredients or the production chain), the product is rejected.
Natural Incense and Room Fragrance Certification:
We now comply with the new, even more demanding ICEA certification standards. This certification involves compliance with strict specifications and restrictive and costly measures at all stages of the production chain. Each step is scrupulously controlled to ensure that the concept of naturalness is completely reliable for consumers.
Samples of each product sold with the "Certified Natural Incense" certification are collected every year by this organization and analyzed in a laboratory using chromatography. ICEA controls the natural origin of the ingredients and the absence of synthetic molecules in the finished products. Each certified incense has a unique identifier that appears on the packaging.
It is validated and approved by ICEA. This level of requirement (systematic chromatography and a unique identification number for each product) is currently unparalleled in the standards for this type of product.
Our 100% natural, ICEA-labelled incense contains no solvents, preservatives or synthetic products and is manufactured in an environmentally friendly way.
In the case of AROMANDISE incense, the materials used, including the packaging, are of natural origin and partially recycled. Production is non-polluting and transportation is carried out by boat.
All of our incense sticks are almost 100% natural. So why do some of our incense sticks not have the ICEA and 100% natural logos?
The conditions for using the "100% natural" logo and its certification by ICEA are draconian!
They include precise milligram analysis technology (gas chromatography) of all ingredients used and, of course, all finished products.
Some of our Indian partners, who work exclusively with natural ingredients, are unable to meet this guarantee. Despite their efforts and recipes that do not contain synthetics, tests have revealed some traces of synthetic ingredients.
This may be due to the containers used by the partners or their suppliers, impurities in some ingredients, volatility between preparations... The use of gas chromatography analysis is systematic in Europe, but this method is still rare in India.
For these reasons, although the ingredients in the recipes are natural, it is not possible to have these products analysed and affix our 100% natural logo, given the degree of precision required by the control process.
- Tibetan incense (0-1% artificial ingredients, although no synthetic ingredients are used in the recipes: the tiny pollution is due to supply difficulties in developing countries, where chromatographic analysis of each ingredient is simply not economically viable.
Tibetan incense
- Wood resins and powders are 100% pure, but we do not want to invest in expensive analyses for raw materials whose origin is obviously natural.
Incense resins
Wood powders
Our incense recipes contain a small proportion of synthetic fragrances:
In some recipes, we use a small proportion of artificial fragrances. For example, when the aromas are not available in nature, are not sufficiently potent from an olfactory point of view or when their use involves the destruction of natural resources currently under ecological pressure.
We believe that only natural ingredients have a positive effect on health (aromatherapy - aromachology) and we avoid synthetic ingredients as much as possible.
Where necessary, we ensure that the 2-3% of artificial fragrances or colours added to certain recipes do not pose any health or wellbeing concerns in the context of our use.
We carefully select these ingredients, eliminating those that are potentially harmful.
As explained in the preamble, the requirement of naturalness is a variable concept, depending on the point of view of the users, who may be more or less informed. On the other hand, most consumers and even professional retailers are misled by false claims of naturalness, which are very common in these products. It is not uncommon for a retailer to accuse us of being lax in accepting products that contain some % of synthetic products, when in reality they are selling incense sticks with 100% synthetic fragrances.
In this category of incense, from the point of view of naturalness, we must objectively consider its positive influence thanks to the 97-98% of natural aromatic materials in its recipes. The 2-3% of synthetic ingredients selected for their harmlessness are neutral.