Since a very young age, I have been burning incense. My earliest memory was from the late 1960’s. Sometimes after school, I would take a bus downtown and hang out at this quaint little outdoor mall. In that mall was a cool little head shop. Every time I would walk by, I was distracted by a beautiful exotic aroma that would be drifting out onto the mall.  I just had to go in and check it out. This store was amazing to my fourteen-year-old mind. Books, dayglow posters, smoking things, tarot decks, beaded curtains, music tapes, amazing jewelry, cool clothing, you name it, they had it. But what I was really searching for was the origin of that beautiful scent that was floating in the air. Incense. Nag Champa, to be exact. Had to have it. I took some home…the start of a beautiful life-long adventure.

The history of incense is long and storied. It has been in existence for 1000’s of years, burned for many reasons by almost every culture and religion that has ever existed. For those interested in finding out the full story and history of this fascinating practice, please visit * Burnt Beech * for more information.

When my husband, John, and I first met back in the mid-1990’s out in Los Angeles, California, we toyed with the idea of starting a small business. We had many good ideas, but our ambitions kept gravitating towards something we both loved…incense.

We started out small, devoting our weekends to attending local faires and gatherings as a vendor where incense and other eclectic and spiritual gifts and sundries would be welcome. It didn’t take long for us to acquire a following that soon became regular customers and friends. Soon, we decided to take our endeavor one step further, and that is when we decided to do flea markets. For a while we tried to do the faires and the markets simultaneously, but after a while it became too much of a handful, what with John having full time job and myself not willing to do one or the other on my own. Then comes the lockdowns and other happenings, so we let the faires go, devoting all of our spare time to the market adventure.

Throughout our incense journey, I am asked so many questions about incense and similar things. First and foremost, I only carry brands that I know and trust to be of the best quality and produced by companies that have the best intentions of everyone and everything at heart. I personally test and burn everything I am considering selling, as I feel that if it isn’t good enough for me, then it certainly isn’t good enough for our customers. A common story is how they pick up some cheaper brands or bulk brands, only to get home, light them up and what they thought was lilac or frankincense in actuality turns out to smell like rotten cabbage, dirty socks or worse! (ewww  ) Who has time for that? Not me. Not you. And so, we personally guarantee everything that we sell. Period.

Our best seller * WildBerry Incense * is by far one of the best brands available. The Wild Berry, an Oxford, Ohio icon, was founded in 1971. So, if you are looking for “Made in USA” this is your brand. We carry every scent that they make and guarantee the freshness of each and every stick. We have all sizes – Minis, Regular and Biggies. Minis burn for approximately 20 minutes and are perfect for the bathroom, or any time that you want to burn a little something, but don’t want to commit to a long time because of time constraints or duration of scent. The Regular size is the classic length and burns for a half hour to 40 minutes. This size is my favourite. What I like to do is put about 10 or so sticks in a small shooter glass or little vase. I set this in the living room just open and unburning. The scent of the incense is so fresh, that it perfumes the air without even lighting it up! (If you’ve been to my store, then you know what I mean.) WildBerry is so good, if you burn it in the morning, then leave for work or to do errands or go visit with friends, when you get back the house still smells fabulous! I love that. And then there are the Biggies! Huge and potent, these whoppers will burn for about 4-5 hours straight! What I like to do is to take a large vase, fill it with sand and use that for a burner for these big guys. This method is perfect, as you can burn for however long you wish, then turn it over and stick it into the sand, saving the rest of the stick for burning later. A very economical way to burn. We also carry the WildBerry backflow cones, for those who like to burn this style known for the fascinating special effects. These are not your average backflow cones. These cones are HUGE! Super fresh, they burn for a long time for extra enjoyment, beautiful fragrance and a prolonged special effect. Once you burn these, you will never go back to the cheapies. Whatever your burning style or fragrance preferences, we carry the whole line of WildBerry incense for your burning pleasure.

Thank you for entertaining me by coming by to visit my blog! This is Part 1 of a little series that I am going to be doing on incense and it’s various stories, brands, flavours and trivia. I hope you enjoy the journey.

Oh! Before I forget…

>>-> Mention this blog post and receive 10 free sticks of Mini WildBerry incense as a gift from us! Just come into the store and say “Hey! I read your blog post about WildBerry Incense!” to receive your free gift. No purchase necessary! 

Until next time…

…Namaste!