Have you always wanted to try burning resin incenses like frankincense or myrrh but have never given it a try? I’ll walk you through how to do it!

How do you burn resin incense? Resin incense can be burned either using a charcoal burner or an oil warmer. Using charcoal is the traditional way to do it, but an oil warmer produces much less smoke and is better for people with breathing problems.

In this article, I’ll explain what resin incense is and how to use it. I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to burn resin incense either using charcoal or an oil warmer.

What Is Resin Incense?

Unlike the more processed sticks or cones of incense that you may be useful, resin is a more natural and pure form of incense. It’s the original form of incense that has been used around the world for thousands of years.

Resin is a material that is harvested directly from trees, shrubs, and plants. It can come from wood, bark, roots, or sap depending on the species in question.

Examples of resin incense include Palo Santo, Dragon’s Blood, Copal, as well as more familiar names like Frankincense and Myrrh. These resins can be burned themselves or combined to make a blended incense.

Like other kinds of incense, resin is used for a variety of different spiritual and religious ceremonies. Resin incense is a more potent type of incense, that gives fragrances that are more true to the material being burned.

However, burning resin incense also comes with some potential safety hazards that you’ll want to keep in mind, and ensure that you’re burning it correctly.

Burning Resin Incense at Home

If you’re already familiar with using other types of incense, you won’t find it very difficult to switch over to using resin incense. It’s actually very easy to safely use resin incense. Whether you’re using it for spiritual purposes, or just want some aromatherapy and to add a relaxing scent to your house.

Resin incense can be burned using two main methods. Either with or without charcoal. I’ll briefly go through how you can burn resin incense either way. So you can pick whichever you prefer, or that works best for your situation or the materials that you already have!

You can use resin incense to enhance your meditation or yoga session. Read my article Blocked Chakras: What Causes Them and How to Unblock Them to learn some practices to combine incense with.

How To Burn Resin Incense With Charcoal

Resin incense is most commonly used by heating it up with charcoal. In this section I’ll walk you through how to burn your resin incense this way.

Get A Resin Incense Burner or Censor

To burn resin incense using charcoal, first you’ll need to have a resin incense burner. This can be as basic as a small open-topped dish, or as elaborate as the incense censors that you might see used in religious ceremonies in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other settings.

You can use a vessel made of any heat resistant material like brass or stone. Even large shells like abalone are sometimes used.

I would highly recommend you find a container that has legs to hold it up. That way you won’t risk heating up the table or other surface that you set it on, which would risk damaging it or even starting a fire.

If your container doesn’t have legs, you can still use it by placing it on a heat resistant pad or stand, a ceramic coaster, a piece of tile, or anything similar.

Fill Your Burner With Sand or A Similar Material

Start by adding a small amount of sand, salt, ash, gravel, small pebbles, or other non-combustible material to your incense burner. It should be deep enough to hold a piece of charcoal in place. Enough to fill the container about an inch deep should be more than sufficient.

In addition to keeping your charcoal held in place, the sand will also help to evenly displace the heat and prevent damaging or cracking your incense burner.

Select Your Preferred Charcoal

There are specially-made pieces of charcoal that are shaped like cups to hold a piece of resin. Some people prefer more high-quality charcoal made from materials like bamboo. These may produce a more clean and accurate representation of the resin that you’re burning, with less of a chemical odor from the charcoal itself.

I would avoid using pieces of charcoal used for barbeques or other applications besides burning incense. Some of these types of charcoal are meant for use outdoors, and they may release toxic fumes.

Light Your Charcoal

For lighting your charcoal, you have several options.

Traditionally, a candle is first lit and this is then used to light the charcoal tablets. This is particularly useful if you have multiple incense burners that you want to light at a time.

Other options include longer matches, or barbeque lighters. It may be more difficult to light incense with traditional matches and lighters, which give you less to hold on to, and may be hard to keep a flame until the charcoal is fully lit.

A pair of tongs can be helpful for holding the charcoal as you light it. This will prevent your hands from becoming blackened by the charcoal, and also reduces the risk of burning yourself or dropping it.

Simply hold the piece of charcoal in your tongs, and then hold your candle or other heat source underneath it until it begins to glow and crackle. Heat up one side of the charcoal, then flip it over and do the same to the other side.

Add The Lit Charcoal To Your Incense Burner

After your piece of charcoal is fully lit, you can carefully set it down into the sand or other material in your incense burner that will hold it. You can help to stabilize the temperature of the charcoal by fanning it with a fan, a feather, or simply by blowing on it. It should have a solid red glow to it, and no longer crackle when it’s ready.

Some forms of incense like white sage have been burned to purify an area. Learn more in my article How To Break A Hex or Curse – 6 Traditional Methods

Add Resin Once Your Charcoal Is Ready To Use

Your charcoal should have a thin layer of ash on top of it when it’s time to add the resin. Simply add small pieces of resin onto the charcoal. It should start to melt or burn quickly afterward, and begin to release an aromatic smoke. Different resins will produce more or less smoke, so you may want to test it out in a well-ventilated area and experiment with how much resin is necessary to get the result that you’re looking for.

Extinguish Your Burner Once You’re Done

Most types of charcoal will continue to burn for an hour or more. This can be convenient since you won’t need to re-light it during a ritual or ceremony. But when you’re all done, it’s best to fully extinguish it to avoid leaving a fire hazard behind. You can do this by picking your piece of charcoal up with tongs and fully submerging it underwater.

How To Burn Resin Incense Without Charcoal

While burning resin incense with charcoal is the traditional way to do it, that also comes with some downsides. Namely, burning incense with charcoal produces a lot of smoke. This can be a serious problem if you have asthma or any other breathing problems. And instead of creating a relaxing atmosphere, it might make you feel like you’re struggling to breathe!

Luckily there is another way to enjoy resin incense without burning it using charcoal. This alternative method produces little to no smoke.

Get An Oil Warmer

An oil warmer is a glass or ceramic dish that sits above a candle or other flame or heat source. Glass ones are normally separate and sit on a metal stand. While ceramic oil warmers may all be a single piece.

You can find oil warmers at pretty much any store that sells lots of candles and other candle accessories.

Add Some Oil To The Dish

Oil warmers are usually labeled to use melted wax, but I find that using oil is quicker, easier, and less likely to burn. You can’t use water, as it will simply evaporate too quickly.

The main purpose of the oil is to help disperse the heat. Just like using sand in a charcoal incense burner. This helps to prevent your dish from getting too hot, when it might crack.

You can use any regular cooking oil like olive oil, sunflower oil, or others.

I prefer to use a vegetable oil or canola oil which has little or no scent of its own. Avoid coconut, jojoba, or argan oil. Any oils like this have a strong scent of their own, and are also very thick. So they are harder to use, and their smell will also blend and cover up the scent of your incense.

How much oil you have to use will depend on the size of your dish. But one or two teaspoons is a good amount to start off with. You want to fill your oil warmer a bit less than half full.

Add Your Incense To The Oil

Some incense comes in chunks, while other comes in a powdered form.

If you’re using powdered incense, use about a teaspoon to start with. If your resin incense comes in large chunks, try breaking off smaller pieces about the size of a piece of corn so they will melt more easily.

Light A Candle

Once you’ve got your oil all set up, it’s time to light a candle that will heat it up.

Most oil warmers are only large enough to fit a tea candle. Anything larger like a votive candle may not fit, depending on your particular model.

Pick a basic tea light that doesn’t have any fragrance of its own. Otherwise it will mix and detract from the aroma of the incense.

Wait For It To Heat Up

Depending on how large your oil warmer is, it might take a few minutes for the temperature to get high enough. Once the oil and resin reach a high enough temperature, it will start to release its scent.

From this point on, you don’t need to do anything except enjoy the aroma.

Put The Candle Out When You’re Finished

After you’re done enjoying your resin incense, you can extinguish the candle and allow the oil and incense to cool down. Alternatively you can simply let the candle completely burn out and extinguish itself. But this will usually take about four hours, which may be longer than you want.

Even after you’ve extinguished your candle, it’s best not to leave the oil warmer unattended until after it has fully cooled down. Definitely don’t leave your oil warmer unattended when it’s in operation, since it uses an open flame.

Replacing Your Incense

Your incense will burn for about three or four days before you need to replace it.

At that point, it’s best to completely empty the contents of the dish. Wipe it with a paper towel, and then add new oil and resin following the previous steps.

Be sure that the oil warmer is completely cooled off before attempting to clean it.

Looking to add some extra items to your meditation or yoga routine? See my article What Are Rudraksha Beads?

Resin Incense Burning Safety

Burning resin incense is pretty straightforward. But there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

It’s hot! Whether you’re using an oil burner or a charcoal burner, you shouldn’t touch them once they are lit or try to move them, as you could burn yourself.

Don’t leave them unattended. You shouldn’t leave any incense burner unattended. Also avoid falling asleep or engaging in deep meditation while your incense is burning.

Keep them out of reach. If you have pets or children, it’s particularly important to keep any resin incense burners out of reach, so they won’t get knocked over. Even when your incense isn’t in use, you want to keep it somewhere that kids or pets won’t be able to eat them either.

Use in a well-ventilated area. Incense doesn’t give off much carbon monoxide or other harmful chemicals. But it’s still best to use it somewhere well-ventilated to make sure you’re getting enough oxygen and don’t get overwhelmed by the aroma. This is especially important if you have cats, dogs, birds, or other pets who can be very sensitive to smells.

Where To Buy Resin Incense?

If you’re looking to try burning resin incense for the first time, I’d highly recommend checking out this Resin Incense Set (Amazon link).

It contains a brass hanging censer burner along with 8 resin incense varieties, tongs, and charcoal tablets. That way you can try out a variety of different incenses like palo santo, altar blend, white myrrh, white copal, frankincense, 7 arcangeles, benzoin, and frankincense to see which you like best. I think it’s a very affordable way to introduce yourself to the world of resin incenses.

Conclusion

Resin incense is a great way to take your rituals, ceremonies, or just plain aromatherapy to the next level.

It takes a bit more extra steps than simply lighting a stick or cone of incense, but the improved scent is definitely worth it! If you’ve never tried burning resin incense before, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Just make sure to take all necessary safety precautions like not leaving it unattended, since you are working with an open flame.