Basilica resin granules and 5 charcoal discs

Prinknash Abbey (4) - Community of Benedictine monks
Prinknash Abbey is a community of twelve Benedictine monks. They live a life of monastic prayer, work, sacred reading, community life and hospitality, all of which are based on a beautiful estate of 400 acres. Prinknash is an old community, and after many wanderings eventually settled in Prinknash Park in 1928.



The community makes sacred incense which is exported to churches in the USA, South America and Australia and all around the world. When you smell these resin incense blends they will often bring to mind the sacred and prayerful atmosphere in churches, abbeys and cathedrals.

The monks have developed unique processes for blending the purest Arabian frankincense with precious aromatic oils and spices and created superior recipes for a range of incenses. The blends are made from long established and very secret recipes. Decades of care in the blending of these incenses have ensured their excellence and constant demand.

Frankincense resin (6) - Natural resin, cleansing, clearing and helps communicate with higher spirit
Frankincense (also called olibanum) comes from trees of the boswellia family that grow in dry regions of north-east Africa in often rocky, sandy soil and usually reach a maximum of 6m tall. There are a number of varieties of frankincense trees, each producing a slightly different resin with varying characteristics. The trees grow in a variety of odd looking shapes, making them distinctive and easy to spot. The resin is extracted by making a small shallow incision in the trunk or branches and then the resin hardens on contact with air and is collected by hand.

Frankincense resin is light coloured and yellowy and when burnt it produces a rich, dense fragrance. It's one of the best fragrances to burn for cleansing and clearing, as it can clear and refresh even the toughest and worst atmospheres. It's good for clearing a room of other people's left-behind energy, or a new house if you're about to move in and make it your own.

It's also particularly good for people who are working on their spiritual progress and want to clearly open up to higher spiritual elements, as it can help communication on a higher plane. Additionally, it has warming and relaxing properties and is a good choice for dealing with stress.

Frankincense is notably mentioned several times in the Bible, and it was one of the gifts taken to the baby Jesus by the three kings. In Judaic and Islamic faiths frankincense mixed with oils is sometimes used to anoint newborn infants as frankincense is seen to represent life.

Myrrh Resin (2) - Natural resin, grounding, calming and sensuous
Many ancient cultures referred to myrrh as the fragrance or sensuousness of the earth. The myrrh tree grows on rocky hillsides in barren and dry locations. The tree can grow up to 10m in height and has gnarled, sparsely covered branches. Each year a myrrh tree produces about 9lb/4kg of resin.

Myrrh resin is dark brown in colour, a bit like caramel, and when burnt it produces an earthy, almost pine-like scent. It's well known for its grounding and calming properties. It's great, for example, to burn if you feel like you need to get your feet solidly back on the ground or need to remain firmly grounded whilst providing healing for others. It's also believed to have sensuous properties, and was often burnt along with other substances, such as benzoin, aloe and sandalwood, as a way of enhancing this.

Along with frankincense, myrrh was commonly mentioned in the Bible and it was one of the gifts taken by the three kings to the baby Jesus. It is regarded as a feminine scent (in contrast, frankincense is regarded as masculine). The Egyptians were also wide users of myrrh, particularly for embalming and rituals of healing and passing.