Shoyeido is my go-to. High quality, smells AMAZING, natural ingredients, lots of variety, no weird chemicals. They also have low smoke options.

It can look pricey, but if you get a pack or two, you’ll have more high quality incense than you’ll ever need in your entire life. I bought from them maybe two or three times and now I have an entire drawer filled with incense. I will literally never run out.

Fred Soll’s, hands down!

eta: not the most budget friendly but they last SO much longer than regular incense it’s definitely worth it. you won’t be disappointed

Resin incense over a tea light (sort of like a wax melt) is life changing. Doesn’t reek of charcoal, no time constraint.

Learn to use resin incense on charcoal. I have an instructional video about it. You’ll never want to go back to commercial incense again.

https://youtu.be/nDid-n6xMTE?si=61yjBSB-l2PuoBlp

I second Shoyeido. My personal favorites from them are Moss Garden, Autumn Leaves, Eternal Treasure, Palo Santo, Baika-ju (plum blossom), and Horikawa. Plum blossom is probably the most affordable; you can get a box of 150 sticks for ~$12 USD.

Kida Jinseido. They make the best cheap spice sticks and some of the best aloeswood sticks.

It's great that you're expanding your horizons by trying new incense. There's really so much to discover. You certainly got a taste of Japanese style with the Nippon Kodo. This style of incense is much milder than Indian style; it's mostly about quality, sophistication, and complexity.

I'd really encourage you to get as many sample packs as you can. And start making notes about everything you sample. Once you start getting deeper into this hobby there's just too much to remember. And as soon as you try brands like Shoyeido, Baieido, Tennendo, Yamadamatsu, Kunjudo, Gyokushodo, Kyukyodo, and many more, you will realize the difference. Take your time, pace yourself, and really experience each fragrance from each manufacturer.

I've linked to several sample packs on another post made not long ago. Enjoy the journey.

Shoyeido

Baieido

I find them all... charming in their own way. But at least my experience:

Shoyeido - friendly, intricately blended aromas that bridge modern and traditional. Hard to always appreciate individual components, but they are very approachable and friendly, especially to Japanese incense newcomers.

Baieido - more wood forward, traditional recipes, more straightforward, good meditation and contemplation incense.

Kyukyodo - artfully blended, complex scents. I think of intricate craftsmanship, like the art of fine paper (I think they're primarily a paper company that delved into incense making). A broad range of wood profiles, have some perfume in their sticks but not primarily a fragrance oil line.

Nippon Kodo - fine for what it is, but their basic stuff is quite modern and perfumey, single note, but tend to make fragrance combinations of aromas that are not natural (their Fragrance Memories line is very intriguing, I like Sahara Moon, and Silk Road Dream), their high high end kyara stuff I hear is amazingly rich, but otherwise I don't reach for this company much.

Shunkohdo - Complex deep musky sticks mixed with traditional, also have very approachable introductory aromas spanning sandalwood blends to some very nice aloeswoods.

Minorien - a limited small catalog but amazing, deep, resinous, rich, I love their Sandalwood Fu-In and their Chokoh No 5 is my treasured Kyara. Kyara Ryugen also ... phenomenal.

Seijudo - this stuff is like liquid gold but worth a try (Shiragiku)

There are many companies on Japan Incense (japanincense.com) and they have samplers. My entire journey has been mostly fueled by purchases over the years from that site. I always suggest trying small samplers or smaller boxes before you commit, Japanese Incense is so variable and personal that it's hard to predict if something is a winner until you're sitting there, lost in thought, and realize the incense you have has magic mixed in hah hah

Ok, my usual set of recommendations are:

For "Indian-style" sticks (paste on a bamboo stick, fairly smokey, but big smells), I point to Mother's India. They offer a 21 scent sampler pack for under 20$ (and I recommend tossing in a small pack of the Oud Nag Champa as well, because it is fantastic): http://www.mereciedeux.com/mother-s-india-nagchampa-incense-.html (down at the bottom)

For Japanese incense (thin extruded rods of paste, no stick. Less smoke, more subtle smells), I recommend the Tennendo sampler pack from Japan-Incense: https://www.japanincense.com/tn-0027.html

Alternatively, Shoyeido is another Japanese brand fairly easy to find on store shelves here in the states, and their Daily series is quite popular (they used to offer a sampler of it as well, but it appears to be out of stock: https://www.shoyeido.com/category/incense-samplers-assortments/1 )

And lastly, for my favorite American producer, I suggest Fred Soll's "Resin on a Stick" line. Bit pricey at 1.50-2.00$ a stick, but super potent and last for ages (I tend to burn them for only a minute or two at a time). He offers single-stick samplers of most of his stuff through Amazon with free shipping, or you can go through his own website and pay 6$ (though there are a few selections that are only available there). Some favorites of mine are Egyptian Musk, Frankincense and Cedar, and New MExico Sandalwood (but he has tons of fans here on the subreddit, most of what he offers is amazing): https://www.amazon.com/s?k=FRED+SOLL%27S or https://www.fredsoll.com/

I've tried many and in my opinion Shoyeido is without peer.

I like pure woods and resins. Like Sandalwood, Palo Santo, Cedar leaves, sage, Frankincense, Copal, etc.

What kind of incense was giving you headaches, so we can avoid recommending them :)

Make your own! Makko is the perfect binder and accelerant (it is powdered tree bark), add cinnamon, ground cloves or powdered cedar, (or sandalwood etc etc) add water, roll into cones, dry for 2 or 3 days and you have all natural incense. You also can make it plain and add a drop of essential oil to each cone

http://rosevearapothecary.com rosevearapothecary.com) sells Makko/cedar/sandalwood, frankincense etc

Downvote me all you want - this kind of incense releases chemicals because of the bamboo stick; for outdoor/temple use only.

I think it's Moonlight Rose, it looks like their logo. I know nothing about them, I just put one of the weirder stick names into google and found an image almost instantly matching the logo on those sticks.

Dies anyone know where i can get bixes made in the UK good quality coat effective ALIBABA exhausting

Palo santo! Hehe

my sister sent a few from Alaska and my favorite has always been the sandalwood.

pero different question po OP. where do you buy these locally?

vanilla orange!

Following on this. :)))

If you like sandalwood, I would like to recommend you Grand Wisdom 365 daily incense. The quality and quantity are great.

Nippon kodo and shoyeido are good as pretty good but it really depends on what series you buy and your taste. Everyone's taste is different.

Personally, Nag Champa from Satya is a gem among all India incense.

On Amazon Vijayshree is a good brand to explore, inexpensive and some good scents (Golden Nag Temple, Golden Nag White Sage, Golden Nag Chandan, Golden Nag Buddha, etc). A step above that would be The Mother's India series, I'd recommend a sampler pack to find the ones you prefer.

What are you specifically looking for; do you want a good brand for vanilla or just a good brand in general?

There is a particular Buddhist temple incense called Sanjusangendo. Link is to one of our favorite Japanese incense sellers (in the US) called Japan Incense. The incense itself is quite nice, described as Aloeswood/Amber blend, I find it just a bit spicy too. One of my favs.

Reiryokoh is burned at Eihei-ji. The temple was founded by Dogen.

It depends on the temple. Tibetan ones use juniper, when I was living there the monks would actually just straight up burn juniper branches in the morning. Taiwanese ones use agarwood (沉香) and white sandalwood (檀香).

Kojurin. Mokuren. Agarwood. Aloeswood. Sandalwood. Frankincense.

I recommend Japanese

Jinko Kojurin reminds me of some Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia!

My two favorite on Amazon would probably be Shoyeido and Bosen. Both also have various sample packs that you can pick up for pretty reasonable. Just make sure that you shop around and compare, there are multiple Amazon sellers selling some of these...some of which are significantly cheaper than others for the same product.

Grand Wisdom and Incense House both sell through Amazon, and are both really enjoyable! I love Grand Wisdom's different blends, and Incense House makes really nice (big) boxes of straight sandalwood and aloeswood.

You can also probably find Minorien's sandalwood incense on Amazon. I haven't found their other products on there, but I was able to find that one.

shoyeido

Definitely Fred Solls Resin on a Stick. All his sticks use real resin and all of them are really good. Their Magical Copal is my favorite incense. They cost between $15-20 for a pack of 20.

Templo Totonaca copal incense is great. When you first light it, the resin melts and drips off the stick. It’s 40 sticks for $20. IMO it’s the best deal on resin on a stick incense.

Bosen. Their Dakini and Tibetan Sandalwood are excellent, but have a learning curve

Potala Tibetan Incense. Has unique buttery sandalwood scent layered on top of a traditional Tibetan scent.

Aztec Incense is great too. They are super fat short sticks that pack a lot of scent. They can be hard to light sometimes.

Tibetan Lumbini rope incense. This really isn’t Tibetan incense, but more Indian as it is sweet with a little texture. Instead of a stick the powder is wrapped up in loka paper and then twisted like a braid.

If you’re looking for anything different let me know, I buy almost all my incense from Amazon US (I’ve got Prime) and I’ve tried about 30-35 brands.

Vijayshree

If you like vanilla sweetness, you'll probably like many Shoyeido fragrances. Give their Horin line a look, especially Nijo and Horikawa.

Has anybody tried LIJIALI's incense sticks from Kangiiten?

How does her incense compare with KZ? Please correct me if I am wrong, I believe KZ is like her mentor? Wanted to know if anyone can share their experience.

Shirakawa from Shoyeido!

Wild berry incense company family owned here in the u.s.a