Palace Rituals | 宫中香 | A Re-interpreted Blend

Incense was an integral part of Chinese palace life up until the 19th century. Men used incense to aid them in reading, composing poetry, and conducting official business; women used incense as they played music, sang, painted, and conducted “unofficial” business behind-the-scenes. Both carried incense balls on their waists, and had an incense holder permanently lit in their quarters.

This blend is derived from one of the various palace incense recipes recorded in History of Incense《香乘》. It has a base of sandalwood and aloeswood, a rich overlay of native Chinese roots and flowers, rounded off with musk grass and unguis odoratus – the powder of a marine shell dating back to Babylonian incense recipes. The result is a distinctive warm, earthy scent with a cool, sweet tinge, luring you slowly yet surely into its embrace.

--
Palace Rituals is part of the Kin Premium Collection, a collection of incense almost all exclusively blended and hand-made in our studio. All incense in the Premium incense collection are enclosed in Wutong wood boxes painted with traditional Chinese red ink.

Full length: 21cm | 8.25 inches (60-70min burn time)
Half length: 10.5cm | 4.125 inches (30-35min burn time)
Backflow cones: 3.5 (h) x 1.3cm (at base) | 1.4 x 0.5 inches (25min burn time)
Ingredients: Sandalwood, Aloeswood, Tonka Bean, Chinese Nardostachys Root and Rhizome, Citronella, Sticky Germander, Unguis Odoratus, Camphor, Musk Grass, Nanmu
Each package includes 20 sticks encased in a glass tube and a Wutong box. Each backflow incense package includes 15 cones encased in a Wutong box.
Wutong is a type of wood popular for storing incense in East Asia due to its superior anti-mold and anti-moisture properties.

Please note that as every piece is handmade, the size, shape and color will have irregularities depending on the batch. These are a part of the handmade process and not considered defects. Over time, we may continue to tweak the blend as we are continually searching for better ingredients, and improvements to our processes.

We use a reputable international courier service to ship all our orders, and require a contact phone number for delivery. Please leave one in the customization section, thank you!

ABOUT KIN | 恳:
Kin | 恳 creates modern, minimalist objects and furniture, drawing unique quirks from Chinese culture. It is a hobby-turned-business for Bill Yen, founder of multi award-winning studio MRT design in Shanghai (http://www.mrt-design.com/), and wife Miranda Yen, a former fashion buyer and business consultant.

We split our time between Shanghai and Seattle. Our products are shipped from a combination of California and Shanghai.