Incense and sensibility: sophisticated takes on the hippie favourite

Gone are the days when all incense was patchouli-scented and made your house smell like a whole-foods shop. Scented sticks have had a luxury renaissance. LA-based “therapeutic perfumery” Bodha has a new scent called Tenderness that carries aromas of rose, geranium & shiso leaf. L’Objet and The Haas Brothers’s incense promises to fill a space with dry, woody notes that are “native to the desert”, while Gucci’s bamboo interpretation burns into a heady mix of birch, orange leaves and beeswax, designed to evoke an artisan’s Florentine workshop. All, happily, are patchouli free.