Nathan Upchurch Palo Santo

Nathan Upchurch is, among other things, an incense maker and blogger. His blog, nathanupchurch.com, is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, and well written on the 'net. It's like an old fashioned "home page" from the early days of the world wide web, when people would create a page to post pictures of their family, and write about what they were up to, and what interested them. They were the forerunner of blogs. But these home pages were not about getting advertising or attention or being an influencer; they were just personal spaces left open and shared. And that's what Nathan's blog is like - a personal space, opened and shared. 

Earlier this year Nathan sent me a generous and very exciting package of botanical incense, including some sticks he made himself. I've selected these home made sticks of palo santo, as I've just reviewed a natural stick of  palo santo sent to me by Irene of Rauchfahne, and I'm interested to compare the experience.

The sticks are very thin senko or dhoop, in a style similar to those made in China and Japan. Nathan explains that his Palo Santo is "a palo santo forward stick with rose petals to afford a subtle, sweet floral note. The combination of rose and palo santo is Irene's idea, and the inclusion of benzoin comes from Bonnie of espiritdelanature.ca. Ingredients: Rosa canina, Santalum spicatum, Bursera graveolens, benzoin Siam, guar gum." 

There is a mild, dry scent on the stick - soft leather and soft pale wood. The scent on the burn is gently resinous, deeply grounded, quite musky. There's wood - a mix of pale and slightly dark, oily wood, with some mild spice; though beyond the wood this leans toward resin - soft, faintly sweet, with delicate florals, and a touch of cannabis. It is a very clean and natural incense, and while there are some similarities to Chinese and Japanese sticks, this is an incense I'm happy to burn up close - I get no smouldering paper notes that I tend to get with commercial incense that uses wood paste as a combustible. My main take away is the resin - a decent soft resin which operates in that pleasing area of patchouli and cannabis. Though there are a touch of florals, they are faint, and it is possible I may not have noticed if I wasn't aware they were part of the ingredients (I tend to prefer not to read the ingredients until after I have reviewed to avoid the possibility of ghost suggestions, but in this case I had read the note, and once read it can't be unread).  I'm not getting the palo santo aromas I got from the stick Irene gave me, nor from the decent enough palo santo essential oil I bought from Na'vi Organics, but the overall experience is awesome, and is certainly a flag raiser to what can be achieved by someone dedicated enough to make pure incense from decent botanicals without the use of oils or synthetics. 

Date: Jun 2026    Score:  38/50

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Palo Santo - the holy wood