Quick Specs
- Brand: Escential Essences
- Type: Scented stick incense
- Scent: French lavender
- Count: 95-100 sticks per package
- Made in: USA
- Cruelty-free: Yes
French Lavender for a Corner of Your Own
Sanctuary is a French lavender incense, and the name says what it’s for: a place set apart. Lavender is one of the most familiar fragrance plants, and a lavender stick is an easy way to mark a space as yours, whether that’s a whole room or a chair by the window. The themes that come with this scent are tranquility, solitude, meditation, protection, and peace. They’re quiet themes, and they point to how the stick works best: as a boundary. Light it where you want the day to stop. A stick at the door when you get home, in the corner where you read, or beside the cushion where you sit gives that spot a recognizable smell, and the smell does the work of telling you you’ve arrived. Sanctuary is the scent for the time you spend in that space once you’re there. It’s especially useful in a room that does several jobs, such as a spare room that’s also a desk, because the stick marks the hour when the room turns into your quiet space. Because you’d burn it as part of a regular routine, a bulk pack fits.
You can build a small practice around it with very little equipment. Choose one spot, give it one object, such as a stone, a candle, or a single card, and light a stick there at the same point each day. Over a few weeks the spot becomes the place you go to hear yourself think. That’s a modest result, and a reliable one. Two minutes at the spot is a good start. A sanctuary corner can be as small as a corner of a shelf or a bedside table. If you share your home, a lit stick also tells the people around you that this is your quiet time, which is half the battle in a busy house. Refresh the spot now and then: wipe it down, swap the object, change the card. Lavender fits the job because it’s a familiar scent, and it asks only for a few minutes in the same spot. Keep a few sticks within reach of the spot itself, so that lighting one is as easy as sitting down.
Practical Ritual Applications
Light a stick at the front door when you come home, to mark the line between the day outside and the start of the evening. Burn one in your reading corner before you pull a card for yourself. Keep one for a short sitting at the start of the day, before your phone, with a notebook beside you. In a guest room, light one an hour before your visitor arrives, then let the room air out before they step inside. Before a solo evening of tea or a book, light one on the side table, well away from throws and cushions. Choose a sturdy holder with a wide base; my stick incense burners collection includes styles that suit a shelf, a desk, or a bedside table. The size of the pack means each of those corners can have its own supply of sticks.
How to Make a Quiet Corner With Sanctuary Incense
Set up one spot you can return to every day.
- Choose the spot and clear it
Pick one place, such as a chair, a shelf, or a corner of a desk, and clear the spot. Put one object there that you like to look at, a stone or a small candle. Set a holder with an ash catcher beside it. The goal is a spot so simple that its purpose is obvious.
- Light the stick and sit with it
Lift the stick to a flame, wait for the tip to catch, and blow out the flame. Seat the stick in the holder before you sit down yourself. Give yourself two minutes before you touch your phone or open a book. Keep your hands still, and let the scent mark the start of the time that belongs to you.
- Close the sitting the same way each time
End the sitting by pressing the glowing tip against a fireproof surface; don't blow on it, which can spread sparks. Say or write one line about what you want to carry out of the room with you. Using the same closing each day teaches the spot its purpose. Empty the holder only after the ash has cooled.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I carry Sanctuary in the bulk pack for people who want a lavender stick they can light daily without counting what’s left, and for anyone who’d like one in the bedroom, one at the desk, and one by the reading chair. A spot like that gets used every day, and a pack this size keeps it supplied. If you’d like to compare it with the rest of the line, my Escential Essences stick incense collection shows every scent I carry in sticks.
Frequently Asked Questions
The name is applied loosely. The Royal Horticultural Society lists Lavandula stoechas as French lavender, while the Old Farmer's Almanac gives French lavender as Lavandula dentata and calls stoechas Spanish lavender. Wikipedia's lavender entry notes that the name can refer to either species. The scent is sold under the name French lavender alone, so read it as a lavender fragrance.
Use a stable, heat-resistant holder that catches ash, and set it on a surface that won't scorch. Angle the stick so the ash falls onto the holder, and keep the whole setup away from curtains, paper, and other flammable things. Place it where children and pets can't knock it over, and stand a little back from the stick.
Light the coated, fragrant end, which on these sticks is the dark end, and keep the bare end as the handle. Hold the tip to a flame for a few seconds, then blow the flame out gently. The ember then releases the aroma slowly, and the stick can go straight into its holder with the glowing tip clear of anything flammable.
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