There are few incense ingredients as confusing as Dragons Blood.  The name Dragons Blood can refer to no less than sixteen different resins from the same number of trees.  It can also refer to the extremely poisonous mineral cinnibar (mercury sulfide) although not in recent times to my knowledge.  It is also another name for red rock opium, but it contains no opiates and its intoxicating properties are dubious at best.

Most commonly though dragons blood incense is made from either the Dracaena draco or Daemonorops draco trees.  The former being referred to as “true” dragons blood.  The scent is variously described as sultry, deep, penetrating and often, sweet.  Given those properties of scent it is no wonder that it is often included in rituals and spells by our Wiccan and Pagan friends as an aid to sexuality and desire.  I find the scent to be a bit “floral” on occasion depending on the manufacturer.  That may be just my nose and my penchant for earthy, warm notes like patchouli though.

Hem‘s Dragon Blood incense smells pretty much like a host of other dragons blood offerings from other manufacturers.  Note, this does not include the pure resin dragons blood.  That scent is far richer and altogether more alluring than any stick version I have ever experienced.  This stick is lightly spicy, sultry, sensual in a way and surprisingly rich.  In fact, this is one of the few times that I can think of that the “Hem Scent” that usually bothers me so much works with the scent instead of against it.  The oily and slightly bitter scent that I find to be characteristic of Hem incense sticks adds a mysterious bottom end to the scent that I actually find quite pleasant.

I sometimes arbitrarily assign incense scents to things that go on in everyday life and this is definitely a “the thunderstorm has knocked the power out tonight, so lets sit in the dark and talk” scent. It has that sort of sensual, mysterious yet lightly spicy scent that I think would go wonderfully with conversation in the dark.