How to Make Bakhoor: Ingredients, Method and Records

What bakhoor is

Across the Gulf and the wider Arab world, bakhoor is burned to scent homes, guests and clothes. Some is simply pieces of agarwood (oud wood), burned for the wood's own resin. Much of what is sold, though, is a compound product: a cheaper wood — or wood shavings, or pressed wood-and-sugar tablets — infused with a composed perfume oil, often oud, rose, amber, musk, sandalwood and saffron themes. This article covers the compound kind. Agarwood itself, its grades and its trade rules are in oud in perfumery; the consumer culture around it is described in the RUŌOD Journal's perfume culture in the Middle East.

The components

Composing the oil for heat

Bakhoor is not smelled from the jar; it is heated on charcoal or an electric burner. Heat releases the oil in a burst, then the wood and resins take over.

• Lean on heavy materials. Woods, ambers, resins, musks and sweet balsamic notes carry the smoke. Light citrus and green notes vanish in seconds.
• Test on the heat, early. A blend that smells beautiful on a blotter can turn acrid on charcoal. Heat a few drops on a burner before committing to a full batch.
• Watch what burns badly. Some materials char to harsh smells; some sugars and resins burn sweet. You find out only by burning.
• Mind the cost. The oil soaks into wood at a high ratio, so very expensive naturals are often used as accents on a strong aroma-chemical structure.

Many bakhoor oils are composed in the same family as the region's perfume oils — a mukhallat or an attar-style blend — and a brand's perfume oil and bakhoor often share a theme. Treat the bakhoor oil as its own formula even then, because it is tuned for heat.

A method

1. Weigh the dry wood. Record the weight, species and lot.
2. Weigh the oil (and any diluent) to a planned ratio of oil to wood. There is no single standard ratio; trial two or three, for example 1 part oil to 4 of wood, 1 to 3, and 1 to 2, and judge them burned.
3. Combine and soak in a closed glass or stainless container, turning it so every piece is coated. Soak until the wood has taken up the oil — hours to days, depending on the wood. Record the time.
4. Add resins or sugar, if your style uses them, according to its method — dissolved, melted or dusted — and record when and how.
5. Dry spread thinly, covered from dust and away from sun and heat, until the surface is no longer wet. Weigh again: the difference shows what evaporated.
6. Rest in a closed container before testing; like perfume, the blend changes over the first days. See maceration and aging.
7. Pack in airtight containers that keep out light.

The arithmetic

An invented example: 300.0 g of wood chips and 100.0 g of perfume oil (1 part to 3), plus 20.0 g of a resinoid dissolved in the oil.

• Total wet weight: 300.0 + 100.0 + 20.0 = 420.0 g.
• After drying, the batch weighs 410.0 g: 10.0 g was lost, mostly volatile material from the oil.
• Oil and resinoid retained: 120.0 − 10.0 = 110.0 g, or 110.0 ÷ 410.0 = 26.8% of the finished product.

That retained figure, not the amount you poured, is the closest you will get to the fragrance content of the product. Record both. When the oil is itself a formula, its materials are counted through it like any premix (perfume premix calculation).

Burn testing

Test the way customers burn it: one or two chips on a lit charcoal disk in a burner, or on an electric bakhoor burner at its usual setting. Record:

• how quickly the scent appears and how long the piece keeps releasing it;
• the character at the start and once the oil has gone — wood, resin, sugar;
• smoke amount, any acrid or burnt-sugar notes, and residue on the burner;
• room size and how long the scent lingered after the burner was removed.

Score against a written scale, change one variable at a time (oil, ratio, wood, drying time), and compare with your previous batch kept as a retained sample. The approach is the same as for candles; see candle scent throw testing.

Safety and rules

• Category. IFRA's guidance places incense in Category 12, and suggests the same when attar-type oils are used as incense. Concentrations are not restricted for skin sensitization there, but prohibited materials remain prohibited; check each material's documents.
• Smoke indoors. Burning any material produces smoke and fine particles. Directions should say to burn in a ventilated room, on a heat-proof burner, away from children, pets and anything flammable, and never unattended.
• The oil before it is on wood. A bakhoor oil in the workshop is a flammable or combustible mixture with its own safety data; store it as such (see perfume lab safety).
• Labels. Bakhoor sold in the EU, Great Britain or the US is a consumer product, not a cosmetic, and may need hazard labeling depending on its classification. Requirements in Gulf markets are set by their own authorities and are not covered here; check them locally. See home fragrance labeling for the EU, GB and US.

Records

A bakhoor batch record lists the wood (species, supplier, lot, weight), the oil (formula, version, batch, weight), resins and binders, soak and drying times, weights before and after drying, packing and the burn-test result. Bakhoor sits with the other air-care products in home fragrance formulation, next to the stick and cone formats in how to make incense sticks.

Sources

• IFRA — Guidance for the use of the IFRA Standards (51st Amendment, June 30, 2023): incense in Category 12; §6.5.16 and Table 10 on attar-type fragrances used as incense; checked October 10, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is bakhoor the same as oud?

No. Oud is agarwood or its oil; bakhoor is anything prepared for burning, which may contain oud, an oud-style accord, or no oud at all.

Why does my bakhoor smell burnt rather than perfumed?

Too hot a burner, too little oil for the wood, materials that char badly, or sugar caramelizing too far. Test on a lower setting and change one ingredient at a time.

Can I use my perfume oil as it is?

You can start there, but expect to rebalance it: the top notes that make a perfume oil attractive on skin contribute little on charcoal.