• So, of course there’s absolutely preference, but there’s only one hard rule about incense: you have to be the inner burning it. Walking into a room full of incense that someone else picked and burned is rarely fun. Strong scents like that depend a lot on mood to be pleasing. It’s like a curry at the office: if you’re the one having it, it can smell great, but walking into a break room filled with the smell of someone else’s curry they just heated in the microwave can be nauseating.