The best decisions begin with a gut feeling. Senlë Studio, too, did not start with a clear concept, but almost by accident. Founder Faye has long been incense-obsessed, her collection of burnable room scents well known among friends. When she got a cat, she began mixing her own scents — because many incense sticks are toxic to animals. Senlë quickly developed a momentum of its own. In the summer of 2025, Faye spontaneously found a shop of her own at Boxi. Since autumn, she has also been hosting workshops there. At Senlë, learning begins with an incense tasting. Our sense of smell, shaped by artificial fragrances, has to relearn nuance. Each person brings their own scent memory, formed by culture, memories, and experiences. The ingredients tell their own stories: white sandalwood, soft and restrained, more supportive than dominant. Honey and benzoin with their delicate sweetness. Agarwood from Vietnam is more complex, deeper — first fruity, then apricot-like. Some blends move from fresh and fruity to floral and woody; others carry drama within them. The size of the particles, their density, and the speed at which they burn determine the dramaturgy of an incense stick.
Some compositions taste like winter: firewood, a glass of red wine, dates and honey, their ingredients slowly cooked in Chinese rice wine. Steamed, cooked, stirred — for the richest scent palette: incense like a dish. Incense looks back on a history of more than 2,000 years, with roots in China, then Japan and India, and the Middle East. Each region developed its own scent palettes from local herbs and materials. In China, incense was long a health-related practice of the upper class, with scents that were bitter, herbal, and almost savoury. Many contemporary forms are influenced by Japanese traditions or combine different lineages. Senlë builds on this without nostalgia. What you see is what you smell. Herbs, flowers, woods, resins. Learning here means unlearning synthetic scent logics — and remembering that smell takes time.
Text: Inga Krumme / Photos: Inga Krumme, Mathilde Langevin
Senlë Studio, Gärtnerstr.10, 10245 Berlin–Friedrichshain; map
@senle.incense
