Bakhoor Perfume Oils: How to Choose Them and Scent Oud and Bakhoor

In short: Choose a perfume oil for bakhoor whose supplier says it is for scenting incense and explains how to heat it, because not every perfume oil is suitable for it. A scent you know from the bottle can change on heat, so the notes listed in its description will not tell you what is left of it over charcoal. Take the amount and the drying time from the product’s directions; we know of no documented general rule for either. Do not put alcohol-based perfume on or near charcoal. Lit charcoal gives off carbon monoxide, so do not light it in a closed room or in a bedroom, and open a window or a door for as long as it is lit.

Table of contents

• What do we mean by bakhoor perfumes?
• What happens to the oil on heat?
• Which scents suit bakhoor?
• How are oud and bakhoor scented?
• Scenting oud pieces and unscented bakhoor
• Adding oil to maamoul when making it
• Charcoal or an electric burner?
• What should you be careful about?
• How do you choose a perfume oil?
• Read also
• References

Just before the guests arrive, the host takes out a bottle of perfume oil the family loves, puts a drop of it on a piece of bakhoor and carries the piece to the burner. The smoke rises, and the majlis smells different from the bottle.

What do we mean by bakhoor perfumes?

People who search for “bakhoor perfumes” or “bakhoor oils” usually mean a perfume oil they can use to scent oud or bakhoor themselves. The market calls these “perfume oils”, “aromatic oils” and “concentrated oils”, and some are called “dehn”. The best known is dehn al-oud, or oud oil, which is distilled from oud wood: in the traditional method, the wood chips are soaked in water and then boiled to collect their oil [1].

A perfume oil is usually a blend of fragrance materials, not an essential oil extracted from a single plant; the difference between the two is explained in the guide to essential oils. The guidance of IFRA, the International Fragrance Association, describes concentrated perfume oil, which it calls attar, as a fragrance free of the ethanol that cologne and eau de toilette are made with, and one that may go into incense products [2]. It is mostly worn neat, and it may be diluted or used in air fresheners [2]. So the name of a perfume oil does not tell you what it was made for, and an oil made for the skin is not necessarily suitable for heating.

Besides perfume oil, two other liquids may come to mind for someone scenting their own bakhoor:

• Essential oil: an oil from a single plant. Not everything sold as the oil of a plant is actually extracted from it, as the sandalwood example in the section on choosing shows.
• Alcohol-based perfume (spray): it does not go on charcoal, for the reason given in the safety section.

What happens to the oil on heat?

Heating may change the scent, and the note pyramid, the order of scents in a perfume’s description, cannot tell you what you will smell on charcoal. It describes conventional perfume: citrus at the top, flowers in the heart, amber and musk at the base [6]. We found no one who has measured that order on bakhoor over charcoal.

Perfume on burning bakhoor is heated and burned at once, and heat affects the composition and stability of essential oils [5], so a base scent may not be the one that lasts longest in the smoke. Incense smoke also carries fine particles, gases including carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds [9].

Oud shows that heat can create a scent that was not there before. When its wood is heated, small aromatic molecules appear in the vapor that are not present in the cold wood. Some of them come from a compound in the wood that does not pass into the oud oil when it is distilled, but stays in the distillation water [10]. That may be why oud oil in the bottle is not oud on charcoal, and other materials are probably no different: what they smell like hot may not match what they smell like cold.

Which scents suit bakhoor?

Choose the character you like, then check that the product is made for bakhoor and for the way you will heat it. The table places the best-known scents roughly within the perfume pyramid; it tells you their character, not how long they will last when bakhoor is heated.

Family	Examples	Grouping in perfume
Citrus	Lemon, bergamot and orange	Usually listed among top notes [6] [7]
Floral	Rose, jasmine and lavender	Flowers are heart notes [6]
Woody	Sandalwood, patchouli and cedarwood	Sandalwood and patchouli are base notes [7] [8]
Amber and musk	Amber and musk	Base notes [6]
Resinous	Frankincense and myrrh	Base notes [7]
Sweet	Vanilla	Vanilla is listed among base notes [7]

Watch the names, too. Musk and amber are common descriptors in the classification of scents [6], and in the notes of a perfume oil they may indicate the character of the scent rather than the source of the material, as the guide to musk explains.

How are oud and bakhoor scented?

Take the amount, the drying time and the heating method from the directions of the product in your hands, because there is no single amount or time for this that we know to be documented.

Scenting oud pieces and unscented bakhoor

Scent the pieces with an oil whose supplier says it was made for scenting bakhoor, and ask them how much of it to use and how to prepare it. Oil-scented incense wood is sold on the market [3], but that does not mean any oil sold separately is suitable for scenting wood or for heating. If the supplier cannot tell you, do not try a perfume made for another purpose in its place.

As for resin-rich oud, we see no need to scent it. In Middle Eastern and Asian markets its pieces are burned as they are, with no perfume added, and it is oud with less resin that is often blended with other aromatic materials [11].

If you scent your own bakhoor:

• Do not judge whether an oil is safe to heat by its smell; go by its supplier’s directions.
• Do not put a piece that is dripping with oil on the charcoal.
• Store the oil as its directions say, away from heat sources. There is more in the guide to storing bakhoor.

Adding oil to maamoul when making it

No recipe for the amount of oil in maamoul, or for how to knead it, works for every oil and blend. Essential oils and perfumes are ingredients in some kinds of Arabian bakhoor [4], including maamoul blends.

Charcoal or an electric burner?

An electric burner heats bakhoor without charcoal, and it has been recommended in place of charcoal or an open flame [3]. That does not mean every oil is suitable for heating in one, or that it rids bakhoor of its pollutants.

Lit charcoal, for its part, gives off carbon monoxide, a gas with no color or smell [17]. In an Emirati study, the charcoal disc, not the bakhoor, was the main source of this gas in a closed test chamber, even with half a disc [12]. So do not light it in a closed room or in a bedroom, do not leave it lit while you sleep, and open a window or a door for as long as it is lit. An electric burner has no charcoal, so it spares you the charcoal gas, but the bakhoor smoke remains with it. If a headache, dizziness or nausea appears while the charcoal is lit, go out into the fresh air at once, put it out on your way if you can do so without delay, and get medical advice as soon as possible, and do not go back until you have had it. If there is difficulty breathing, sudden confusion, loss of consciousness, weakness, or chest or muscle pain, call an ambulance [19]. The details, and what has been measured in rooms, are in the charcoal incense burner section of our guide Making Bakhoor Scent Last at Home.

Each oil is made for a particular heating method, so read its directions, and those of the bakhoor and the burner, before you put them together. And do not pour perfume, of any kind, onto charcoal or a burning piece.

What should you be careful about?

Do not put an alcohol-based perfume on the charcoal, and do not spray it near the burner. Cologne and eau de toilette are made with ethanol [2], and ethanol is a highly flammable liquid. The flash point is the lowest temperature at which enough of a liquid evaporates to form an ignitable mixture with air [14], and for ethanol it is about 13°C [13], so its vapor can ignite at ordinary room temperature if it meets a flame or a spark.

A perfume oil being ethanol-free does not mean it cannot burn. Some perfume materials are flammable, including limonene, whose flash point is 48°C [15], and the flash point of a perfume oil depends on its ingredients. Keep the bottle away from charcoal and flames, and close it before you light the burner.

Do not put a perfume made for bakhoor on your skin unless its label says so. IFRA places incense and incense sticks in Category 12, the category for products not intended for direct skin contact [2], and some materials have no concentration limit there while being restricted in skin perfumes, oakmoss extracts for example [16]. For a concentrated perfume oil suitable for more than one use, the maker of the product sold to the consumer sets the category according to its intended or expected use, and if the use is not specified IFRA recommends applying the strictest restrictions. A certificate of conformity with its standards does not replace a product safety assessment [2].

Cut down on bakhoor scented with oils at high concentrations, and on long exposure to it while preparing and burning it [3]. No safe amount for the home has been set.

Anyone with asthma or a chest allergy should ask their doctor before burning bakhoor. In an Omani survey, parents of some children with asthma reported that bakhoor at home made their wheezing worse [4].

How do you choose a perfume oil?

Find out what is in the bottle and what it was made for before you choose its scent by your own taste. The label tells you whether it is a perfume oil, an essential oil or an alcohol-based perfume; if it does not, ask the seller, and buy from sellers who state the notes and the directions for use and storage. Labels can be wrong too: when six oils sold as sandalwood oil were analyzed, none met the international standard for sandalwood oil, and some were synthetic blends labeled 100% natural sandalwood oil [18].

Neither the listed notes nor the price tells you how the scent comes across on charcoal. So ask for a sample made for bakhoor if there is one, try it the way the supplier specifies, and do not breathe its smoke in directly. Think about the space as well: what suits a large majlis (reception room) may feel heavy in a small room.

Read also

• Bakhoor Ingredients: What It Is Made Of and How to Read Its Label
• Types of Bakhoor: A Guide to Oud, Frankincense, Maamoul and Mabsous
• Essential Oils in Perfumery: The Main Oils, Their Scents and Safety
• Making Bakhoor Scent Last at Home: Amount, Ventilation and Safety
• How to Store Bakhoor, Oud and Oud Oil: A Storage Guide
• Composing Perfume Oil Blends: How to Mix a Mukhallat Yourself
• Fragrance Families: A Guide to Perfume Scent Types and Their Classification

References

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2. IFRA. Guidance for the use of IFRA Standards. 30 June 2023 (51st Amendment). Section 6.5.16 “Attars and attar-type fragrances” (pp. 39–40), and the table of product categories (pp. 52–54). Guidance document. Accessed 1 October 2026.
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Prepared and edited by: Sedr Al-Khaleej Perfumes team

Last reviewed: 14 October 2026