If you're unsure, leave the incense for a minute or so, then check again. If you see a small glowing ember, and smoke starts coming out of the bottom, then the incense has been correctly lit. Check the incense tip where the flame was.For some incense you may need to wait for a short while before blowing out the flame to ensure it properly lights up. Gently fan or blow out the flame or remnants of the flame.Ensure that the incense is immersed in the flame until it ignites with a small flame (note the flame may not say lit as it might on a stick incense) Light pointy end of the incense cone with a match or lighter as you would a candle wick.Hold the incense cone with one hand or with some tweezers.When smoke cools, it becomes denser, so when it exits the incense at the bottom, it flows gently downwards.īelow you’ll see a video of the backflow incense cone in action: However, in the case of a backflow incense, as it burns, smoke enters the hollow center tunnel, where it cools as it follows the along the path. But when a normal incense is lit, smoke flows upwards because the effect of the heat offsets the weight of the tiny particles, ashot air is lighter than room-temperature air.

This is how we think backflow incense works: incense smoke is actually more dense than normal air at room temperature because it contains tiny particles.

Backflow incense can also be made in the shape of a stick which is completely hollow in the center, ie, a long, thin tube. Most of the time backflow incense is made in the shape of a cone, witha small, hollow tunnel through the center, ending in a hole at the bottom center. Backflow incense are exactly as the name suggests – incense where the incense smoke (or plume) flows in the opposite direction as “normal” incense, that is, downwards instead of upwards.

Ash and ember smoking snail