Cunningham presents us here with a recipe book for more than the title implies. Besides showing us how to create our own inceses, oils, and brews, he also explains how to make tinctures, powders, bath salts, soaps, sachets, and inks. There are tons of different recipes available, especially for incenses, for all sorts of magickal purposes.

Substitutions are also treated. Several pages are broken down by plants, purposes, planets, and astrological signs which are very, very useful is you have a particular goal in mind. For me, these are the best parts of the book. If I need to know which oils to use or herbs to burn for a healing spell, they're all right there. If I need to attract some more lunar energy in an esbat ritual, I can very quickly find that I can use lemon oil on my candles if there's no myrrh or jasmine around.

Overall, it's a great book and Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is the perfect companion for it. I highly recommend it!


A must-have reference book!   May 4, 2000
 91 out of 96 found this review helpful

This is one of my favorite books by Scott Cunningham. He explores so many different methods of magickal creation that there is something for everyone and more. If you want to learn more about making your own incense, brews, potions, powders, inks, soaps, tinctures, oils, herbal baths,etc., YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK. Each section is informative and full of recipies, explanations, suggestions, and warnings. The chapter on substitution is excellent and the charts and appendixes are helpful as well. The book's tone is more instructional rather than spiritual, especially compared to Cunningham's other books. If you are looking for in-depth information about magical herbs and oils, I highly recommend reading Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs and The Magic of Aromatherapy in addition to The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, and Brews.


Packed with information.   September 23, 2000
 37 out of 44 found this review helpful

Mr. Cunningham teaches you how to make your own incense, annointing oils, tinctures, bath salts, ritual soaps, and much more.

Mr. Cunningham places asterisks beside dangerous plants Beladonna, Foxglove, Henbane, mistletoe and others. and in almost every case gives alternate recipes so you can get similar results without using toxic materials.

Questions or comments? E-Mail me. Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda


Fantastic resource!!   December 10, 2002
 28 out of 32 found this review helpful

If you are looking for a book on Incenses, oils, inks, soaps and more this is an absolute MUST HAVE!!! I couldn't say enough positive things about this book, an excelent addition to any witchcraft library, and FULL of benificial advise. Clear directions on how to make an entire book full of incense, oils ointments,inks, tinctures, herb baths, bath salts, brews, ritual soaps (solid & liquid), Sachets or herbal charms, powders, and there are chapters on substitutions and the considerations for making those substitutions. A chapter on empowering rites, on propotions, on creating your own recipes....
Just an all around wonderful reference book, and not a bad read either. All in all a real 10!! You finish reading a chapter and wish there was more, this book is an essential part of my library, and if you are a serious practitioner, I recomend it as an essential buy for yours...enjoy!! Blessed Be.


Great Charts, Adequate Recipes   October 17, 2004
 14 out of 15 found this review helpful

This book is designed for those with little experience with paganism, or at least with pagan herbalism. It does a great job at explaining the basics of pagan herbalism. It explains the uses of incense, oils, and brews in pagan life and ritual and the ways they are constructed and charged. Most importantly it desbribes the attributes of each common herb and provides complete and informative charts organized by element, by planetary influence, and by area (protection, love, healing, etc.).

It covers incenses, oils, soaps, tincintures, sachets, and brews. The major drawback of this broad coverage is that no one area is covered as fully as possible. The recipes in particular are barely adequate. Each chapter gives dozens of recipes, but most have only a sentence or two of explaination. And they merely rehash the information given by the the charts.

The information is useful, but not significantly different than that found in many other pagan herbalism books. If you do not own such books I recommend this book. It is as direct and useful a beginner text as exists. If you do, don't expect to learn much more from this. Happy Brewing!