Who am I?

A woman with reddish-brown hair, wearing a white blouse, is preparing food at a wooden table. There is a brown teapot and a bowl of food in front of her.

Hello! I’m Raksmey. Incense maker and owner of The World Makes Scents.

A group of people on a boat dock, with a boat featuring a large orange sail and a red flag with a yellow star in the background.

I became an English teacher and met my future husband in 2017.

A smiling man with sunglasses and a white shirt, and a smiling woman with sunglasses and a lace dress, sitting on a boat with a scenic island and water in the background.

How did The World Makes Scents start?

Young Buddhist monks in orange robes sitting on a carpeted floor inside a wooden temple, with some standing or walking, and bowls of food in front of them.
A young boy and girl sitting on a large green plant or tree in front of a background with more greenery. The boy is wearing a light blue uniform with a patch and the girl is wearing a pink top and black skirt with a pattern.

I grew up in Hanchey Village near the Mekong River in Cambodia. I am 9 years old here.

We fell in love and he moved from America to Cambodia in 2018.

An elderly person wearing a black top with red pattern and colorful patterned pants sits at a rustic wooden table, making traditional food using a round griddle, strips of sticky rice, and banana leaves.

When I was a little girl I would visit the Buddhist pagoda at the top of Hanchey Mountain near my Village. Women would make incense by hand using only plants for the monks to burn during ceremonies. They also taught me how to make the incense.

The image shows a two-story house with a wooden exterior, open windows with shutters, and a staircase leading up to the entrance. The upper floor has a metal roof supported by metal beams, and the lower part is open underneath, used as a storage or parking area for tractors and motorcycles. There is greenery around the house and various objects on the ground.

This is the home my father built. I am one of 7 kids in a very happy home.

A smiling man with glasses and short brown hair taking a selfie outdoors near a waterfall, with greenery around.

After getting my parents permission, he asked me to marry him at a waterfall in Laos.

A close-up of cannabis buds placed on a wooden surface.
A collection of Christmas decorations including pine branches, pinecones, and a box of scented products tied with a green and white string, placed on a woven surface.
Interior of a wooden house with dark polished wooden floors, walls, and ceiling, green and yellow curtains, a clear window, colorful chairs, a boy sitting on a wooden bench, and various household items.

This is the wooden floor of our home. I was born in this room.

Group of people sitting on the floor in a circle during a religious or cultural ceremony, with offerings of fruits and food in front of them inside a traditional wooden house.

We had our engagement ceremony on the same wooden floor I was born.

A wooden table holds several objects including loose small wood pieces, a plastic measuring scoop, and multiple incense cones.

Dave, my husband and his family loved it and suggested I try to sell it on Etsy. So, I wanted to name the business after my love of sharing the world with others. That is how it became “The World Makes Scents”. Left = 2021 / Right = 2026

A wooden shed interior with stacked firewood, various buckets, containers, and kitchenware. A small window allows natural light inside.

This is our wood fire kitchen. Very traditional for a farm family. Lots of delicious food is made here.

A family dressed in Halloween costumes, with a child in a green dinosaur costume, an adult woman, an adult man, and a young child dressed as a pumpkin, in front of a Halloween-themed background with haunted house, bats, and trees.

Flash forward. We got married, I moved to America, and we had 2 amazing kids.

Close-up of a pile of compressed herbal tobacco sticks with a blurred background that includes a green bowl and a dark object on a wooden surface.

During the pandemic my husband purchased some commercial incense. I thought it smelled terrible! Like chemicals and synthetic perfume. So, I decided to buy a few natural herbs and made him some incense using the methods I learned as a child which is to use what nature gives you and not add any perfumes or chemicals. Plants are amazing by themselves and while natural ingredients are more expensive and the work is harder; the results are far superior.

Close-up of a box of incense sticks with a colorful label reading "The World Makes Scents North Warts Whole Plant Organic No Chemicals No Dye 12 Handmade Incense Sticks" featuring an illustration of a campfire and two people sitting around it.