Some of the most common and easiest to find incense and oil fragrances are these:

Amber - it stimulates the body self-healing capabilities. I always use it when doing Reiki

Eucalyptus - Good for respitation. Also used for purification and spitituality

Jasmine - Antidepressive, afrodisiac, and against insomnia. It's a pretty strong fragrace, so not everybody may like it. Good for dreams and visions.

Lavander - Calming, against headache, stimulates good health

Lemon - Gives strenght but it's calming at the same time. Purifies blood and is a tonic.

Honeysuckle - Self-esteem, good for digestion problems and may be of use to lose weight

Mint - For clarity, can be used for respiratory problems, asthma, bronchiti, colds, flu. Good for upset stomach and headaches as well

Orange - Happiness. Against colds, depression. Used to create a pleasant and positive environment.

Pine - Against negativity, helps respiration

Rosemary - this needs a whole new post!

Rose - For harmony and love. Very good in curing scars, can be applied directly on the skin.

Sandalwood - Against depression, used for healing, spirituality and is afrodisiac

Ylang Ylang - Caling, promotes feeling of peace, and good against rage, anciently used as afrodisiac

If you are interesed in a fragarance I have not listed, please let me know...

i love the smell of sandalwood. in our houses twice a day we light incense sticks.. it actually givea me a lot of peace:)
y do fragrances have such a soothing effect on us???
swetha

I love sandalwood too.... it's a fairly strong fragrance if you use it on its own, I use it as oil and usually mix it with a few drops of lemon and one of patchouli and one of ylang ylang. I use a piece of cotton with a few drops of sandalwood oil to clean and do weekly maintenance to my wooden incense stick holder I have in my bedroom. And it smells so nice for a couple of days....

If you notice, most of the fragrances have a calming, soothing, healing effect. I guess it's how our brain receives them and sends the body calming signals rather than creating adrenaline as it happens instead in a stress situation. I believe that, apart from the strictly physical/chemical reaction, we love fragrances so much because they are culturally ingrained. As they are associated with winding down, pleasurable time, and stimulate the relaxing process, the body feels at ease and takes over the feeling "antennae". If we lived in a society where fragarances were considered unplesant, we would feel irritated by them, possibly. So I think part is body reaction and part is cultural imprint.

It is now known (even if Western medicine at times still finds it hard to believe it) that memory does not only reside in the brain, but in every cell of the body, so when we smell a fragrance we like, the body remembers good feelings associated with it and we relax pleasurely - it really becomes a full-body experience. That's why we sometimes manage to feel so refreshed even by a short break, it depends on how well our cells have been able to cope with some time off......

i guess thats very true:)
for us it is a custom that has been followed for years and is still done, i guess basically becoz there is something postive in it:). i guess thats the main reason else y wud such things ever come into existence:)