Rare Mayan Pink Copal essential oil 3ml • in-house distillation of Pink Bursera bipinnata • Oaxaca Mexico

Rare Mayan Pink Copal essential oil 3ml • in-house distillation of rare Pink Bursera bipinnata Copal resin • Oaxaca Mexico

Micro batch distillation by Pierre Black in Chiang Mai Thailand.

Typically, standard white Copal essential oil might be best for enjoyed in an essential oil diffuser or diluted in a skin care product. The pink variety, however, with its slightly higher price point and uniquely rich, bright, aroma; suggests to us a more sparing and cautious use which focusses more on enjoyment of this rarified aroma directly. As a result, we have decided to furnish this essential oil to our customers in our 3 mL branded bottle with glass dipstick. We suggest enjoying this essential oil neat, applied directly to typical perfume or anointment points.  (Apply to the wrists, behind the ears, the centre of the chest, or apply a small amount to the forehead or top of the head. See additional cautions and traditional uses below.) 

Pink variety of White Mayan Copal or “Copal Blanco”
Bursera bipinnata | Oaxaca, Mexico

White copal, the resin of Bursera bipinnata trees, is a sacred aromatic and medicinal herb with deep roots across Mesoamerica. For centuries, the Maya indigenous peoples in regions such as the Yucatán Peninsula, Chiapas, Guatemala, and Belize have burned copal as offering incense. During the colonial period, its use was woven into Catholic ritual practice as a locally sourced alternative for the more expensive frankincense, considered essential essential in the Catholic tradition.

The rare pink copal we offer here, however, comes specifically from Oaxaca, a region with its own long and distinct copal traditions. In Oaxaca, the same species of white copal has been used for generations by Indigenous groups including the Zapotec and Mixtec, whose ceremonial, medicinal, and cosmological practices remain active today in many regional communities.

Sacred Function and Ritual Use

Among Zapotec and Mixtec traditions, white copal is far more than a fragrance or symbolic object. It functions as a ritual substance that actively mediates between our world and the spiritual realm. When burned on charcoal or in clay censers, copal smoke is understood as a vehicle, carrying prayers, gratitude, petitions, and intentions to ancestors, land spirits, saints, and protective forces. Copal also establishes sacred boundaries. Smoking a home, altar, field, or person with copal marks a transition from ordinary space into ceremonial space. This boundary-making function is central to its religious and protective role. By defining what belongs within the ritual sphere, copal creates clarity, order, and protection. It's commonly burned at the opening of ceremonies and again at their close, sealing the work and restoring balance.

Healing and Purification

White copal is central to traditional purification and healing practices. Healers use copal smoke in limpias, ritual cleansings intended to moderate illness, emotional disturbance, or unwanted spiritual influences.

Medicinally, this variety of copal blanco in Oaxaca has been understood as a supportive and regulating substance rather than a single targeted remedy. The resin itself has been used both topically and internally in traditional practice, applied directly to wounds and skin ailments, prepared as poultices for inflammation and pain, and taken internally (often as teas or infusions from the bark) for respiratory complaints, colds, cough, and inflammatory conditions. Aromatic smoke from burning the resin has been used to support respiratory comfort and create a cleansing environment believed to discourage illness and stagnation. In postpartum care, copal has been used to protect mothers and infants and to support recovery following childbirth.

Research on Bursera species has documented wound-healing activity when essential oils are applied topically. Studies have identified that the monoterpene compounds in these essential oils, including limonene, α-phellandrene, and borneol, support various phases of the healing process by promoting fibroblast migration, collagen production, and antimicrobial activity.

Modern phytochemical research offers insight into why these effects have been consistently observed. Resins of Bursera bipinnata are rich in pentacyclic triterpenes, including α-amyrin, β-amyrin, lupeol, and related compounds. These molecules are widely studied across plant resins and have shown, in experimental and preclinical models, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activity. While these findings don't translate into medical claims, they do provide a plausible biochemical foundation for copal's longstanding use in physical healing, .

Beyond its heavier resin fraction, copal contains a volatile aromatic component composed of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. When released through burning, these compounds interact directly with the olfactory system, which has neural connections to the limbic system, hypothalamus, and autonomic nervous system. Through this pathway, aromatic smoke can influence emotional regulation, attention, and neurophysiological state.

Although copal hasn't been studied as extensively as frankincense in neuroimaging or clinical research, its sensory effects suggest overlapping qualities. Copal smoke is often experienced as calming yet clarifying, grounding without being sedative or soporific. Such effects are consistent with parasympathetic nervous system activation, reduced sympathetic arousal, and a tendency toward slower breathing and more regulated attention. These experiential effects align closely with copal's traditional uses during prayer, mourning, childbirth recovery, and emotional healing.

Copal and Frankincense

Copal and frankincense share a distant botanical relationship. Frankincense is produced by Boswellia species native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, while copal comes from Bursera species native to the Americas. Both belong to related plant families and produce oleoresins rich in terpene-based compounds. Across cultures and continents, both resins have been valued as sacred incenses for purification, contemplation, and prayer.

The Pink Expression, only 0.01% of total harvest.

In its most familiar form, Oaxacan white copal cures to opaque or translucent white to ivory white resin pieces with a clean, uplifting aroma, bright, gently resinous, and clarifying. It's prized for its ability to clear heaviness, establish sacred space, and invite focus and presence.

Occasionally, however, a very small portion of resin from the same trees and region cures in striking blush tones, ranging from soft peach to vivid bubblegum pink. This naturally occurring variation is rare and isn't formally recognized as a separate botanical or traditional category. Its cause isn't well studied, but likely reflects subtle differences in resin chemistry, due to terroir and seasonal effects.

Importantly, what distinguishes this pink variety most clearly is its aromatic character.

Compared to standard white copal, the pink resin presents a noticeably brighter and sweeter profile. There's a pronounced fruitiness (like pineapple and litchi) not present in the white variety, as well as a sunny wildflower nuance, and an unusual effervescent mineral quality that can evoke the sensation of sherbet or fresh shaved citrus zest. It retains all the unmistakable resinous notes and clean, bright, balsamic fundaments of white copal, but is definitely more complex and rich.

Contemporary Use and Interpretation

While Indigenous traditions in Oaxaca don't formally distinguish pink copal for specific ritual purposes, color has long played an intuitive role in ceremonial selection. In contemporary ceremonial and magical contexts, both within and beyond traditional communities, pink-toned copal is often chosen for women’s ceremonial use or for “feminine” themes of relational harmony, fertility, sensuality, and emotional openness.

While the traditional resin has been used both topically and internally in Mesoamerican medicine, essential oil usage differs from whole resin use. Essential oils should be properly diluted for topical application and are generally not recommended for internal use without professional guidance, as they represent highly concentrated extracts with different properties than the whole resin or bark preparations traditionally used internally.

Because of its unique, let's bright, and pleasant aroma, our favourite way to use this oil and our best recommendation is to use a small amount as a natural on the wrists, chest, or behind the ears. It makes a soothing and uplifting personal scent and behaves much like frankincense essential oil

• Transparency Note: Pink coloration in Bursera bipinnata copal resin is uncommon and not yet well described in published research. Natural variation between trees, harvest conditions, and curing processes is expected. This material is not presented as a separate botanical type, nor are medical claims made.