Today's henna

[1stimestar]

The paw print I did for my race finally wore off enough, so here is todays' attempt.

[laboroflovedoula]

loving it- still waiting for my hook up- where can i buy the henna- and where can i get the applicator? come on point me in a direction you are making me drool!

[Neshama]

OH, Georganne, I wish that I was as talented as you!

[1stimestar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laboroflovedoula loving it- still waiting for my hook up- where can i buy the henna- and where can i get the applicator? come on point me in a direction you are making me drool!

Consider yourself hooked lol. Here, free how to buy, sift, mix, terps, order form with a lot of extra goodies you can order for cheap to try out.
http://www.hennapage.com/henna/what/freebooks/mix.pdf

How to apply and seal. Make sure to watch the cone rolling video. I started off with a jac bottle but if you want to do anything other then playing occassionally, learn to roll and use cones. They are sooo much easier on your hands.
http://www.hennapage.com/henna/what/...howtoapply.pdf

Here is a henna 101 that I wrote up for another forum to get you started.

Henna 101

It starts with a henna plant. Dry and powderize the leaves into a finely strained powder (or buy it that way from a certified dealer). Mix it up: There is no one way to mix it and no set recepie to use as it all depends on too many variable such as freshness of the henna powder, that particular crop, was there drought that year? climate where you are, skin alkalinity, your health in general, what you use to mix with, what you mix in at what stage of the process etc.

Normally I mix it with freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice. I strain it through a coffee filter as there can be no particles in it that wont fit through my point. I let it sit covered in my boiler/laundry room for 12 hours where it is nice and warm. You have to wait for the lemon juice to make the stain release. Then you add "terps", a monoterpene essential oil. I normally use lavendar as it is safest for pregnant women though this time I used a mixture of Naoli, Wild Thyme, and Rosemary oils. I normally add about 10 drops to a bowl full of paste. Let that sit for about 6 hours. Then I add honey. The honey is to keep the paste from cracking as it dries on your skin. Our climate is very dry. I've also used fructose, dextrose, and plain old table sugar to make the paste stringy to get fine lines. The honey works best though to keep the paste flexible.

Using triangles cut from mylar, I roll cones with various sized tips. You can see what they look like here: http://www.mehandi.com/shop/mylarcones/

I put the henna into a ziplock bag and seal it. Cut off the corner and stick it way down into the cone and squeeze enough out to fill the cone. Tape up the cone, put the baggie in another ziplock, seal, throw in the freezer. It has to be kept frozen or it will expire, not stain well.

When I am ready to do a design I thaw it out and warm it to room temprature. Then I squeeze out the paste to make the design I want. Check out the link above if you haven't yet.

I let the paste dry and sit for as long as possible. I normally use medical tape and tape it all up then keep it on overnight. But this last time I just steamed my hand every 15-20 minutes for a couple of hours and got a great stain!

It works best on the palms and soles even though these areas get the most use. They have the most layers of skin to stain. So a good stain will last 3 or even 4 week. After paste removal, the stain will continue to get darker over the next day or two. Here is a picture I took. When I first removed the paste it was bright orange, then it darkened to a burnt orange. By the next it will "probably" darken to a light coffee color.

So, does that answer most of your questions?




Edited to add, you can find everything you need here: http://www.hennapage.com/henna/forum...WS_MAN_ITEMS=2

[1stimestar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neshama OH, Georganne, I wish that I was as talented as you!

Heh, you could be. It "only" took 7 months of intense research, experimentation, and practice.

[jesscardona]

That looks really nice Georganne!

[helpinghands]

Wow. Now. Where can I buy me some patience to be able to actually compactly and neatly do something so cool.. LOL. Truely talented.

[1stimestar]

Really, they don't turn out this good all the time lol. It's a work in progress.

[b'earth angel]

Thanks for the instructions and recipes!

The bad thing w/this is when you do a goof, it lasts just as long as the nice ones! lol!

Nice work Fairbanks!

My sis is getting married next month and she is going to go 'barefoot' for the wedding. It would be really cool to henna her feet for the ceremony!

I haven't checked your link yet, but is there an 'easy' kit to try for the first time to see if you like it or even want to do this?

[1stimestar]

Some of the suppliers do sell premixed cones. I highly recomend you practice before doing your sister's lol.

If you mess up while you are doing it, you can simple lift it off with a toothpick, if you are quick.