I have some powdered henna I brought back from Morocco and one of my friends at work wants me to do a small pattern for her for her cultural communication class. Does anybody have a recipe for how to mix it up? I have the syringe to apply it and some patterns too.

Thanks!

I don't have an exact recipe but this is what I do...

Mix the powder with lemon juice and/or white vinegar. It should be a thick paste so don't use too much lemon (fresh). Let it sit overnight or several hours. I make tea with lots of cloves and let it cool. I use the tea to thin out the henna. It should be the consistency of thin yogurt. There is also oils you can add to make the henna last longer but I'm not sure what it's called. I have one from Yemen that stinks!

Moroccan henna is THE best IMO. It gives a lovely brownish red color. I got henna done in Egypt and it was jet black. It looked so cool! It also looked like someone wrote on me with a Sharpie.

is that you?

That's nice henna Kara! Did you pick the design? Might I add I have never seen a pic of you in hijab (if that's you) and you look like a teenager! No kidding! You look so young! But very purdy!

Yes..that be me. I look innocent don't I?




Awww thank you, Janine Enti 3asal wallahi!

You do look very innocent but I know the truth!

Hehehehe..and so does my husband

Oh I forgot to answer your question..yes I got to pick the design. I had it done twice while I was there. This pic was actually taken on my wedding day. I was over dressed, no?

You were considered over dressed?! wow! That must have been a really casual wedding.

LOL, I was joking. We had our wedding a few days later actually. Getting married in Egypt calls for running around and jumping in and out of taxis so I dressed casual. I wore a fancy galabiya for our wedding party.

Thanks ladies! I don't have time to let it sit overnight since she just called me today and I'm doing it for her tonight. Thank goodness she just needs something simple to say she got henna'd since this will be my first time to do it and I'm not sure how good I'll be yet. I'm a pretty good artist though, so hopefully it will be presentable. I wish I could make it look as good as what's in your picture Moody, that is gorgeous! I prefer the black henna over the red, but that's because I'm so ghost white. I'm sure on darker skin the red looks lovely.

Thank you

The Moroccan henna would look beautiful on you. I have very fair skin and it looks so nice. It gets darker the next day.

A little tip to speed up the process...heat your oven to like 170 F put the henna in and check on it now and then. Once the henna starts to change from green to brown then it's ready. If you're gonna do it this way put the henna in an oven safe glass bowl.

I wanted to add..if you don't let it process the color won't take.

do also watch out for *black henna*. Some of the products sold as black henna are hazardous. Make sure that the powder is greenish and turns slightly blue once water is added. If the powder is dark brown or black, it may have some nasty chemicals in it.

guess my reply is probably a little late, but here it is anyway- I learned 2 different "recipes":
1st I learned from some Indian women in Cali and they mixed henna w/ black tea/coffee, cloves, a few drops of eucalyptus oil mixed into a paste. After applied, dab a mixture of lemon juice & sugar a few times and let set as long as possible. *scrape the paste off, not washed w/ soap & water til later.
2nd in Maroc, the lady who did my engagement henna mixed the henna only w/ water and then dabbed the lemon juice and sugar mixture also. I slept w/ that on and scraped off the next morning, then gently washed, not scrubbed the area.
*Everytime I've had henna done it darkens over the next 2 days. Personally, I've had both the black & the reddish/orangish/brown henna and I just prefer the latter... it usually turns such a nice color and I'm pale also. The black totally looked like a sharpie! I just got a fresh supply of henna this week from Maroc - my sweetie sent me a care pkg! The fresher the henna, the longer it will last on the skin and the darker it will get.
Good luck![attachmentid=2446]

Well I didn't get back here to get all the tips, but it worked out anyway.

I had my husband prepare a cup of strong tea with cloves in it for me before I got home. When I got home we mixed some henna powder with lemon juice and some of the tea and let that sit while I went to class.

I put the henna on about 2 hours later and it came out good. I did my friends ankle and leg, and her hand and wrist. I also did my leg and hand. I know I forgot some of the steps like keeping tea on it as long as possible because we both had work today and couldn't wait all night or anything. We put gauze and cotton over it and put cotton gloves on our hands and legwarmers (left over from my 80s flashdance days!) on our legs. The henna came out really dark on both of us (well dark for orange henna) and I was surprised how good I did. It was my first try at this. I had forgotten that I used to decorate cakes though so that helped I'm sure.

Next time I want to have a pattern in front of me though, this time I did it all from my head and while it came out nice, it isn't as nice as I would want it - except her ankle and leg. The design I did there turned out quite nice. I'll post pics if I can get them.

Sounds great, Liz! Please post pics..I'd love to see them

I have some henna that my MIL gave me. I want to try and use it on myself. Does anyone know where I get get stencils? Or where you can find designs>

chi

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The girl I did the henna on took pictures of it with the camera on her cell phone. They aren't great pics, but neither was my first attempt at henna. Thank goodness it's not lasting long so next time I can actually look at some pictures instead of trying to just think up a pattern.

Oh cool, I think I got the pictures to work - not sure.

Chiquita, if you search on henna on the internet you can get some great pictures to look at while you do it. I really should have done that.

Those are cute designs! Good job, Liz