How to Make Henna Paste: Free Tips for Applying Henna Tattoos & Body Art

How to Make Henna Paste: Free Tips for Applying Henna Tattoos & Body Art
Let me show you how to make a henna paste. It’s not that difficult. Basically what you want to use is fresh henna powder, something sour (I prefer to use pure lemon juice). I know some people that use red wine, vinegar, and something that would be acidic in nature. A friend of mine even uses citric acid mixed with water. That works just as well. You want to apply the lemon juice to the henna paste. I can’t give you an exact recipe for this because it’s not an exact science. Every batch of henna powder will have a different way it reacts to your sour. Some henna powder will absorb it very quickly and will end up very loose if you add too much lemon juice. Other power seems to resist lemon juice and you’ll have to add more of it. But basically you want to add lemon juice until it’s a mashed potato consistency. Add stir add stir. Always keep a small amount of henna powder to the side so if you end up by accident adding too much lemon juice you can always fix it by adding powder. So you just want to mix it mix it mix it until it gets to be about the consistency of mashed potatoes. As you can see we’re achieving it quite quickly with this powder. When it gets to be this consistency, and actually I would add a little more lemon juice to it but not too much. When it becomes the consistency of mashed potatoes you want to allow dye release. This is what occurs when the henna plant begins to release the dye that’s inside of it. The faster that this occurs the better and the quicker that you’ll be able to use the paste. This occurs most quickly when the weather is warm or the henna is in a warmer environment. If you put it in a cool environment it will take longer to work with. However, it will take longer for your paste to be usable. If you need henna quickly place it in a warm place but not too warm because we don’t want to cook our henna. If you make it release all its dye too quickly it won’t be usable to you. Usually I place my powder or my paste as it is now on top of a computer or t.v. in a plastic baggie. Use a freezer bag because the paste will release and will permeate the plastic bag if it’s too thin. After you’ve let it sit until you know the dyes release then you can add some essential oil. The way that you know the dye has released is because if you have let it sit in an open container or a container with a lid on it and you remove the lid, if you scrape it back you may notice that underneath may still be a light green and on top will be a dark green. That lets you know the dye has been released and what you’re seeing on the top is the released dye. If you take the henna when it’s a paste like this and you place it in a plastic baggie and you take that baggie on top of a white sheet of paper, when you remove that baggie if they dye has released the paper should have a light orange stain on it. If there is no stain return the bag to the top of it and let it set for awhile. It normally takes, on an eighty degree day, approximately two hours to get dye release. Once you achieve this you want to begin to add what we call terps, terps is short for terpinal. Terpinal is what makes henna stain dark. I’m going to pretend we’ve already achieved dye release with this henna and add eucalyptus oil. Essential oil such as eucalyptus tends to encourage the henna to become darker because they have a great deal of terpinal in it. Other essential oils that are commonly used for this are germanium, cajuput and tetry. Don’t put too much and make sure that if you are applying henna to someone make sure to ask if they are allergic to anything such as citrus or essential oils. We want to be responsible in our application of henna to other people. Once we’ve added the essential oils you want to look at the paste and see what the consistency is. You also want to add some sugar. It’s necessary for the henna paste to have some sugar in it in order for it to stick to your skin. I usually just add enough to give it a nice sheen. If you add too much sometimes your paste will get very very thin from the sugar. Now it’s just a matter of finding the consistency that’s right for you. You have all the elements needed for a good paste. Some people like their paste to be very thick, I don’t nor do I like it to be very thin. A good consistency for henna paste is approximately the consistency of toothpaste with a little water added to it. If your paste is too thin you will not be able to make a good design because it will drip and run all over the person you are applying henna to. If it’s too thick sometimes you will not be able to get it through the instrument that you are using to apply it. So get it to be about the consistency of toothpaste. This is a good consistency for henna paste, I would actually mix this paste a bit more just because it’s a bit lumpy however it doesn’t change that this is the consistency you want to use. Now that you have your consistency it’s time to decide what instrument you want to use to apply it. We’ll talk about that next.