Henna has a wonderful flair bringing in colour to our lives. Since many centuries, it has been used as a celebratory decoration by women. But this is changing now, there’s a trend of using Henna as a part of make-up. Women, and men for that matter, now use Henna for creating tattoos. Since natural Henna is completely safe for the skin, it does not cause skin reactions that might occur due to traditional tattoo inks and equipment.
But many tattoo and mehendi artists use a chemical based Henna called Black Henna to create Henna tattoos. This synthetic Henna is very harmful to the skin and causes extreme reactions. Black Henna is made of a chemical called PPD (p-phenylenediamine) which is a main component of many Hair dyes, is not to be applied to the skin.
This chemical causes blisters, rashes, and different allergies that require prolong and expensive medical treatments. Also when you eat with your hands that have been applied such chemicals, there are even chances that you are consuming that what can only be described as poison.
If you are a bride, getting a Henna for your wedding day, would you want to remember the day that was the most joyous day of your life, or the day that was the most horrendous?
This chemical Henna dries up very quickly – within an hour or so, and has a very dark shade, as compared to the brownish shade of natural Henna. People are in a hurry and hence they cannot spend the long hours that natural Henna takes to stain. Many unethical Henna artists exploit this tendency of people by applying them with Black Henna.
For the haste, do you really want to play with your lives??? I don’t think anything is more valuable than your health. Say NO to Black Henna. Always demand for Natural Henna. Yes, it does take time to stain, but the colour that you get is a magnificent brown than the ghastly black. The stain of Natural Henna looks good in photos as well, leaving you with pleasant memories of your special day for a lifetime!
Fashion is everywhere, in everything. Yes, that means it in Henna too! You can flaunt a well made Henna just like a most beautifully woven dress, or a sparkling ring (and a right one can really complement your Henna!)
Henna now, is not what it was a decade ago. It has moved on from being monochromatic to a vivacious and exuberant art that glows like a firefly in a moonless night. Henna is in demand all around the year now!! It is not exclusive to wedding occasions. Girls, and now men too, flaunt a Henna for any and every occasion.
It is a personalised fashion accessory. You may not be able to afford that high street dress, but you can definitely afford a bespoke Henna design that will make you the centre of attention, and this makes Henna a perfect fashion accessory! You can get a new one for every occasion without burning a hole in your wallet. You can get all the glamour without the expense.
You don’t even have to worry about side effects of Henna. If you use completely natural Henna, you won’t have any skin reactions and allergies. Natural Henna is totally safe for you. You can go on and adorn a new one every now and then. And this not the best part yet!
The best part is that Henna is a mirror of your imaginative power! It can take any shape and design that you can think of. It can be bold, colourful, and shimmering, or it can be subtle and elegant! The choice is yours. Henna brings life to your attire, as well as your occasions.
Since a long time, Henna designs have remained very similar. As the art of Henna making spread across land, local cultures started creating a massive impact on the Henna Designs. Some of these designs were lost in the pages of history, while a few made an everlasting impact. Commonly known design types are Arabic, Indian, Moroccan, and Mughalai. But as they say, Change is Inevitable, the turn of the millennium saw many new advents in the designs.
Today I will be talking about a few of most famous modern design types.
Glitter Henna
Glitter Henna is just regular Henna that is infused with glitter! But it takes Mehendi designs to a whole new level. Glitter Henna designs are not that hard to create either! If you can make designs with normal Henna, then you can create Glitter Henna as well. All you need are glitter henna cones!
Henna Tattoos
Henna Tattoos are on the rage all over the world. The reason for this is that since Henna is natural, it is completely safe for your skin. Special Henna tattoo cones do not contain harmful chemicals like PPD, which can cause reactions on your skin.
And since Henna is temporary, you can change your tattoos every now and then. Also, if you want to get a permanent tattoo, but are feeling dicey about how it will look, Henna tattoo can give you a clear picture. If you feel good about it, you can go ahead with the permanent one, or you can keep changing your tattoos as you wish since these are much cheaper than ink tattoos!
Nail paint Henna
An upcoming trend, nail paint Henna is creating amazing designs on nails with Henna. An innovate way of decorating your nails, Henna allows you to explore your creativity even more!
Stones (Gems) Henna
A beautiful step forward for Henna designing is adorning your designs with imitation stone, or if you have a heavy purse, you can get it with actual stones. Now that would be a priceless work of art!
A henna design that is studded with gems and stones will surely make you the centre of attention at any occasion!
So there we go! Henna designing is just not limited to plain henna designs. It has gone a step further to become a work of art in its own unique way! Did you know of any more ways to make Henna even better?? Do let me know in comments below.
Hello guys, hope you have mastered cone making by now, because now I will take you one step closer to making beautiful Mehendis.
To get the perfect Mehendi design, you need to have the perfect Mehendi paste; and that is what exactly I am going to teach you today!
Before we get started, you will need all these ingredients at hand. The quantities are for one cone. If you want to make more cones, multiply the quantity by the number of cones.
Henna powder (2 spoons), preferably triple refined, else normal will do.
Water (Half cup)
Clove Oil (half tsp)
Mixed Oil/Saffron oil (half tsp)
Eucalyptus Oil (2 tsp)
A bowl
A spoon
Now once you have everything ready, turn on your favourite tunes and get mixing!!
Add the powder in the bowl and then add water to make a thick paste.
Then add clove oil and mix it well with the paste followed by saffron oil.
Now add the Eucalyptus oil and mix it perfectly as well.
Make sure you mix it well after adding every oil.
Once the paste is mixed, sprinkle 10-15 drops of water on the paste and then cover it with a lid. Set it aside for at least an hour and half. If you want the Mehendi to stain better, let it be for 3 hours
Once it is ready, stir it well, add some water to moisten the paste to make it smooth enough to pour into the cone easily.
A paste that has good texture will allow you to create artistic designs that will stain well.
If your Mehendi paste was well made, it will stain like this after 24 hours.
I hope you have understood how to create a perfect Mehendi, and keep in mind, Practice makes perfect. So keep practicing till you can make the paste will perfect consistency and texture.
Greetings to all my charming readers! Last week I told you about Mehendi’s journey through the pages of history, and today I am going to be tell you about the progression in techniques of drawing Mehendi.
Many, many years ago, long before the Mehendi cones came to be, Mehendi was drawn just by hands. It required a lot of precision, dedication, and patience. Drawing Mehendi by hands was a skill known to a very select few and hence, Mehendi making was an art that was much revered back then. To make Mehendi by hands, the Mehendi mixture needed to have the perfect stickiness – too thick and it would be difficult to apply, too thin and it would just smudge. An easy way to check the mixture was to pinch some between index finger and thumb, and to open the fingers apart. The right mixture would create very thin threads between fingers.
As you can see, this was a very gruelling task, right from making the Mehendi mixture; not everyone was proficient at it and so Mehendi was only made during weddings and other special occasions.
Then came the art of making Mehendi using matchsticks. This concept was very similar to that of quill and ink! A matchstick was used as a quill, dipped in Mehendi mixture. To draw a Mehendi using matchsticks, the mixture did not need to be as thick as it would be needed for hand drawn Mehendi. On the contrary, it was very thin, almost fluidic, like the ink would be, but required a steady hand to create smooth flowing lines. Induction of matchstick allowed rather easy creation of intricate patterns. By no means it was a child’s play, but it did not take as much time as hand making would.
Matchsticks were taken over by Wooden Stamps. The advent of synthetic Mehendi was almost attune to the introduction of Stamp Mehendi. Synthetic Mehendi and stamping go hand in hand as it is very difficult, if not impossible, to use the natural Mehendi mixture with the stamp. The nature of stamps do not allow the thick Mehendi mixture to be used and so synthetic Mehendis which can be liquid, stick to the stamp and can be imprinted easily on the skin.
Stamps took away the skill that was required to create the intricate patterns as they were already created on the stamps. The so called Mehendi artists had to just dip the stamps in the mixture and then stamp the skin, and it was done. There is no skill or precision required. This, along with the low cost of synthetic Mehendi, made the whole thing much cheaper and less time consuming. But there is a major drawback to this. Synthetic Mehendis can cause skin reactions and long term skin ailments. Watch this video to find out why to avoid synthetic Mehendis.
This brings us to modern times. A Mehendi Connoisseur will now prefer a Mehendi made with Mehendi Cones. There are ready made cones available in the market these days, but there is no surety of type of Mehendi being used in such cones. I, along with many other Mehendi Artists, prefer to make my own cones, with completely natural and safe Mehendi. A Mehendi cone is filled with Mehendi and has a tapered end with a very tiny hole to squeeze the Mehendi out of. This tiny hole allows to create very fine lines, and hence much more complicated patterns which can be seen clearly. This also reduced thesmudging that used to occur with other methods in the past. Cones have revived the intricate art of Mehendi making, and at the same time made it accessible to the masses. One can easily learn how to create a Mehendi using cones and then the designs that can be made are only limited by the power of imagination that one possesses.
The age of technology has had its impact on Mehendi making as well. One can create a design of Mehendi on a computer and then print a stencil of it. There are thousands and millions of ready-made stencil designs available on the internet that you can download and print yourself or you can just buy online some plastic stencils instead!
Today, getting a Mehendi is not as niche as it used to be, it has become very accessible. Mehendi was once reserved for very special occasions like weddings and festivities, but today Mehendi is an everyday affair; it has come to a point where it is considered to be used as a tattoo, and that too by men as well!!
Mehendi is the art of decoratively applying Henna on the skin, and is generally applied during festive occasions, and most important of it being weddings. Mehendi is an intricate part of a wedding, and is considered to one of the ornaments of the bride, without which her attire is incomplete.
Today, the art of applying Mehendi has spread all across the world, and in many countries, Mehendi is also known as Henna Tattoo, with recent trend of getting a Mehendi not only on hands and feet, but also on backs as well.
But Mehendi has come a long way, and has overcome the test of time to gain such praise from people of different ethnicities.
Although the genesis of using Henna for Mehendi is long lost in sands of time, the earliest use of Henna is seen on the bodies of Egyptian mummies. It is believed that Henna plants had their origins in Egypt, and were carried to the Indian subcontinent around 700 AD, where Henna was started to be used as a decorative accessory. Apart from its decorative uses, Henna has also many medicinal properties, which is also major contributing factor for its growing popularity.
The use of Mehendi was prevalent in the Mughal Era and their ceremonial decorations for women. The Mughal empire had a notable role in spreading the use of Mehendi. As the art of Mehendi started spreading, the designs started becoming intricate and more admirable.
Around 17th Century, the barber’s wife would be called for creating Mehendi designs on the hands of women. The tradition of applying Mehendi to a bride is to decorate her skin. There is a dedicated event, on the night prior to the wedding day, called Mehendi in which sophisticated Mehendi designs are made on the bride’s hands and feet, and smaller, simpler designs are made for the guests. The traditions goes that, deeper the colour of the Mehendi, more the groom would love the bride, and that as long as the bride’s hands are stained with Mehendi, she would not be asked or allowed to do household chores. So would be brides, remember this tip, let your Mehendi stain deeper and richer, so that you won’t have to do the housework for longer.
Today, Mehendi is not limited to just weddings and festive occasions, women get themselves adorned with a beautiful Mehendi, without the need of any festivities. Girls get a Mehendi for their birthdays, dates, anniversaries or even just because they like it. Mehendi is not limited only to women these days, men have also started turning towards Mehendi, as a form of temporary tattoo, which they can change every few weeks!
The colour of Mehendi maybe dark, but its future is bright, very bright!
