Henna is a small flowering shrub/plant that grows in humid climates. The leaves of this plant contain a potent dye that, when dried, crushed, and mixed with other ingredient creates a smooth, silky paste. This paste is then put into an applicator and used to ‘draw’ on the skin. When the paste dries and flakes off, a beautiful stain is left behind; the stain continues to darken over the course of 2 to 3 days and the mature stain can last up to 2 weeks with proper aftercare.

Many henna artists do not like to refer to a henna design as a ‘tattoo’ — mostly because there is a different connotation attached with the word ‘tattoo’ (namely needles and pain!). Henna is totally painless and temporary body art. In addition, tattoos (in the western world at least) are generally considered rebellious, a way of standing out from the crowd. Henna does not carry that connotation; it is common to see elderly grandmothers and women from all walks of life be have henna designs. This is because henna is, first and foremost, an adornment, a way of beautifying oneself (like getting your nails done, or hair cut), especially in preparation for a special occasion such as a wedding, a holiday, etc. The art of adorning the body with henna is a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years amongst different cultures and religions.

The henna plant grows in many places all over the world: Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East just to name a few. Many cultures and religions have traditions of henna, including but not limited to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and more. Henna as a form of body art does not belong to any one culture over another, or any one religion over another. It is a form of body adornment that holds special significance in *many* cultures around the world. Most popularly it is used in: weddings (the bride, bridal party, and female guests), in celebration of holidays, to celebrate the birth of a baby (the mom to be gets her hands henna’d during pregnancy, tho a new western tradition is to do henna on mom’s pregnant belly), or other such happy occasions in a woman’s life.

Our Henna is completely organic and safe for the skin. We mix our own henna from dried ground leaves from the plant Lawsonia Inermia, lemon juice, and essential oils.

This paste is then inserted into a cellophane cone that becomes the artist’s tool.

Leave it on! Henna should be kept on the skin for a good 6 to 8 hours. Dried henna pieces will fall off periodically and that is ok. 

Keep it dry!  Stay away from the water on the henna’d skin for as long as possible – 18-24 hours is ideal. This will give you the BEST possible stain. 

Keep it warm – henna loves heat so whatever you can do to stay warm is a great idea. Take a stroll in the sun, sit by a fireplace or space heater, or use a hairdryer to warm your hands! 

Wait – henna takes time to ‘bloom’ on your skin. The henna stain starts off bright orange and steadily increases to a deep chocolate brown tone over 1 to 2 days AFTER you remove the paste! 

Black henna is a paste made by mixing a little bit of henna, and a whole of things that are really bad for your skin, namely: PPD (a chemical found in black hair dye), charcoal, kerosene (yes!), and other chemicals. These chemicals can very easily seep into your blood stream and cause painful sores and permanent scarring, not to mention lead poisining. IT IS NOT SAFE; HENNA IS NOT BLACK and will always stain in shades of red and brown. WE DO NOT USE OR CONDONE THE USE OF BLACK ‘HENNA’.