Henna / Mehendi Paste and Cone – Tutorial

How to make Chemical free Henna / Mehendi Paste and Cone – Tutorial

Henna also commonly known as Mehendi among the Indians around the world, is used for making designs / temporary tattoos on hands and feet. Henna designs are known as Henna tattoos in the western part of the world and has become very popular in the past decade. Although vastly popular today, henna / mehendi designs have immense cultural and traditional significance in India and other Southeast Asian countries.

Cultural and Traditional Significance

People of India and other Southeast Asian countries do henna designing as a part of their tradition. It is considered auspicious to apply henna / mehendi on your palms during different festivals, occasions, and especially weddings.  Mostly women and in some traditions even men apply henna / mehendi on their palm as a part of getting ready for the important and festive occasions. Applying henna / mehendi during joyous occasions symbolizes good health, positive spirit, prosperity, and good luck. It is more than thousands of years old tradition in these cultures to apply henna during weddings, baby shower, and festivals. If you attend a traditional Indian wedding, you will see henna on the hands of the bride, close relatives, and in some culture even the grooms apply henna. Applying henna during these ceremonial events brings good luck and prosperity to newlyweds’ life after the marriage.

Henna / mehendi is also used to make natural herbal medicines. It cools the body and relieves the stress when applied to hair or hands or feet. So, it has become important part of the Indian culture to apply henna before wedding and other festive occasions. It helps relieve stress before the wedding and applying it in the form of designs increases the beauty of the bride or the person applying it.

Modern day Henna – temporary tattoos

Henna designs are like temporary tattoos. These temporary tattoos / designs are in demand now a days because they give nice colored designs on your hands, and you can get rid of them in about a week’s time. Not only in India and Southeast Asian countries, even in the USA, Europe, Australia, and many other countries; you can see henna designing booths and shops in the malls. Freelance henna designers are available to come over and apply the henna design. It is beautiful how countries around the world imbibe beautiful traditions from each other and enjoy it in their own way.

Why make Henna / Mehendi Cones at home?

Now a days ready made henna / mehendi cones are easily available in the nearby stores. These cones come in all shapes and sizes and are very cheap. Then why do you need to make these cones at home. Well, the simple reason is that these cones are made with all kinds of chemicals in them for their longevity and to give dark colored designs. These cones do give dark color, but they end up making our skin itchy and as the days go by instead of fading away this chemical treated henna peels off along with the skin. So, it is better to make henna / mehendi paste and cone at home or to get it from the person who makes it at home. This article includes written and video tutorial of how to make chemical free henna / mehendi paste and cone at home. This method gives good color and is chemical free.

Henna / Mehendi Powder

You can use henna/ mehendi powder available to you in your nearby store. To make henna paste for designing, it is very important that your filter the powder with the help of strainer. Straining helps remove the coarse material present in henna powder and makes henna paste smoother. Smooth henna comes out of cone easily and uninterruptedly.

Sugar and Eucalyptus oil

Adding sugar and Eucalyptus oil is important while making henna / mehendi paste for designing. Eucalyptus oil is easily available in stores and online. This oil gives darker and long-lasting color. It is important that this oil is almost 100 % pure. Sugar powder helps make the paste smoother and stick to our hands properly.

Tea water to make paste

You can make henna / mehendi paste with the help of regular water too but making it with tea water helps in getting darker color of henna design. All you need to do is boil about 2 cups of water in a pot. Then add 2-3 table spoons of tea leaves or one black tea bag to it. Then add 3-4 cloves. Bring this tea water to boil. Tea leaves gives dark reddish color to henna. Cloves help enhance the color of henna. If you do not have tea leaves or tea bags at home, you can use coffee powder instead of tea leaves. Make black coffee with cloves and use it to make the henna paste. Once the tea water or coffee water is ready, filter it and let it cool down a bit. It should be warm or room temperature when you are making henna/ mehendi paste with it.

Beautiful Henna designs ideas for for kids and adults and my little experiment at home

Got the above color of Henna / Mehendi design just after 2 hours of applying it. This method (recipe) of making henna cone gives beautiful color for sure. Generally it is suggested to keep henna / mehendi design for more than 4-5 hours or overnight. Then gently remove the dried henna / mehendi without using water. This will give us dark colored design. But just for the experiment, I made the cone with this recipe and washed it off with water just after 2 hours of applying it on my hand. Got the above dark colored design on my hand. We can say this recipe of henna gives really good color.

How to make Henna / Mehendi paste?

Necessary Ingredients to make Henna / Mehendi Paste

• 10 tablespoons of henna/ mehendi powder
• 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar
• 4-6 drops of eucalyptus oil
• Tea water

Necessary ingredients to make tea water

• 2 cups of water
• 2-3 spoons of black tea leaves or one black tea bag
• 3-4 cloves

Necessary things to make cone

• Thick and clean plastic wrap
• Or cut open new Ziploc bag
• Scissors
• Scotch tape or Cello tape

Method

• Take a pot add two cups of water, tea leaves or black tea bag, and cloves and bring the water to boil. If you do not have tea you can use coffee powder and cloves.
• Once the tea water (black tea) is ready, filter it and let it cool down to room temperature.
• In a steel / iron / glass bowl, take 10 tablespoons of henna / mehendi powder. Filter it with the help of the strainer and then use it to make paste.

• Add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar and 4-6 drops of eucalyptus oil.
• Mix everything well.
• Now start adding tea water 2-3 spoons at a time and stir the mixture. Keep adding tea water little by little to henna powder mix and keep stirring until thick paste is formed.
• Mix it well and see to it that there are no lumps.
• Once the paste is ready, cover it with the plastic foil or airtight lid and keep it aside at the room temperature for 4-5 hours or for overnight.
• Open the henna/mehendi paste bowl in the morning or after 4-5 hours mix it well again.
• Add little bit of left over tea water or regular water and make the paste smoother. You can see the consistency of the paste in the video at the end of the written recipe.

• Chemical free Henna/ Mehendi paste is ready for designing.
• To make cone, take thick and clean plastic wrap or cut open the new Ziploc bag.
• Cut it into a square or a rectangle.
• Then make a cone from it.
• Apply the scotch tape or cello tape and close all the open ends of the cone from inside and out.
• Once the cone is ready, fill up the cones with henna paste.
• Seal the open end with tape well. Henna / Mehendi cones are ready to use.

• See all the above steps practically done in the video below.

Video Tutorial for making Henna / Mehendi Cone

Tips

• Use this paste and cone within a week of making it.
• Store it in the refrigerator once the cone is ready.
• For the better results and darker color, use the henna/mehendi paste and cone as soon as possible.
• Same henna/ mehendi cone can give different color to different people because henna staining varies from person to person.

Subscribe to this website and Our YouTube Channel for Instant updates and step by step recipes

Find, like, share and Subscribe  FoodRecipes-by-eatwritecreate on YouTube.

Subscribe to this website and our YouTube Channel for step by step creative Arts and Craft Tutorials.

Find, like, share and Subscribe  ArtsandCraft-by-eatwritecreate on YouTube.