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This is an upper arm stain made with "terped" henna. I didn't do lemon/sugar, or seal, or wrap! I just put the henna on and the lady left it there until it fell off. It took two days to darken to this color. So what's "terped henna"? "Terped henna" means "This henna paste has one or more monoterpene alcohols added to facilitate dye release and rapid darkening of the resulting henna stain."
So where do "terps" come from from and is this a safe thing? Terpenes are molecules plants make, just like they make starches, sugars and proteins. The particular terpenes most useful to henna are the monoterpene alcohols. They are terpineol, geraniol, cineol, eugenol, linalool, and there are many others. They smell strong, and remind you of Ben Gay, Tiger Balm, Icy Hot, Pine-Sol, and Mentholatum, or a pine barren on a hot day. My favorite sources of monoterpene alcohols are Tea Tree Essential Oil, Cajeput, Cardamom, Geranium, Monoterpene Alcohols is a longish scary industrial sounding name, but they are NATURAL and the ones I recommend in the Serious Mixes are very unlikely to cause any problems. If you're concerned that people might get a skin irritation from them, ask if they have ever used Tea Tree Oil products, or are allergic to lavender, perfumes, after shaves, Vicks-VapoRub, Ben Gay, or Pine-Sol. If they're OK with those, they should have no problem. The paste might tingle a bit, like Ben-Gay type products tingle.
So what did I use to get these henna stains? I mixed Jamila or Castle Arts Regular henna with lemon juice and left that sit for 12 hours on an 85F ( about 30C) day in a covered plastic container. Then I mixed in Tea Tree essential oil or cajeput essential oil and left that to sit for 12 hours, in a ziploc bag, with all the air squeezed out, at about 85F. Then I fine tuned the texture and scent by vigorously stirring in lemon juice, and one of the more fragrant "terps" like lavender, cardamom, geranium, clove bud, juniper berry, thyme, neroli .... till the paste smelled nice and the texture was silky-stringy. I aim for a texture that is about like stirred up yogurt, and will pull into a stringy peak like meringue or soft ice cream. I use 1 - 2 drops of high-terpene essential oils per 1 gram of dry henna powder. The paste gave good stain from 12 hours after the initial terping, to 48 hours after initial terping. I never had any paste left after that, but you can see the gradual demise curve at: http://www.hennapage.com/journal/issue_II/article_6/page1.html My complete terp rants are at my Clandestine Gallery: http://reverndbunny.sphosting.com/gallery.htm
down the right hand side.
Jamila and other great hennaes for great terp results are available from : Castle Art http://www.castleart.com
The upper arm pattern is on the woman who first handed me a cone of henna and got me started on all this! She grew up in the Middle East, in a henna using culture, and I owe her a lot! Every summer, for the past 13 years, I've done henna on her at Brushwood's festivals. She always just asks me to look into her skin and draw what I see. I saw thorn bushes, flames, lighting in the night, and weapons. She is a combat veteran, and was an officer in her country's military. For years, those war images had faded out of her skin, but this year they were back. She does a lot of lecturing now on the mindset, conditions, and belief systems that incubate extremism and terrorism, as well as how one learns to cope in an environment where there are terrorist attacks. She's lived in the Middle East most of her life, and has much to offer people who find the henna world politically incomprehensible. Back to Reverend Bunny's Secret Summer 2002 Henna Diaries index |
