old is gold

i chanced upon a big bag of old henna powder in the kitchen recently, which i thought i have thrown it away a long, long, loooooooong time ago! i was so delighted, even though it was already old, i thought there might be just other things i could do with them.

as henna artists know, old and unused henna powder might never give the best, darkest stains. after all, that’s what everybody wants from the henna. so i wasn’t looking forward to any stain, at all, from any batches that i would be making. but i decided that i could use them for my personal use. PRACTICE (when there are no henna calls.)

so over the weekends, i came up with a design inspired by great henna artists and one from a student of a henna artist.

i was rather surprised to find orangey stain on my fingertips. well, at least i could still trust the oldie.

it’s burgundy, y’all

i went to The Verge at Tekka last week to get the stuff i need for the kids’ concert item. apart from wanting to get hold of the more important items, i also wanted to get something that have always been an obsession. to me.

what are these? yessss, so clever. henna cones!

especially when i was asked by a dear, dear friend of mine to be a part of her engagement henna party. ermm, not to party-till-i-die but to do henna for her 15 friends. i almost fainted upon hearing that cos that’s a large number for 1 person to do!! but i accepted her invitation and did the henna.

anyway, i got myself three cones (cos one is never enough for me). 2 of them were the ones i normally buy: shama dulhan henna. and one, of a smaller cone, was something i have never used or even heard of. it cost a little bit more than shama dulhan’s but who cares! especially when the lady told me that the color would be burgundy! now that’s not the color we normally get out of henna.

it took me four days before i decided to sling the burgundy henna on my hand. i used Neeta Sharma’s intricate designs (me like!) for both sides. while slinging, i noticed that there weren’t any natural, musky henna smell. i thought i had a nose block and couldn’t smell. and the silly mistake i made, got me jumped out of my skin. literally.

when i wiped the paste clean, it stained my palm instantly! the color i saw made me fall head over heels in love with this cone of henna. and whaddaya know? look at these.

look at the stain! i didn’t clean ‘em off immediately. i did it the next morning. it’s so much darker and redder than how henna usually would stain. i didn’t mean that henna couldn’t give this tone but it’s always uncertain. either the skin or the henna paste would be the culprit. but with this burgundy henna, it guaranteed a very good stain! and look at my fingernails. so dark!

~~meeeeee looooove burgundy hennaaaaaa~~

however, there was this one thing that i disliked about the paste. it stick so well onto the skin that it refused to be scraped off. i had to wash it under running water. (if it kills you to run the tap, then wash it in a basin filled with water.) that’s not all of it. the dried paste let out “ink” that somehow stained my whole hand. look at the second and fourth pictures above.

luckily, the faint stain faded after i rubbed it away in water.

i can’t say how much i love the burgundy henna. even my husband loves it, saying that it looks nicer. and my friends too.

i know now which henna cone to get when i have brides-to-be engaged me to do henna for their wedding. and the first bride will be my cousin, whose wedding will be this coming christmas. and one more time,

~~meeeeee looooove burgundy hennaaaaaa~~

and they were so excited!

last week, on the eve of Diwali, the big boss bought many cones of henna. days before, i heard that she wanted the kids to have henna drawn on their hands. i thought that wouldn’t be a problem to me, since i LOVE henna and i do it all the time.

then, all teachers got 3 cones each. the cones were huge, i tell ya, but i didn’t manage to get a photo of them. i thought it would be good if i brought home one of the cones to test the henna paste. and guess what? i was lucky that i brought one home. after i snipped the tip, i found myself straining to get the paste out of the cone. not even a single dot out. and i checked, the cone was very very thick, that’s why. i rolled my own cones and transferred the henna paste.

and the next day, i drew the henna on the kids. even the boys wanted to have ‘em. LOL.

but of course, they chose different designs. flowers would make them look sissy haha. i didn’t like the after effect of the henna paste. they dried out very quickly and they didn’t stick well on the skin. the kids kept running back to me for another fill up for the ‘dropped out’ henna. i got so freaking mad! i hated the henna.

then i thought it could be the air-conditioner, since our classrooms were fixed with those. yea, i was confident that the air-conditioner was the one behind all these drying ups. since there were plenty of henna left, i brought them home for my own usage LOL. hey, i got permission for that!

design was very much my own but the flower was inspired by Magical Mehendi

the paste didn’t turn out good on me either, considering that i have no air-conditioner at home and i thought the temperature would be warmer, good for the henna to release a darker dye. but no ho way! the same thing happened to the kids, happened to me too. the paste dried out ever too quickly and they didn’t really stick well. when i bent my hand, it would crack and drop off my skin.

anyway, i love the swirls that i made. hehe. i thought it looked nice. and now, let’s wait for the stain. i hope it won’t disappoint me

Holidaying and Henna Slinging

i’ll be leaving for Kuala Lumpur tomorrow at the earliest morning. only me and Hubby on this trip. sort of a honeymoon. so that means my little pixie is not tagging along. again! haha. she’ll be bunking over at my mom’s house. my in laws are also going for a holiday in Kuching, Sarawak.

am a bit worried about this H1N1 flu that’s going on but so far, Malaysia is not so badly affected. anyway, i’ll quarantine myself once we’re back from KL. just for a precaution and Fateha’s sake. i wouldn’t want her to catch any flu or virus. her bronchilitis incident last year was enough and we’re sort of learnt our lesson.

i have also been slinging henna onto my own hand. just to get the skill kick back in because next week i’ll have an engagement henna to do. so i prepared a batch of henna paste using a Rajasthani powder, terped it and let it sit for 24 hours.

the first was with the paste on of course. and i tell you, lots of sugar really make the paste more sticky and won’t crack. once the paste dried, i did a lot of housework without worrying them cracking out. yippeee!!! now i can’t seem to stop slinging henna. i have them on my palm, fingers and foot LOL.

think i must have caught some henna virus!