Create Your Henna Paste For Karwa Chauth; Achieve Long-Lasting Mehendi!

With onset of festive season in India, one of most significant festivals, Karwa Chauth, is just around corner. This year, it falls on Sunday, October 20. On this day, married Hindu women observe a fast and pray to deities for long life of ir husbands. Wives orn mselves in tritional attire and apply beautiful mehendi to mark occasion.

As we approach this auspicious day, why not try your hand at creating your henna paste for long-lasting Karwa Chauth mehendi? following recipe yields about 3.5 ounces of henna paste, which is enough to fill approximately seven applicator bottles or 4-5 hand-rolled cones.

Tools

• Bowl and spatula/spoon (any will do, but plastic, rubber or or porous materials may stain permanently)
• Water (Distilled or purified water is most reliable)
• Cling wrap or plastic lid for bowl
• Cake decorating bag or durable sandwich bag
• Applicator (rolled cones or squeeze bottles)
• Digital scale (optional)
• Digital rmometer (optional)

Ingredients

• Body art quality henna powder.
• Essential oils such as organic cajeput. Any oil with a high “terp” content will work great.
• Sugar - Do not use powdered/confectioner’s sugar.

Process

Step 1: d se to your bowl: 25 grams of henna powder (about 1/4 cup), 13 grams of sugar (about 1.5 tsp), 7.5 ml of essential oil (about 1.5 tsp) and approximately 1/4 cup of water. We like to mix dry ingredients first, n d water, and d essential oil last. It blends better this way but isn’t required. Mix well. paste should be pretty thick but all ingredients are blended thoroughly. If it’s too thick to blend, d a teeny bit of water (start with 1 tsp) and try mixing again. Repeat as needed. Don't worry about small lumps, those will mostly dissolve later.

Step 2: Cover with cling wrap. You don't have to be too careful about it - idea is just to keep henna from drying out. Now, let it rest for a while. If you want to use it next day, just leave it out on your counter overnight. If you want it rey faster, put it in a warm (not hot) location, such as top of your fridge or sitting under a stove light. Use a rmometer to check temp of paste. Your goal is to keep it around 75-80˚ F. At that temperature, it’ll be rey in about 3-4 hours*.* 3-4 hours is typical for Sūraja henna powder, but results may vary. If you're using powder from anor supplier please check with m for ir recommended resting times.)

Step 3: Check to see if your henna is rey with a simple spot test. Dab a bit of henna on your fingertip and leave it re for about a minute. When you wipe it away, in natural light it should be bright orange. If it's not, let it sit a bit longer and test it again in anor hour.

Step 4: henna is rey! Time to get it to perfect consistency. d a little water to mixture, and stir it up well. Continue to d water, 1 teaspoon at a time, with lots of mixing between each dition. More mixing = silkier paste! With practice, you'll get a feel for how thin you prefer your henna. You want it to be thin enough that it’s easy to use, but not so thin that it oozes everywhere when you make designs.

(Henna recipe: sarahenna.com)