Henna Paste Help Please

I've been working on making my own henna for a year now. I've got my consistency down (that only took 2,000 botched cones), but I'm having some issues with my scent and with stain.

Too be fair, when I henna myself (following all best practices) I stain practically maroon. But I can see that the people that I've been henna-ing that I then see again and again (siblings and cousins versus the random people I meet at events/fairs) aren't getting quite as dark as I would have expected, nor is it lasting as long as mine last. While I know every person is different, henna shouldnt be lasting just over a week. Should I blame my paste, or rewrite my after care instructions?

Additionally, I'm not loving the smell of some of my own "terp" combos. I've been using cajeput as a base, but I keep trying to find my own scent with small additions of other terps. All I find is that I am apparently a bad terp creator. Any thoughts/helpful suggestions for blending terps that smell lovely (rather than somewhat sickly)?

hehehe... you know it all depends on the henna itself. i have tried so many different brands from different places... online... in stores... blah blah... the only thing i have learned in the last 17 years is that henna varies so much!

i have some people who get super dark stains almost black! and some who only seem to stay in a redish tinge... the thing is how long do you keep it on? how long do you ask them to leave it on? even henna left on for as little as n hour seems to last a week with us...

what exactly are your aftercare instructions? always remember never to use water to remove the paste... we always say to use cooking oil to help it come off...

as for the smell and terps... i think we have tried nearly everything we have read up about henna... the thing it came down to was that many of it was stuff that we find out that people are allergic too so we keep ours as simple as possible. the thing we love is the lemon juice and sugar actually mixed in the henna... some times the simplest is often the best

I have the same issues.. If you are getting crazy stains on yourself, and from the same batch (that hasn't deteriorated) you do someone else and their stains are not so good.. It's not the paste at that point, it would be after care or skin differences. Nice silky thing skin isn't going to produce like dry rough skin is.

I generally use cajeput or teatree as my terp too.. i haven't spent much time trying to make "my scent" ..Just want it to stain lol