henna artists

I was doing some research on Henna as I have always wanted to try it and came across this product and wondered if anyone has tried it. Is it safe to order those pre mixed tubes of henna?
http://www.shahnazhusainusa.com/hennapenna.php

It may have unsafe dyes in it. It's always best to mix your own so you know exactly what your using.

Ditto!

I could never trust that stuff!

Me either, and honestly, mixing your own is easy and affordable.

Most premade henna tubes from overseas are COMPLETELY untrustworthy. They often have unlisted mystery ingredients and toxins at usually at the best the result is middle of the road to the worst, which is nothing but crud that stinks enough to give you a headache and washes off the next day.
Learn to make your own paste, it is both super easy and yet does take some practice to get the consistancy that is best for you and how you intend to apply. You are always taking a risk with premades even from a reliable source just due to the shipping process. Even when they are totally great and the henna gets to your state, who knows what the courier service did to stall it or heat it up or whatever.
If you MUST buy premade (and I am NOT encouraging this) PLEASE buy it from a tried and true source like www.mehandi.com or wwww.hennacaravan. Because someone else had to go through the time and effort to mix it, be prepared to pay for it. Cheaper to do on your own as well but at least these will be 'clean' and safe mixes.
*this is me getting off my soapbox*

Thanks! That was what I was trying to say but without all the awesome info involved! I've seen bad henna being used & it just makes me cringe!

I saw a guy using a black henna he claimed was safe & from some plant at our fair this year. I've always heard black henna was bud, unsafe & never to be trusted. Was there any merit to what he said or was he just running a line of bull to sell his product(and his designs were basic & quite awful).

Safe 'Black' henna is a non-existant lie to part money from people who trust the 'professional' sitting in front of them. Most 'death paste slingers' (this is what we call these people) know it toxic and just don't care because by the time you have a chemical burn/reaction, they are long gone. Some really honestly just don't know because they bought the product online at a vendor who lied to them about the safety and don't see the results or are confused about why thier hands are starting to swell and they are getting sick. 'Black henna' (PPD chemical (Para-phenylenediamine) is banned in Canada due to the severe and permanent health issues, but natural henna is fine. Still it sneaks in here and there as a hair dye called 'Bigen' or as actual hair dye 'henna - black'. Unfortunately with bad foreign labeling and it being almost a 'scoff law' due to the infrequent occurance, the black does get in with disasterous results over the long term. You can get Jagua which is a jelly like substance made from fruit and although it is safer than black henna, it is still under debate on how much it triggers a reaction in clients so I avoid it to be safe. Jury is still out on that product. Here is some info and additonal links:
Black henna info and warnings
Hope this helps!

OH and while this is at it's worst in tourist traps like Mexico and places in Florida, these people can be anywhere! Most of these guys try to say that people that dis the black product are jelous that people want the black and are just trying to keep the black off the street because it hurts thier biz. Which is just a knee jerk (and I do mean jerk! ) reaction. If it were safe we would all use it or at least offer it side by side...DUH! The reality is that real henna is easy to make but like baking a cake from scratch it can take some practice to get the mix right due to factors like humidity and sugar content. Toxic sludge mixed with henna is easy, does not deteriorate, does not lose color and is not natural so you can put it down without refrigeration or care of any sort then pick it back up again. No skill required to mix, no learning about the product. Great for unethical people who see body art as 'easy money' and don't care how they get it. *there I go again...darn soapbox...who put that there?!?!*

Sorry...a bit passionate about the black paste scourge!! :-)

You confirmed what I thought when the guy said it was safe. I wanted to scream, NOOO!!! at the sweet teens were getting their midriffs done with awful little black smudges called a design. Yeah, I'm a little passionate about it too. A cute little dolphin is nice for a week, but a big scabby puffer fish & illness are not so cool.
Death Paste Slingers! Ha... that's getting filed away with, Craft Paint Hookers!

Here in North Carolina, the beaches are flooded with the "black henna' so much so, that this past year when I started offering it at the fesivals that I do (in addition to the face paint & glitter tats) people didn't want it because it was not black!!

*sigh* It's unfortunate, but depending on how good the slingers are at 'sales' I've even seen people convinced that the BLACK is safe and they should stay away from the brown.

Many of those people unfortunately see henna as a 'fake tattoo' rather than an artform and that in itself means that they are looking for something different than henna. BUT these peeps have been more fond of Temptu as it lasts for several days and after babypowdering over it, it looks like a needle tattoo. In a 'festival' or biker laden event, I'm likely to offer both henna and the temp tat option.

I do find that if I'm wearing a really great design and it's an attention grabber, they see it in a more favorable light as well. I hope that doesn't stop you from trying to keep up the henna tho!

Kim,
I'm still a "newb" to the henna world, although I LOVE it! I've been doing it for almost a year now.
All of us at the festival booth usually are wearing henna designs, so yes that DOES help the sales!

I still struggle with my henna being too thick or too thin. (I make my own)
I use a J-bottle because I've not been able to use a cone & make my designs look good as I would like them to look.

The "black henna" slingers are usually in the tourist stores that sell trinkets, beach towels and the like. They use stencils and just pipe the henna over the stencil and pull it off. Pretty simple and mostly not impressive art-wise. But because it is black as tar, people go for it.

Linda Adams wrote:I still struggle with my henna being too thick or too thin. (I make my own) I use a J-bottle because I've not been able to use a cone & make my designs look good as I would like them to look.

Hi,
Hope you don't mind me butting in to add my .02$. I just wanted to say that I have been mixing paste my entire time with henna (discovered it in 1996). And I still adjust the thickness of my paste. It drives my assistant a bit batty, because I thin the paste for bridal events and prefer it to be a bit thicker for festivals/corporate events.
I think it was last year that I realized I have been thinning my paste a bit more and more ... probably for the last 3 years.

The more you work with it the more tricks you figure. Just like painting!

Hi Justine,
I just keep plugging along. I love doing henna, but I'm slow at it and it frustrates me to the point of me wanting to just say "I'm done with it".
My daughters do it at the festivals that we work. They are much better than me.

I need to jump back & try to work with cones. The very first henna I worked with I got from a friend who's cones were big & hard to handle. About twice the size of the smaller cones I've seen used at festivals.

I know I'm better than when I first started, but I'm not where I want to be yet....so I need to just keep practicing. I have a stain on my hand now (that sucks rocks) that I'm washing as much as I can to make it go away so I can do another one...and better this time!

Hi Linda,
When I made the jump from bottle to cone, I was still doing small SCA events locally. So, I'm a 'sink or swim' kinda person, I just took ONLY cones to that event...not a bottle in site. It gave me 2 days to henna, for money, but a bit casually. I told most of the people I was working on that I was using a new tool and to be patient.
Never went back to a bottle after that.
Heck even when I get the glitter gels in a bottle, I prefer to put it in a small cone and use it that way.
Btw, you will find (or have found) that even cone size varies. I have seen some people who prefer them to be pencil like. I know another artist who prefers them really short and fat (like a top). This is probably another aggravation for my assistant because I like to change up the shape every few months...lol.

Anyway, experiment with different cone shapes/sizes. Even rolling from triangles, and rectangles (my preference) too.