Making Henna Tattoo Paste

Video Transcript

"Now we're going to make henna paste. Here's the fresh henna powder. You can see that it's very fine and it's almost like baby powder. This is another way that you can tell that you have good powder. It's good to kind of use your spoon to sort of get a few of the lumps. Make sure there are no lumps in it. What I put in my henna and a little bit of molasses. You can also add a little bit of lemon juice if you like just to boost the staining quality, but really all you need is water and a sugar element. I'm going to pour. Since I don't have very much powder in here, I'm just going to use a about a teaspoon. A good way to judge the consistency is to make it when you're stirring about the consistency of yogurt. I'm going to stir this in here. It gives off a really earthy smell. It's kind of like the grass smell, which can be pleasant. Some people like it or don't. Anyway, I'm stirring it so it's about the consistency of yogurt. When I've got that mixed in, I'm going to add a little bit of the molasses just to give it some sticking quality to the skin, which helps when it's drying on the skin. I'll just stir that in. Again, I'm making very little quantity here. If you want to fill a bottle of this size, you probably want to use about 3 or 4 tablespoons of powder. Here's the paste. What you will do now is you'll cover it with a towel or plastic wrap and then a towel, and set it in a sort of a dry place like an oven, but turned off, and let it sit for about 24 hours. Then you'll stir it again before you fill your bottle."