Henna Tattoo or Jagua? What are you seeing?

I had a few disappointed customers at the shop last Saturday. They brought in samples of Jauga body art and were hoping that I could do a henna tattoo similar to the ones they found online.  Most often the answer is no. 

Jagua is more of an ink.

Henna is a paste. 

Jagua stains the skin a blue/black color and is made from a plant found in the Amazon. 

Henna stains the skin a red to reddish brown (or black cherry red if we are lucky). 

Jagua is shown on the back, thighs, the neck, and the upper arms. 

Henna is for hands, arms, feet and legs! 

I will no longer try to accomodate those who want a henna on the thigh, back or neck. I will do an upper arm band with the statement that you will not get the same rich stain as you would if you put henna on the palms of the hands or the inner wrist. 

Even if I bring the best paste possible to the event, if you do not follow the aftercare tips, then you may not get as dark a design as is possible. 

Please be sure you have No lotion, No sunscreen and No hand sanitizer on your skin. To work, henna has to actually come in contact with your skin! 

Notice the henna is darkest at the fingers. Lighter on the arm.

Please put the henna where you are going to be able to keep an eye on it through out the day. The best color happens when people leave the paste on 4 to 8 hours. 

To get really good color, please sweat?? If you go home to an air conditioned room set at 72 degrees you will not get the same dark stain as someone who wanders about the arts markets or walks by the river for a few hours. 

Henna is a heat activated body art! Heat is good. 

Things that are not good for henna: 

Washing the paste off. ( Scrape off & then apply a natural oil.) 

Removing the paste in less than four hours. 

Cholrine water. 

Swimming pools. 

So, most of the photos you see on my pages are photos of the henna paste on the skin. Sometimes people send me the “affter” photos.  

The best after photos /best color designs are from those women who really work to get the best color. Here are some tricks they use to get good color:

They have the design applied to their hands!
They stay warm.

They may dab the design (or spray it) with their own lemon juice/sugar/water mix through the day. 

They may sleep with a sport sock on their hand. 

They might oil the design and then blow dry it for 5 minutes off an on through out the first day. 

It takes 48 hours for the finished color to appear on the skin. This gives lots of time for you to help the process along. 

Of course many people get great color without doing anything extra at all. 

I write this because I want  you to have the best, darkest, longest lasting henna tattoo possible. Also to emphasize I do not do Jagua. 

Shant!!