Review: Earth Henna Mini Henna Body Painting Kit

If you are not familiar with the terms henna art or henna body painting, I suggest reading the Wikipedia article on henna. Henna is generally sold as a powder which is mixed into a paste, which is used to dye the skin, giving the recipient a temporary tattoo. Initially skin is dyed a bright orange color, but after a day or two, the orange darkens into a brown color. The time a henna tattoo stays on your skin is a result of how long you leave the henna paste on during application.

I recently purchased the Earth Henna Mini Henna Body Painting Kit in a local “import gift” shop. I paid $15, which seems to be the normal retail price for this kit, and which is a pretty reasonable price when compared to other do-it-yourself henna kits that I’ve found online. I bought the kit to try out a few at-home henna designs for Crystal. Henna is a popular service offered in tourism centers - Crystal got a rose design on her hand at the beach during our last vacation - and buying the at-home kit is a much cheaper option that allows me to be creative with my own designs.

The kit packaging boasts the follow items:

• One Cone of Henna Powder
• 5 gm Earth Henna Solution
• 6 gm Eucalyptus Oil
• Applicator Squeeze Bottle
• Screw-on Applicator Tip
• Re-usable Stencils
• Cotton Swabs (for cleaning off mistakes)
• Toothpicks (for forming straight lines)

I didn’t receive re-usable stencils in my kit - I did get a plain sheet of paper with some basic designs on it, but I wouldn’t call it a stencil. I also didn’t receive any cotton swabs or toothpicks, but these are minor items that I easily found in my own cabinets. All of the important items were included - and I was able to easily follow the instructions to mix up the henna paste. The fact that the contents of the package did not meet the description on the outside does make me feel slightly cheated - but I guess I can forgive them for not tossing me a few toothpicks.

After mixing the paste in the plastic-bag cone, resulting in a somewhat disgusting looking puke-green goop, I had to wait 2 hours before using the mix. After the required 2 hours, I transfered the mix to the plastic squeeze bottle, screwed on the nice metal applicator cap, and I was ready to go. Since I was spending most of my time messing with the actual henna paste and not designing a tattoo for Crystal, she searched the internet for some designs she liked, and we chose one to try out. The setup was nearly effortless, and I was quickly working on a hand design. Basically, you squeeze the toothpaste-like henna paste onto the skin of your subject, and leave it on as it dyes their skin.

The directions suggest leaving the henna on your skin for up to six hours to maximize the dying process, but we found that it is hard to leave the paste on your skin past an hour, as it starts to dry, crack, and fall off. The first design I finished was a week ago, the paste was left on Crystal’s skin for about 45 minutes, and the tattoo is just now starting to fade all the way. The second design I did today, and we left the paste on for an hour - we’ll see if this one lasts longer than a week.

Since the paste is stored in a plastic squeeze bottle with a screw on cap, it lasts up to 4 weeks if kept in the fridge, according to the directions. I have used about half of the paste on my two designs, but I have to admit they were both pretty big. Hopefully we can find some cool and creative things to do with the remaining paste over the next 3 weeks, and hopefully it will last as long as predicted.

Basically, we’ve had success and fun so far using this Earth Henna mini kit. The directions did not specify what the eucalyptus oil should be used for, and so far we haven’t used it, so if you happen to know, please let us know - until then it will continue to be a bag decoration for my kit. I would definitely recommend this kit to anyone looking for an easy to mix, easy to use, and good quality at-home henna tattoo kit.

Earth Henna Mini Henna Body Painting Kit: 4/5

I would love to hear what you think of my design (the hibiscus flower) - also, have you ever gotten a henna tattoo, and if so, what was your impression of the experience? Also, I apologize that I don’t have any pictures of a completed design that isn’t orange - I have continually forgotten to take a picture of the first design done last week, now that it is brown. I will possibly add a pic of the brown new design in the next few days, so make sure to check back.

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