She brought me a shirt

With henna the possibilities are endless so when a friend brought me a shirt and asked me to create a design, I was excited. Free hand henna designs with inspiration from objects, is one of my favorite ways to do henna. If an object is not available I get inspiration from veins in the hands (sounds crazy, I know). This design was lots of fun, and this shirt was easy to get inspired by.

Can you see what I used from this shirt? What would you have done differently? What do you use for inspiration? Check out my instagram @freehandmehndi for daily inspiration

Henna Fusion

When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be an illustrator. In one way that dream did come true, I mean henna is an illustration, isn't it? A few years ago I started drafting ebooks with henna patterns. My first books were awful, but my skills have improved since then and has become another creative outlet. 

For the past few months I've worked hard to complete an upcoming ebook release. I sketched, tested, re sketched, and then drafted in ink many designs. Some designs didn't make the final cut, yes I'm a little obsessive about my ebooks lol. 

Fusion henna designs have become my new passion. Fusion happens when I combine several different styles of henna into one design. The design pictured below is a mixture of Moroccan (the shape/outline), Indian (fillers), and Arabic (bold lines and accents). I've now decided to do an ebook just on fusion designs alone, but this is a great start. 

What do you think? What are your favorite styles of henna to mix? Join me on Pinterest, where I'll start previewing my fusion designs.

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MDH Henna Powder Review

Very rarely do I go out and blind purchase henna powder off the shelf. I did such a thing the other day for a whopping $5.99. The box doesn't note a harvest or expiration date, so there isn't a clear indication as to when it was harvested.

Knowing the harvest date wasn't really that important, because upon opening the box I discovered two extra ingredients in the henna powder. MDH's secret ingredients include green dye and sand!!! They must know this is the secret to making a henna artist happy (sarcasm). 

The green dye is added to old henna to give it a fresh harvested look, but even freshly harvested and milled henna isn't that green. The sand is added in place of actual henna powder. It gives the henna powder more weight, making it appear as though you have 100 grams of henna when you actually only have 80 grams (the other 20 grams is just sand). 

The green dye doesn't really cause too many issues but the sand makes it near impossible to apply a decent design. So after discovering the two extra ingredients I didn't see the need to test the stain or mix the paste as I normally would. 

MDH gets a big fat F in my book. 

Watch my review of MDH on YouTube!

Henna Party Floral Design

I know how much you love tutorials. Here's another video with a design perfect for henna parties. This design looks really cute embellished with glitter and rhinestones (after the henna paste has been removed).

As always, thanks for watching. If you haven't done so please subscribe to my youtube channel. If I reach 14,000 subscribers by the end of July I'll host a massive giveaway.

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New video! Tribal Henna Design Tutorial

After posting pictures of this design on Instagram and Facebook I got a lot of interest in a video tutorial for this design. I have to apologize it's not my best work I was a little rushed for time. I'll make more time in my schedule for more filming and editing. It's great to be back on YouTube

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Faryal Makhdoom's Bridal Mehndi

Does her name not ring a bell? Ding ding! She's the wife of boxer Amir Khan. Until I saw their wedding album in the June 10th issue of Hello! magazine I'd never heard of either of them.

What a beautiful couple. Of course I had to thumb through the magazine to see all of lovely wedding pictures, and of course I was looking for pics of the mehndi. 

Her hands were simple mandalas with finger accents. The palms and feet were not shown. I'll soon post pictures of my attempt at Faryal's bridal mehndi but I thought I'd share a few bits of their special day. 

Congrats Amir and Faryal! 

A little something tribal

While stuck in bed feeling bleh I decided to get creative. This hand design is adapted from a foot design I've done many times in the past year. It's giving me an ethnic tribal vibe. What do you say?

Adding a little beauty twist to this post I popped on one of my fav nail polishes. It's almost a neon lavender which looks great on tan or darker skin tones. The color is "Fairytale" from the JulieG line manufactured by Jessie's Girl Cosmetics. I love the colors and quality in this line. The first coat is a little streaky so I always do two. It's long lasting and doesn't chip. 

That crazy thing that Raj does

I'm a big fan of Rajasthani henna, it actually makes the top two in my book. Raj is stringy, silky smooth, and dark staining. This of course is not the case 100% of the time, only when it's harvested and milled properly. 

But Raj does some weird stuff. Ever used Raj on you palms and feet and found that it doesn't fade evenly? I mean dark spots for weeks upon weeks when the rest of the design is gone? 

Raj is just crazy like that. Sometimes those dark spots turn blue or green, and look like mold. It isn't harmful at all, it's just one of those crazy things that Raj does. Of course this doesn't happen to everyone but for us lucky few it can attract some pretty odd stares. 

This blog post was written in beautiful Irving park in Portland Oregon. Happy Friday!

New tutorial! How to make a henna cone

The most popular method of henna application is by cone. In this video I show you how to fill and close your cone applicator. I also recently uploaded a video demonstrating how to roll a cone applicator. Cones are excellent applicators. Cones allow control with pressure, fine lines, shading, and draping.

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Put a little sugar in it

In my most recent video I had a question asked about sugar from a subscriber. In the video "quick and easy henna paste" I didn't use sugar. In this post we'll discuss when, why, and how to use sugar in henna paste.  

First let's discuss why henna artists add sugar to their henna paste. Sugar helps henna that's not naturally stringy to become stringy. What is stringy exactly? Stringy is a texture that allows you to lay and drape thin lines and delicate motifs in your henna designs, without breaking the lines. This is really helpful when applying complex designs like an artist would in a bridal design. Henna from Rajasthan India and Morocco are naturally stringy without the use of sugar, I highly recommend them both for bridal henna application.

Sugar also slows the drying process once the henna is applied to the skin. The goal is to keep the wet henna paste on the skin for as long as possible to achieve the darkest possible stain. Adding sugar to the paste with the intention of slowing the drying process is ideal during festivals/street fairs when the weather is often hot and dry, and the henna will dry too quickly. Of course adding sugar is ideal for bridal when achieving the darkest possible stain is ideal. 

Is sugar right for every henna paste or a requirement? No. As mentioned earlier Moroccan and Rajasthani hennas really don't require sugar due to their naturally stringy qualities (unless of course you want to delay the drying time, and there are other ways to do this). Adding sugar to henna that's already naturally stringy can backfire on you, making the henna too sticky. 

Speaking of sticky, the third reason to add sugar to henna paste is to make it sticky. This is recommended for festivals/street fairs when the customer will move shortly after the design is applied, and will be out in dry heat. Without sugar, the design may dry too quickly and fall off resulting in a weak stain and unhappy customers. 

In the video I didn't add sugar because I was using henna powder from Rajasthan and because sugar is optional, not required. 

I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions about henna paste I'm always happy to answer. 

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Challenge your henna artist skills

Every once in a while I randomly select a henna design book from my collection. Then I randomly turn to a page from this randomly selected book and I apply the first design I see. This helps me to keep my skill sharp and perhaps try a design I've never attempted. 

This week it was Zury by Heena Patel. I rarely apply designs from this book so it was a nice change. Zury is a pattern book of mainly Arabic style designs which means thicker lines and large florals. 

All images copyright Free Hand Mehndi 2013. 

Mehndi Mandala Festival or Party Henna Design

This month I was invited to apply henna for wedding guests at the Nritya Mandala Mahavihara temple. Inspired by the artwork and name of the temple, a lot of mandalas were applied. I decided to recreate one of my favorite manadalas applied that day. This manadala is really easy to apply and is perfect for henna parties or festivals.

Thank you to bride Alicia and groom Triratna for having me be a part of your special day.

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