Sorry I have been away for so long, I have been extremely busy getting back into the routine of University and lazy/drunken student life. So, in a terrible fit of essay procrastination, I decided I would write a cheeky little blog entry about something I have become a weeny bit obsessed with over the past few months: henna tattoos.
So, my obsession began in September when I went down to Nottingham to visit my good friend Amelia. I had wanted a henna tattoo for such a long time, and after doing a bit of research, I (strangely) found that there was a woman in Nottingham who did henna tattoos in the main shopping centre. This was the beautiful result of her labour:
She literally did that freehand in like 5/10 minutes and it only cost me £10; I was in awe really! I watched this woman at work, thinking: 'Man, this is easy! I could definitely have a good crack myself!'... haha, no. It is NOT easy. AT ALL. I think I must have taken for granted the fact that this woman was obviously of an Asian persuasion, and I am a cocky white girl from a wool province of Liverpool. So I had ordered some henna cones from eBay (I think they cost me around £5 for 6), and after several embarrassing attempts (which I am not even willing to share with you), I gave up. THAT'S IT. I will never be cultured.
But fear not! After a few weeks crying into my dirty henna stained hands, I finally stumbled across a solution: henna stencils! Oh my god! Perhaps the greatest gift the Asian continent has ever given to the hipster white girl. I discovered this glorious invention in Urban Outfitters, where I was waving a pottery henna hand ornament around the shop, moaning about the fact I was unable to achieve such an affect. A lovely woman with a gorgeous pixie haircut obviously thought I was embarrassing myself, and came over to me and told me about henna stencils! What a doll!
And here they are:
You can get loads of different styles and patterns from different sellers on eBay, all ranging from about £2-£4 inc p&p. They are a bit fiddly, but once you get the hang of it, they are quite simple. You peel off the stencil, stick it on your hand, or wherever you want to paint, with the sticky side down and then you're good to go. I squirted out some henna from the cones and painted it on with a small makeup brush, as I found that was the best way to fill in the stencil. I found some of the hand stencils were quite small and didn't fit my hands, so I had to modify them slightly by cutting off the fingers (the ones on the stencils, not my own....) and sticking them on individually.
The application of the henna is really easy (and smells a bit like hair removal cream), but you have to let it partially dry before removing the stencil; henna is incredibly easy to smudge, believe me! But here is how it came out after my first attempt:
See! It looks flawless!... Apart from the remainders of my freehand attempts.... It even fades to a really nice colour too:
Henna does flake and crumble off after application to leave a more faded appearance as above, so don't panic if the paste comes off. The crumble is a pain though, my bed is now permanently covered in fake tan and henna crumbs. It is also important to carefully clean your henna stencils too if you are wanting to reuse them. The best way I found was to place them back on the stencil sheet and gently wipe off the remaining hard paste with a makeup wipe; that way you don't lose too much of the sticky back!
So, there we go guys! All is not lost for us henna failing white girls. We can look ethnic and interesting (and indie) now too with a bit of extra help! Please feel free to leave me any feedback, or ask me any questions about this or any of my other blogs.
Happy henna-ring!
P.S. I have ordered some loose costume glitters to experiment with my eye makeup, so I am starting to feel that for my next blog! Keep an eye out for that x
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