Step 4: Choosing Ingredients

High quality paste consists of:

A good henna powder
A sour activator -releases dye from the henna powder.
A tannin -enhances the henna color.
A terpene-helps further enhance the henna color.
And a sugar-to smoothen the texture of henna and prevent less breakage in the design lines so that more parts of the design can work in penetrating into the skin and giving a better color.

Below is a diagram of ingredients that work best in a henna paste:

Ingrdients for Henna Paste
Tannins	Sour Activator	Sugar Smoothener	Terpenes: (essential oils)
dark tea	dried limes	sugar	eucalyptus globulus
black pepper	dried lemons	brown sugar	tea tree
cloves	lemon juice (fresh or bottled)	dextrose	lavender
tamarind	lime juice (fresh or bottled)	fructose	*clove
dark coffee	grapefruit juice	honey	*cinnamon
dried pomegranate seeds	orange juice	jaggery/gur (hardened chunks of brown sugar found at an Indian grocery store)	*black pepper
citric acid powder	vinegar	molasses	frankincense
saffron			cajeput
cardamom			geranium
cinnamon			ravensara
sumac			cypress or cypress tips
			cardamom
			naiouli
			(Low in terpenes but still good)
			thyme
			pine
			neroli
			rosemary
			marjoram
			juniper
* Skin irritant. Very strong oils. Use in very small quantities or avoid.

Note: Aromatherapy grade oils are the safest and most effective.

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