10 Ways To Make Your Mehndi Design Dark & Last Long

You can skip jewelry or even a good hairstyle but you just can’t get away with not applying henna on hands when you have a wedding at home or you have a family function to attend ! Henna designs play a vital role in Indian homes. Its an old age tradition in many households of Persian and Asian countries for women to decorate their hands and feet with this beautiful henna when there is an auspicious occasion.

But with passing times I have seen many girls off different ages sport henna tattoo for college functions and even parties. Not just women henna is an art which fascinates even little girls! I remember when I was in 10th class and on Chand raat( day before Eid) little girls from my neighborhood and little cousins from my family would be the first ones to get their hands decorated from the ones who knew applying henna art within their family circle. Those who couldn't;t find an artist at home would call a mehndi artist at home and get all girls and women present at their homes to decorate their hands. Which was the same when there was a wedding at home. The love henna mehndi is endless in our country. It is believed the deeper the color of henna stains the palms the better it looks. Brides in India hire best of the henna mehndi artists and use tricks to make their mehndi dark. Well a lot of money goes down the drain if the mehndi doesn't turn out like we want it to be- dark, deep and long lasting!
Mehndi is time consuming, no doubt. It requires patience if you are one getting henna decorated and needs a lot of concentration, time and energy for the one who holds the mehndi cone and spends hours decorating beautiful hands. What happens when you put in so much effort only to find out henna you applied hasn’t turned dark?

Here are 10 awesome tips and tricks that will leave a color so dark and beautiful everybody will envy those beautifully mehndi adorned palms !

1.Make Your Own Mehndi Paste:

Its hard to find mehndi cones which have pure mehndi leaves mixture in them. You get a mehndi cone for 10 to 20 bucks at the local store but they hardly last for 3 days because most of them have mehndi that are made from poor quality mehndi leaves and other ingredients. Its best that you make your own mehndi paste at home using a plastic milk cover to make a cone. Or you can buy dry mehndi leaves , grind them and add a mixture of sugar and eucalyptus oil to it.
But if you are running short of time I suggest you buy pure mehndi powder and add eucalyptus oil, sugar, tea leaves and tamrind mixture to it. All of these ingredients are bound to give your mehndi the desired beautiful deep orange-black color

2. Clean hands and feet:

in order for proper absorbing of mehndi into your palms and feet its important you cleanthem completely to remove dirt and oil particles.

3. Apply Eucalyptus Oil:

Apply a generous amount of eucalyptus oil on the area you plan to apply mehndi ad it soothes skin and works wonders to bring out a deeper color of mehndi on your palms and feet!

4. Leave It Overnight:

Its advised to apply mehndi during nighttime and make sure you are done with your dinner, bathing and visiting the washroom. This can later be quite uncomfortable with mehndi on your hands. You can use gloves if its an emergency . Leave your mehndi overnight , and wear glove or plastic bags on hands and feet to bed. The longer you leave mehndi the darker the color will stain.

5. Sugar & Lemon:

Dab a mixture of sugar, lemon and water over your mehndi when it has completely dried off and the mehndi starts to scrape on its own. This will keep mehndi in its place.

6. Clove it:

The age old t6radition of keeping your mehndi laden hands over a pan with cloves is one thing you shouldn’t miss. Just heat a pan with some cloves on it and let the smoke get absorbed into your hands, this helps a lot in darkening your mehndi!

7. Vicks Vapor Rub:

Rub a little amount of Vicks vaporub after you have removed the mehndi completely from your hands and feet. This is helpful to a great extent!

8. Pickle Oil:

Its best to use homemade pickle oil over your mehndi laden palms. The oil is said to darken the mehndi.

9. Scraping:

Avoid washing hands or taking a bath after you have removed mehndi, it removes a layer of mehndi. Its better to wait for 2-3 hours after mehndi removal . Remove your mehndi with the help of the scraping method. I use a butter knife smeared with oil to scrape the mehndi off. Don’t use water to remove your mehndi. This will only deteriorate the color of your mehndi.

10. Avoid waxing, bathing,washing hands and manicure after removing mehndi:

We all have certain things to be done before a special occasion, but its best to wax the mehndi application area prior to application as waxing will only remove the mehndi color. Get your pedicures, manicures, waxing , shaving and bathing done before mehndi application for best results!