Mixing my first henna

Yesterday I started mixing my own henna for the first time properly.
I bought this henna powder from ebay a couple of weeks ago, it came from Jerusalem so it took a while to arrive. I don't know yet really about the quality, and I'm not sure why exactly I chose that one, but I did!
The recipe I used was a variant of the Henna Caravan KISS recipe. I used mainly lavender oil, but some eucalyptus and bergamot because that's what I had.
I left the mix on the radiator for 24 hours and then put it in a cone this evening and have done the following design:

Now, It's definitely not one of my best ones but it's a start! I had a few problems with it and these are the things I would definitely do next time:

• Sift the henna - this batch had bits of branch and leaf in it which I didn't notice when mixing but made it a complete bugger to get out of the cone!
• Use castor or icing sugar - I only had granulated and I think using that made it a bit more difficult to pipe it. 
• Not make it quite so runny - while it was a lot easier on my hands, it blobbed! 

I'm going to try some different types of henna powder, and try sifting the stuff I've got and will hopefully be able to make something slightly better next time and will update this with the results!

Janet