Ongoing experiments

Hello internet, 

Just thought I would update you all (and also leave myself something to refer to when I wonder what on earth I did with Jagua and the henna on my hand) on the experiments I have been conducting. 

This is the ~12 hour stain of Jagua!

It's really blue at the moment, which is pretty cool but it should carry on developing for another 36 hours or so so I'm really excited to see how it turns out!

Sadly I made a bit of a boo boo and smudged it, and while I patched it how I would have done with henna, it obviously stains differently and has left a big smudge. I'll have to remember that. I might do a test patch on my foot or something to work out how I can best correct mistakes!

I also found yesterday some achingly beautiful designs by Henna Trails so did an inspired design on my left palm

Here it is, with paste in place.

I then looked into seals as I had been using hair spray but it doesn't really work that well. I thought I needed something flexible, non toxic which stuck to skin fairly well but peeled off when needed. 

I had a brain wave: PVA!

I began a new experiment.

I worked out that the best ratio of PVA:water seems to be 3:1 and then I chucked in a load of glitter. Probably a bit too much because this is what it looked like after I had dabbed the seal on with a soft paintbrush:

Looks a bit mad, but it did work really well! No glitter or henna in my bed this morning!

And this is what it looked like when I peeled off the glue today:

Sadly not too dark but it will develop with time.

I also mixed up some Pakistani henna with just water, as suggested by the seller on eBay when I complained that the stain was rubbish, and I've mixed some zubeda henna up too, so we shall see what the stains look like from those later this week!

Right, I'm off to have some food, a nap, and regain some spoons.

Over and out.

Janet

P. S. The spoons are explained here, it's kind of long but it's a really worthwhile read http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/