Anyone do mehindi henna tattoo art?

[Wildflower]

My tween got a set for Xmas, and she is so artistic she is loving it and her first attempts came out so beautifully.  Any advice on where to get the cheapest yet good quality supplies, like bulk henna? Any other online henna art resources to share...? She has a little amazon.com gc, so from there would be awesome. 

Also, do you know if real henna artists squeeze it out of a little tube (which came in her kit), or do they buy the little prefilled cones, or buy empty cones, or have some even better applicator tool we might want to save up for? 

Once a year we attend a local  belly dance festival, and if she keeps at it I can see how she might be able to have a little booth and do this for $ there....

Thank you!!!

[HappyHappyMommy]

I see your post was missed. I thought I'd bump it up to give it some attention and see if anyone has experiences or information to share.
 

[Smokering]

I henna my hair, and have used the leftovers to attempt mendhi designs before. I didn't have much success - it wasn't body art quality henna, and I kind of smudged it while it was drying. One time I ended up with a pale, pale stain that would have made a decent fake tan, except it was spread over my legs in smudged swirly patterns. From a distance it looked like I had some ghastly disease. :p It was fun though, and proper henna tattoos look gorgeous.

You can just apply it with cones made from triangles of baking paper, the way you'd pipe icing. That's probably the cheapest option (certainly easier cleanup than buying a fabric piping bag). I know it only transfers colour while it's wet, so to get a good dark stain you have to keep spraying it with a mixture of lemon juice, sugar and water. Not sure why you don't just use plain water - maybe it runs?

There are some pretty good mendhi sites online. Henna for Hair has links to places that sell BAQ henna, if you can't find it locally.

[Wildflower]

That's a great idea about the baking paper--we'll try that! I did look around and found some cool sites about henna online.  I just started my daughter her own pinterest account, too, and lots of great things there!

;)

[Fyrestorm]

I use metal tipped bottles for henna - I find I have much better control.  You can get them online or at most hobby shops (usually in the cake decorating dept.)