Moroccan Mailbag....new ingredients

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: I am finally calming down a little from a hectic trip and am ready to put some of the henna information I collected here on the forum. : As I reported before, the elusive and mysterious "henna stone" is none other than our common household ammonia...in Morocco it comes as a stone, or rather a big crystalized mass of ammonia. Most henna artists know of this trick for giving dark henna and ask you if you want to use it. They will also add all sorts of other petrochemicals at your request, but are happy to mix you up a batch of the really natural stuff. : The recipe that I learned was pretty basic and contained no magical ingredients for a darker color. The recipe was as follows: : henna powder (fresh, green etc.) : hot water : lemon juice : sugar : rose water/orange flower water. : These are mixed in a bowl by hand and once mixed, the paste is dumped in a knee-hi stocking and forcibly squeezed through the material. They sift the paste instead of sifting the powder. This seems to be to get rid of clumps of henna that didn't get mixed well (instead of trying to remove impurities from the henna, which is usually very well sifted). This sifted/strained paste is put into a tea glass and the henna artist uses a syringe to suck up the henna paste and begins to work. : Explanation of the paste ingredients are not necessary since most are the usual ones we know of. The one ingredient that was a usual in henna paste recipes was the rose water (tho I prefer the orange flower water). This is used only to give the henna paste a lovely smell. It was wonderful mixed with the natural smell of the henna. Only bridal henna has rose water in it though. : The other recipe I learned was the post-henna lemon-sugar mix. I have seen it done a variety of ways. The usual one is with crushed cloves, lemon and sugar. During this visit I learned a new recipe as follows: : lemon juice : sugar : black pepper : 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic : Apparently the garlic and black pepper are warming agents which contribute to darkening the henna. The smell was so strong that I was convinced that they also ensured that no one would want to come too close to the henna and mess up the design. : An aside...we hear endlessly about the importance of heat in getting a good stain. This time I had my feet done and as I sat there my feet started to freeze. I asked about whether my feet should be warmer. I remembered that in the past there was always a earthenware brazier to warm my hennaed hands over (plus special incense burning, the smoke enveloping my hands). It seems that, in Morocco, this is not done when the feet are hennaed. My questions about this were evaded but finally my husband said that only sheep's feet are put on the brazier and that is to cook them to be eaten! : I will have photos on my website soon and will let you know here when they are up.

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