mishmish
January 13th, 2011, 10:37 AM
Has anyone ever ordered henna from Mountain Rose Herbs? I ask because the shop I work at recently switched from Avigal henna to theirs and I've found them to be not very transparent about what's in their blended hennas (not that Avigal was either, but customers wanted it). They have a big range of colors from strawberry blond and sherry through dark brown and black and since I know that different shades can be blended using indigo, cassia, and other herbs, I asked them for more information. They wrote back only "our henna is 100% botanical with no chemical additives". What puzzles me is this: I've worked in an herb shop for 5 years and all the herbs I work with have their own color, texture, and weight, whether whole or powdered. Some of them may be similar in appearance but all of these "henna" powders look exactly the same...if they were truly henna/indigo, henna/cassia, henna/indigo/walnut or whatever the blend that is needed to achieve all of these different shades, wouldn't the powders have a different appearance? They specifically said that the "neutral" henna is "Cassia obovata mixed with Lawsonia inermis" but isn't neutral henna just a name commonly used for 100% Cassia obovata? If it had actual henna in it, then it wouldn't be neutral, right? Can someone please confirm or allay my suspicions that Mountain Rose doesn't have an idea what it is selling as henna?