Frequently Asked Questions: Oils and Terps

What you can expect from Terpineol?

Terpineol appears to both hasten the speed with which your stain appears and reduces the length of time of the demise. The longevity of the stain itself at peak will not change. However, the demise of the stain appears to simply skip the prolonged greenish-brown or pale orange stage typical of the demise of most henna stains.

Henna powders reinforced with Terpineol exhibit stain development that is also different from typical stain development. Whereas the typical (whatever that is) henna stain tends to go through many color changes before reaching peak color and remaining at that color until demise…Terpineol appears to effect the staining in such a way as to cause the stain to get to peak staining color (dark) rapidly and without going through all of the expected color changes. This is fantastic when you need your stain to hit peak color rapidly.

If you have grown accustomed to using the "terps" recommended to nuke your stains, you will have to play with your terpineol a bit in order to find out what is the optimal amount of terpineol your recipe will require. My experience is that too much of any terp hastens the demise of the stain. My experience is that this also occurs with terpineol. Less terpineol is required in your recipe than any of the terps to get same darker staining results.

Terpineol provides other advantages over many of the other terps. The perfume grade terpineol sold here does not have the strong medicine-like smell of many of the effective terps. Henna designs made with paste mixed with terpineol also appear to be more even in coloration in two separate ways. A bold design that requires large stained areas appear to be much more even in color with terpineol than with terps. There also appears to be more conformity in the color of the stains produced with terpineol regardless of the body part. So for typically hard to stain body parts, paste made with terpineol can produce the same color stains on the palm as the back of the hand…and on the thigh as on the palm.

As with many of the things we choose to use with our henna powder, Terpineol opens up another set of options. I am still loving Cajeput for what it does best. I am now loving Terpineol as well…for what it does best yet different from Cajeput.

When you don't want a slow laborious stain demise…you just might want to try Terpineol. When the stain on the hand and arm or foot and leg need to appear the same in color…you just might want to try Terpineol. When you would welcome relief from the awful fumes and smell of Tea Tree Oil…geez…get thee some Terpineol or Cajeput.

When you desire a more cost effective way to nuke those stains dark and consistent…it's Terpineol!!!!

Related topic: Where does terpineol come from, and how is it made?

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