DIY Kool-Aid Henna Tattoo - Real or Fake?

Perhaps you've seen this making the rounds on the interwebs - how to make henna tattoos out of Kool-Aid and food coloring:

Sounds easy enough, right? The Kool-Aid and food coloring dyes your skin so you can "paint" whatever pattern you like. The original post says it should last over a week and judging by the photos, it's quite vibrant. So of course, I had to try it out.

As it states, you need a cup of water, green food coloring, and Orange Kool-Aid but I used Cherry instead. Figured it would make a darker imprint.

So, add one drop of food coloring to the water and Kool-Aid and mix.

Grab your paintbrush and apply a pattern to your hand. Now here's something they fail to mention - it's too wet to paint much of anything on your hand, let alone something as detailed and delicate as a henna pattern. It will just end up being a big blob of water if you're not careful.

 

Let it sit for one minute to dry and ta-da!

It looks like someone tried to watercolored on my hand. Not vibrant, very blotchy.

Yeah, so this one is totally debunked. I washed my hands, since it said it "should last over a week" and it didn't even last 30 seconds. Sorry kids, but unless you plan on not washing that part of your body for a week, this is a major fail.

TOTAL COSTS: About $4 (if you want to give it a try)
$.39 for packet of Kool-Aid
$3.49 for box of food coloring

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Less than 5 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
It's not hard to make this henna tattoo fail, if you're into that sort of thing!