In this tutorial I’ll show you how to make your own natural kohl with burnt almonds at home.

You’ll need:

• 2 or 3 almonds
• candle or oil lamp
• metal skewer
• two bowls or pots of equal size
• clean copper plate
• non-flammable surface, such as sheet metal
• glycerin, almond oil or ghee

On either side of a non-flammable surface place the equal sized bowls. I used a scrap piece of copper as non-flammable surface, on top of a cork coaster because the copper might get hot. Now place the clean copper plate on top of the bowls, using them as stand.

Carefully – I accidentally pierced my finger as well! 😉 – pierce the almond with a metal skewer (the metal skewer might be discolored afterwards). If the almond breaks, try to pierce another more cautious. Then ignite the almond over a candle flame.

Hold the burning almond close to the copper plate. Make sure that everything which falls down from the burning almond falls onto the non-flammable surface. The almond will burn for a minute or so. Wait till the almond is completely extinguished, this may take some time. Burn more almonds if you want. Then grind the burnt almonds to a very fine powder in a mortar.

There’s also a black residue on the copper plate. Scrape the residue off with a spoon. And grind in a mortar if necessary – the residue is usually already a very fine powder, unlike the burnt almonds. You can use both black powders for your kohl – the soot as well as the ground almonds.

Mix some of the black powder with some drops of glycerin till you get a thick paste. I used a needle with a blunt point to apply the kohl.

The homemade kajal is very black.

The kohl smudges, so after some hours the black line turns into a smokey eye. 😉

Here you’ll find another homemade kohl recipe and more recipes for kohl, liquid eyeliner and mascara.