Cardamom & Clove Henna

Cardamom & Clove Henna Baltimore's preferred henna professional. Celebrating empowered women with organic body art. 🌿💙🙌🏽 Designs are freehand and one-of-a-kind.

Cardamom & Clove Henna is founded by professional henna artist Chelsea Stevenson, and services DC/Maryland/Virginia and surrounding areas. Cardamom & Clove Henna offers bridal services, maternity henna, private appointments of all sorts, parties, events, and more. Cardamom & Clove strives to provide outstanding customer service to each client, and consistently exceeds client expectations. We use f

resh, organic henna paste mixed for each client resulting in the darkest and most long-lasting stains. Cardamom & Clove Henna offers designs in numerous styles to include South Asian, North African, Western, and fusion contemporary pieces. Visit our website for further information. www.cardamomclovehenna.com

Happy Monday, beauties. How’s the day treating y’all? 🫠😂
04/13/2026

Happy Monday, beauties. How’s the day treating y’all? 🫠😂

Listen, beauties, even I say we’ll perfect your arguments during your henna session, I mean it. 🤌🏽😌😂
03/18/2026

Listen, beauties, even I say we’ll perfect your arguments during your henna session, I mean it. 🤌🏽😌😂

It’s a humbling thing to look back at where you’ve come from. It truly makes you appreciate how far you’ve come — and in...
03/17/2026

It’s a humbling thing to look back at where you’ve come from. It truly makes you appreciate how far you’ve come — and invites you to imagine what awaits you ahead. 🥹

Fifteen years ago, I started a henna business. I didn’t expect for it to be my life’s work.

At the time, it was a side hustle that served as a means to an end: Keeping food on the table for my toddler as a single parent.

That was in June 2011.

I decided to go full-time with my art in 2014. This piece was created within the first year of my business. I was so green, but there were a few things I took very seriously:

1️⃣ My commitment to using only fresh, natural henna for my clients — both for safety and for quality,

2️⃣ My approach to serving my clients, focusing on the whole woman, not just the designs we co-create; and,

3️⃣ My pledge to operate with excellence, always doing my very best not just to meet but to exceed both my and my clients’ expectations.

And truth be told? Those three things still guide me today. 💙

Over the years, the designs have grown more intricate. My hands have grown more confident. The business has grown in ways that the younger version of me could never have imagined.

But the heart of the work hasn’t changed.

When you sit across from me at the henna boutique, you’re not just another appointment on the calendar. You’re a whole person with a story, a life, a season you’re moving through. And it’s always been important to me that the space we share together reflects that. 🌿

So yes — the art matters. I care deeply about the quality of the paste, the flow of the lines, the beauty of the finished design.

But what matters just as much is the experience of being cared for while it’s created. The conversations we share. The laughter. The moments of reflection that sneak in between strokes of the cone. The feeling of leaving a little lighter than when you arrived. ☺️

Fifteen years later, I’m still so grateful that so many of you choose to trust me with that experience. It means more than I can easily put into words. Not only do you allow me to bear witness to your life in such an intimate way, but you also empower me to care for my family as a divorceé and mother to five children. It’s honestly so incredible. 🙌🏽

If you’ve been thinking about coming in for a visit — whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth — consider this your gentle nudge. 💁🏽‍♀️

🗓️ Reservations can be made at your leisure using the self-scheduler. Once your spot is secured, all you have to do is show up and let me take care of you.

I’d love to create for you. 💙

💋 Chelsea

The Original (ish 😂) vs. The Remix Recently one of my favorite people popped over to the henna boutique for a “Henna for...
03/16/2026

The Original (ish 😂) vs. The Remix

Recently one of my favorite people popped over to the henna boutique for a “Henna for 2” session with her daughter, and she shared a design inspiration that was just so her.

Y’all know that I’m not in the habit of recreating things 100% because (a.) not all designs transfer over from one person to the next cleanly and (b.) I love for my clients to have something that is custom tailored for YOU. ☺️

…in any case, we used her inspo piece to create the first design you see here, and then I remixed it entirely to create a complimentary piece for the second.

I absolutely love how the pieces turned out for her! 🥹

Question for you, beauties:

🌿 When you get your henna done, do you prefer to work with an inspiration piece as a base foundation or do you prefer to leave the designing to the artist?

03/12/2026

📌
Eid Henna:
Y’all are at my neck, beauties. 😅 I was able to open up a handful of additional times. They just went up on the self-scheduler.

ICYMI, it’s Pisces SZN. ♓️✨🎏 This beauty came to visit for her birthday with one request: Make the Piscean energy pop. ...
03/12/2026

ICYMI, it’s Pisces SZN. ♓️✨🎏

This beauty came to visit for her birthday with one request: Make the Piscean energy pop.

(…and did. 💁🏽‍♀️😏)

Can y’all help me in wishing her a beautiful year ahead? And if you’re Team Pisces, run it up! 👇🏽

Quick PSA, beauties: The VIP Club is closing up this evening. Here are the details so you don’t miss it… 👇🏽💙 The VIP Clu...
02/28/2026

Quick PSA, beauties: The VIP Club is closing up this evening. Here are the details so you don’t miss it… 👇🏽

💙 The VIP Club is a great fit for you if you appreciate having henna as part of your regular self-sustenance routine and beauty ritual.

🗓️ The VIP Club is a subscription for henna services — monthly or quarterly, your choice — at a very special rate.

🌿 You can choose between Extended Sessions for yourself or Henna for 2 sessions if you’d prefer to share time with a friend or loved one over henna on the regular.

🔁 I especially encourage those of you who could benefit from having your “You Time” automated to consider the VIP Club. We all know how busy life can be. If you don’t plan for it, it likely won’t happen.

💌 Joining the VIP Club is by invitation only. I open doors for it only when space becomes available. (Those who are subscribed to the newsletter get first access. Right now, there are only two available spaces remaining.)

…if this speaks to you and you’d like to claim one of the remaining spaces on my VIP Club calendar, lmk below and I’ll share the 🔗 with you directly.

xo, C.

As this month comes to a close, I want to pause and say thank you — slowly, sincerely, and without rushing past the weig...
02/26/2026

As this month comes to a close, I want to pause and say thank you — slowly, sincerely, and without rushing past the weight of what that gratitude holds.

💙 Thank you for being open.

💙 Thank you for staying with me in conversations that were intimate, reflective, and at times heavy.

💙 Thank you for allowing space to talk not just about Black history as something we inherit, but as something we actively live.

It has meant more to me than I can properly articulate to witness so many Black women engage these reflections with honesty — not as spectators, but as participants both here, in private messages, and at the henna boutique. As women willing to look inward and consider how care, rest, beauty, and sustenance shape not only our present lives, but the legacy we leave behind.

These conversations matter because they push back against a narrative that tells us our value lives only in what we produce, endure, or sacrifice.

They remind us that Black womanhood has always included tenderness, discernment, creativity, and intentional care — even when history tried to flatten us into something smaller.

And I want you to know:

🌿 Engaging this work is not abstract.
🌿 It lives in the body.
🌿 It lives in the choices we make about how we show up for ourselves.

If part of how you want to honor this season — and the reflections it stirred — is by choosing a moment of intentional care for yourself, I would be honored to hold that space with you.

🗓️ Private henna sessions are available by reservation:
https://www.cardamomclovehenna.com/bookonline

Thank you for reading. Thank you for reflecting. Thank you for being part of this shared moment in our living history. 💙

There is something deeply grounding about remembering that the body keeps record.It remembers what it feels like to be r...
02/25/2026

There is something deeply grounding about remembering that the body keeps record.

It remembers what it feels like to be rushed.
It remembers what it feels like to be braced.
It remembers what it feels like to be treated with gentleness.

This is why I return, again and again, to embodied practices in my work — practices like henna that ask the body to slow down, to receive, to be present. ☺️

Henna is temporary, yes.
But it is not insignificant.

🌿 It marks time.
🌿 It anchors memory.
🌿 It creates a sensory reminder that your body is allowed to receive beauty without justification.

When my clients sit for henna, they receive so much more than adornment. They receive permission to pause, to be still, to prioritize presence over productivity.

And those permissions do not end when the design fades.

They travel with her.

They shape how she returns to her life, how she listens to herself, how she chooses sustenance in the future.

That is how legacy works. 🤌🏽

Not loudly.
Not all at once.
But quietly, through repetition and intention.

So I want to leave you with this thought, not as a conclusion, but as a continuation:

The way you choose to care for yourself matters.

Not just because you deserve it — you do.
Not just because it feels good — it can.
But because it teaches the world, and the generations watching, what is possible. 💙

When Black women choose self-sustenance, we are not stepping away from responsibility.

We are redefining it.

And that redefinition will be remembered.

If henna becomes part of how you mark this season — part of how you honor your body, your lineage, your tenderness — know that the space is here, held with care, reverence, and deep respect for who you are and what you carry.

I’ll say this plainly, because clarity is kind:

If you are craving a practice that helps your body remember what it feels like to be held — not rushed, not evaluated, not depleted — that is exactly what I offer in this space.

Henna is the medium, yes.
But rich, connected presence is the offering.

If you feel ready to receive that kind of tenderness — to invest in your own self-sustenance as an act of legacy-building — I invite you to place that intention on your calendar.

🗓️ Private henna sessions are available by reservation:
https://www.cardamomclovehenna.com/bookonline

The space is prepared. The pace is slow. And it would be my honor to create for you. 😘

As Black History Month draws toward its close, I find myself less interested in timelines and more interested in continu...
02/24/2026

As Black History Month draws toward its close, I find myself less interested in timelines and more interested in continuity.

Black history is often framed as something behind us — something to be studied, remembered, honored during a designated window. A series of moments we look back on with reverence.

But that framing has always felt incomplete to me.

Because Black history is not just something we inherit.

It is something we live.

Every day. 🤌🏽

It is lived in the way Black women show up for their families and communities. It is lived in the way we build businesses rooted uplifting rather than extraction. It is lived in the way we insist on dignity in systems that benefit from our depletion.

It is lived in the quiet choices, too.

💙 The choice to rest when you can.
💙 The choice to listen to your body instead of overriding it.
💙 The choice to invest in practices that support your longevity rather than just your output.

You — reading this — are not adjacent to Black history.

You are inside it. ✨

The way you care for yourself right now is not separate from legacy. It is legacy. Future generations will not only look back at marches and milestones; they will look back at the everyday decisions Black women made to stay whole.

They will study how we treated ourselves. What we normalized. What we refused to sacrifice anymore.

And that record matters.

If we are honest, legacy is shaped in moments that feel ordinary while we’re living them.

The way you choose to care for yourself.
The way you choose to mark time.
The way you decide your body is worthy of tenderness now.

If you feel called to mark this season — this moment in your life, this chapter of Black history you are actively living — I invite you to do so intentionally.

🌿 Henna is one way we pause long enough to remember ourselves in the middle of everything else. And we do it in the tradition of our ancestral mothers.

🗓️ You are welcome to reserve a private henna session here:
https://www.cardamomclovehenna.com/bookonline

This, too, is history being made — quietly, beautifully, in real time. 💙🌿

I want to speak directly to something I know many women feel but don’t always say out loud.Sometimes, when conversations...
02/23/2026

I want to speak directly to something I know many women feel but don’t always say out loud.

Sometimes, when conversations about rest, care, and self-sustenance arise, they don’t feel comforting at first. They feel heavy. They stir grief. 😔

Grief for how long you’ve been running.
Grief for how much you’ve been carrying.
Grief for the seasons when there was no space to listen to your body because survival demanded everything you had.

And alongside that grief, there can be shame.

I should have known sooner.
I should have started earlier.
I waited too long.

I want to interrupt that narrative gently, but firmly.

You are not late. 🤌🏽

You are responding to the conditions of your life as they are now — and that is wisdom, not failure.

Our ancestors did not have the luxury of choice in many areas of their lives. They did not get to pause. They did not get to prioritize softness without consequence. They did not get to ask what their bodies needed and then adjust accordingly.

We do not dishonor them by choosing differently when we are able.

We honor them by continuing the line forward. ✨

When we as Black women choose to slow down now — when we choose care, embodiment, and intentionality — we are not rejecting our lineage. We are fulfilling it. We are saying: “Because they endured, I get to tend. Because they carried so much, I get to carry myself with more gentleness.”

📌 There is no expiration date on this work.

If this is the season when your body is finally asking to be heard — not overridden, not silenced, not pushed through — then you are exactly where you need to be.

This work does not require perfection.
It requires presence.

If you are realizing, as you read this, that your body has been asking for more care than you’ve been able to give — please know this:

You don’t have to do this shift alone.
And you don’t have to wait until you’re “less busy” or “more rested” to begin.

Sometimes, the beginning looks like choosing one intentional moment where you are centered — where your body is invited to slow down and be nourished. 🌿

If that feels supportive in this season, I would love to welcome you into the henna boutique for a private session.

🗓️ Reservations are available here:
https://www.cardamomclovehenna.com/bookonline

There is no being “behind” here. There is only responding to yourself with honesty. 💙

There is something I’ve been sitting with as this month begins to close — something that feels important to say out loud...
02/20/2026

There is something I’ve been sitting with as this month begins to close — something that feels important to say out loud, even if it makes the room a little quiet when it lands.

👉🏽 Survival is not the legacy we owe ourselves.

I want to be careful here, because survival deserves honor. It deserves respect. It deserves deep gratitude.

Many of us were raised by women who survived because they had to — women who carried households, children, communities, and dreams on backs that were already tired. Women who learned how to endure systems that were never designed for their safety, their rest, or their longevity.

That kind of survival is not small. It is sacred.

But it is not the end of the story. 🤌🏽

What I am witnessing now — in my clients, in my community, in the women who read these words and nod slowly because something in them recognizes itself — is a shift. Subtle, but profound.

Not away from responsibility.
Not away from care for others.
But toward the self-sustenance I’ve been focused on this month.

Sustenance is different from survival.

Survival asks: “How do I get through this?”
Sustenance asks: “How do I remain whole while I do?”

Survival burns fuel.
Sustenance replenishes it.

Survival narrows the body.
Sustenance lets it soften again.

For so long, Black women have been praised almost exclusively for how much we can endure. How much we can carry. How much we can produce under pressure. And while that resilience is real — while it is inherited and hard-won — it has also been overused as justification for our neglect.

💙 We deserve more than to be admired for our ability to survive.

💙 We deserve to be supported in our ability to live.

Choosing self-sustenance — choosing practices that actually feed us back — is not indulgent. It is not a betrayal of those who came before us. It is an extension of their labor into a future where Black women are allowed to stay connected to themselves.

That is not abandonment.

That is legacy-building. ✨

And if this reflection stirred something in you — if your body quietly recognized the truth in these words — I want to offer you a tangible way to respond.

Self-sustenance is not only an idea. It is a practice.

One of the ways I hold space for that practice is through intentional henna sessions — slow, private, culturally grounded moments where your body is invited to be adorned without explanation or performance.

If you are ready to invest in your own sustenance — not someday, but now — I invite you to reserve a session with me at the henna boutique.

🗓️ You can book your private session here:
https://www.cardamomclovehenna.com/bookonline

This is one way we move from honoring survival… to choosing what sustains us. It’s a privilege for m to facilitate it. 💙

Address

8000 Jumpers Hole Road, Suite. 213
Pasadena, MD
21122

Opening Hours

Tuesday 2pm - 10pm
Wednesday 2pm - 10pm
Thursday 2pm - 10pm
Friday 2pm - 10pm
Saturday 10am - 10pm

Telephone

+16827102328

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