Meet Jazzie Samnang

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jazzie Samnang.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started doing henna almost 6 years ago – mind you, my first time doing henna I’ve never touched it or gotten it done before. I was already doing jagua art on myself (similar to henna, but it derives from a fruit and stains black) I was hired to work a booth at a small festival and just practiced 3 days before.

Luckily, that henna business was a huge advocate for natural henna and making your products so I was super intrigued and had so many people asking for my information (I’ve always been quite artistic and had already been practicing jagua on myself, so it was in my favor!) From there, I started my Instagram page and did tons of research.

Now, I’m an educator! It’s amazing how much I continue to grow and learn even with teaching henna. Educating people on natural henna and jagua is super important to me. Now, I have been blessed enough to have my private studio while traveling all over to do bridal henna. My goal is to do a destination wedding (maybe in Cancun, Canada, or somewhere beautiful).

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It’s hard to look back at struggles when I have so much to be proud of. I have been through hours (and I’m talking about HOURS) of work from learning to roll my cones, make my henna paste and jagua gel, and practicing the art every single day. I used to be in my kitchen for a few hours late at night trying to roll ONE henna cone. But with practice, I can now roll a cone in less than 20 seconds.

And now, we have to run our social media content and that’s a work in itself! I am creative so I do more than just henna art – visuals and creative directing are so important to me so I spend quite a bit of fun trying to bring video and photoshoot visions to life! It’s never smooth when you have to spend money, lol.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a creative henna artist. Although I have a couple of other small businesses, henna and jagua art is my thing. I specialize in clean art and line work – I think that is how people can recognize my art. I think the things that set me apart from others are the way that I look, my energy, my sense of fashion, and my creativity which reflects in my work. I love art in all forms, including fashion, so I tend to direct lots of unique-themed photos shoots to showcase my work.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love California – all of it! We have so many different people here, California is a melting pot of cultures. We also are home to SO many talented creators and artists, it’s insane. I do wish that more people were open to collaborating versus competing. There is room for everyone to be booked and busy.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/hennabyjazzie