How To Make Kajal (Kohl) for Eyes at Home

Kohl or Kajal is one of the first make up product that most girls learn to use. And rightly so, eyes are the window to the soul, and every girl has the right to dress up her ‘window’. While kohl is widely available in any part of the world, its ingredients are a mystery to all. Kohl brought from stores is heavily diluted and processed in chemicals.

Why home made kajal is better than commercial kajal / Kohl –
Today everything has changed; the commercially and industrially produced kajal is causing harmful effects on the eyes. Today no one produces the homemade pure kajal. Some of the impurities found in kajal are charcoal, which is added for getting dark colour, silver nitrate, which gives kajal a glow and if it is used more than 2%, it causes problems like irritation, burning and redness to the eyes and another impurity found is the lead content. Even the kajal container also is very often not sterilized and cause diseases like conjunctivitis and corneal ulcers.

Do you eyes a favour, and make natural, chemical-free kajal !!

Ingredients –
1. 50 ml Til (sesame) oil OR pure cow ghee (preferably ghee over oil)

2. 1 Big Silver lamp that can accommodate 50 ml oil\ghee
(If silver is not available, any other lamp will do)

3. 1 long thick cotton wick
4. 1 copper plate (the ones used in poojas)

Procedure –
1. Keep half tablespoon of ghee\oil aside, pour the rest into the lamp, put a wick and light the lamp.
2. Place the copper plate on top of the lamp in such a position that the flame touches the plate. Fixate the position of the plate with the help of a stand.
3. Place this lamp in a place with no wind blowing, let the lamp burn over night, or as long as the oil burns. This will approximately take 10 hours.
4. When the oil is burnt, you will see a thick powdery black residue on the copper plate. This is the base of your kajal.
5. Take the half teaspoon of oil you had kept aside in the start, and pour it into the black residue, drop by drop. Rub the residue and oil with one finger for a minute or two. Make the kohl as consistent as you want it. Ideally, it should have the consistency of eatable butter. Too thin and your kohl will smudge, too thick and it will be in lumps.
6. Your kohl is ready to use. Put the kohl in an airtight box. Refrigerate it for 2-4 hours before the first use. Remove and store it at room temperature.
7. Apply on your eyes.


Application –
Wash your face and hands. Take very little kajal / kohl on your finger, a q-tip or, as Courtney Cox does it, a match stick. Apply lightly on your eyes.
Home made kajal is VERY dark, so one of the ways to use it is, put heavily on eyes at night before going to sleep, wash your face in the morning\after bath, the remaining kajal leaves a beautiful , natural tint on your eyes, which no makeup artist can replicate.

Advantages & Disadvantages of home made kajal / kohl–
Advantages –

  • Extremely long lasting with no adulterants, undiluted and herbal.
  • Hygienic, healthy, and can be used for medicinal purposes too.
  • The colour that you get is pitch black, won’t fade as hours go by.

Disadvantages –

  • Possibility of smudging, especially on the skin is high.
  • Colour is so dark, that it might be hard to get out at the end of the day.

Beauty Use –
Home made kajal will be with you for years to come, it comes with no expiry dates. Women in small towns make kajal once every few years, and don’t have to worry about it finishing up fast. The reason why it remain for years and years, is because it is concentrated, so every time you use, you will just need literally one drop of kajal. Those of you who are big fans of dark eyes MUST make kajal at home . This kajal is best used on the upper water line and the lower waterline. You can use it on skin as well, but smudging is possible. Nevertheless, it just might work on your skin, so give it a try.

Medicinal Use –
If your eyes burn from all the pollution or for any other reason, Apply lightly at night before sleeping. Your eyes will water, washing away all the impurities in your eyes. You will feel a lot better.
Kajal is also said to improve eyesight. When you apply kajal, it massages the underside of the eyeballs, which in turn results in better blood circulation and hence, better eye sight.

Warning –
Home made kajal is made from pure ghee and lamp residue, which when applied on eyes, will burn your eyes, and water them. So be careful about applying it for the first time, apply VERY small amount. Get used to the burn for the first few times and then move on to heavy application.
The burning sensation is NOT BAD FOR YOU AT ALL, the burning just means that the impurities in your eyes are being worked upon, and watery eyes rinse away the impurities.

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29 thoughts on “How To Make Kajal (Kohl) for Eyes at Home

  1. Hello ! This is a great article. My mom always talks about how she used to make fresh kaajal for when I was a baby. So if its good for babies it good for good fro grown ups 😀 Just a quick question though, I read somewhere that instead of a cotton wick, one can make a wick out of thin muslin thats repeatedly dipped in Sandalwood paste and dried, thereby infusing the kajal with sandal wood. Have you ever tried this method ? What are your thoughts ?

  2. Hi janhavi,
    Its absolutely good for adults too, they say that it improves your eyesight (this hasn’t been proven though).
    Yes you can use muslin dipped in sandalwood paste, i haven’t tried it yet, if you do, let me know how it works out.
    Since this method has been in existence for decades, there are a lot of variants that different generations have infused in them, they are all safe and you can adjust it to your requirements.

    One more variant after you burn the wick and collect the black residue, while adding ghee, you can add crush half (or one) camphor pill and add it to the kajal, thus filling it with the coolness of camphor .

    1. Yep, you can do it yourself, you can enjoy months n years of supply just by making it once. I’m relatively new to IMBB too(one week old), welcome to IMBB.

  3. These smudge like crazy but I’m going to try your trick of applying it a night before.Plus you have to keep them super clean.The batch I made got spoiled so easily.

  4. I really wanna give this a try, wont have to worry about the ingredients in the kajal….
    and I always apply kajal the night before and in the morning its all on my lashline and doesnt smudge much 🙂

  5. Sonia, how did your kajal get spoiled?
    I have kept mine in a small air tight box, its keeping well, been around 1 year now.

    LP – Do give it a try, and let us know how it turned out. :-))

    1. I wear contacts too. It works fine for me. The only thing u have to be careful about is if you are using it as a medicine (in which case you need to use a large amount), don’t do it while your wearing contacts, do it at night, after you have removed contants, and are ready to retire for the day.
      You know the stuck up feeling you get after wearing contacts for the wholeeeeee day ? And the relief that you feel after you remove your lenses after a loooooong hard day? Kajal works great for it !! You get teared up and all the dirt is removed in form of tears.
      If you are using it as kajal, you need only a teeny tiny amount since this kajal is veryyyyy black, this teeny tiny amount will not make your eyes water so it shouldn’t be a problem for contact lens wearers.

  6. I have the same thing made for my daughter… 🙂 she looks like a little doll when she has Kajal on…and yes it does stay on for the entire day, even after a shower… :yes:

  7. Hi. Will try this. How do you get the kajal off the copper plate and into a container? Once you mix the ghee in, doesn’t the kajal just spread out onto the plate? Or do you first scrape the soot off into a container and then add ghee?

  8. i used castor to make kajal can we use that? and i am mixing coconut oil for application is that right can anybody suggest :jiggy1:

  9. Yes. The information given by you is so informative. I will try it today. But i have also heard from my mother that she used to make kaajol by using hongane leaves, which is a kind of cactus, will be available abundantly in river sides. Just we have to dip a small piece of muslin cloth in hongane leaves paste and dry it in sun. Then make a wick out of it and the other procedures are the same as you have mentioned.

  10. Hi,

    Thanks for the detail. I read it last night and prepared it sooooooo immediately. Awesome. I scraped it and mixed not even a drop of oil. It’s wonderful and I quietly applied it on my eyes and my hubby and my maid noticed the difference in my face and said it looked beautiful. Thanks again. Does anybody know how to make Bindhi shingar in black? I remember my Nani doing it but don’t know the process.

  11. hey nice post..
    i also use home made kohl in every night from 10 years. i use spects n 1 thing vch my other frnds who use spects.. they have noticed dat using home made kohl dont allow to increase the power of spects.. coz they dont use kohl n their no of power increased alot but mine is same as b4.
    I want to give some suggestion u can also use a small amount of pennicilline n camphor while making kohl at home. Pennicilline will prevent infection of eyes n camphor will give a cooling effect in eyes which is ideal for night use… it will give u a healthy n early sleep also. thats all from my side.
    Hope u will like it !!
    take care of ur Eyes..

  12. You can also use kapoor instead of lamp. You will make much more quicker. Just instead of the cotton wick, put some kapoor in a bowl, lamp or any thing else, place the copper plate on top of the kapoor. That’s it. The black powdery substance will form in just 10 to 20 sec. Then mix the pure ghee and it’s ready to use.

  13. My mom used to put this kajal in my eyes when I was a baby.. After trying many kajals and kohls, I’m going to switch to this good old kajal again..
    If you’re going to add camphor, use only pure bheemseni camphor! Other camphors contain chemicals that aren’t good for eyes.
    Apply it on your lashes as well while going to bed and you don’t even need mascara..
    Good luck 🙂

  14. I am agree with all the things mention here … In our home we use homemade kajal and I apply it every night and like smita said… It remains on eyes throughout the day… we bring this kajal from our native place.. made on mud pot… It is also said that everyone should make this kajal on the night of Diwali … using diya using for Diwali… In our village we follow this procedure since many years… And it works very well and effective… ty smita for sharing such a tradition article on making kajal.

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