Mar 215 min read

How to Make Organic Colors at Home

Updated: Apr 12

“Colors are the smiles of nature,” said James Henry Hunt.

Colors bring happiness and smile to kids. It brightens their day and broadens their smile. Studies say that kids start identifying colors when they are as young as 5 months old. Every kid loves playing with colors and making their own masterpiece. There are plenty of painting sets in attractive cases with beautiful colors available in the market.

But not all store-bought colors are good for a child's play. Especially when we give colors to toddlers we have to be conscious about the nature of it, because a child’s skin is very delicate and toddlers may put some colors into their mouth or nose. The dyes in some store-bought colors may harm the kids. Hence giving them guiltless coloring, homemade colors is the best.

Organic homemade colors are harmless and give the kids, the fun they deserve. They are made from edible food products and are safe for a child’s use. The ingredients include our daily household foods and hence making them hassle-free.

Today, I'll take you on a journey of learning to make colors at home from food.

Pack up from the Pantry

A vibrant display of spices: bright yellow turmeric, fiery red chili, white salt mounds, with fresh green basil leaves and garlic cloves adding to the aromatic tableau

We need the below ingredients to make the colors at home.

Turmeric - 25g
Corn flour - 50g
Beetroot - 1
Mint leaves handful
Coriander leaves handful
Hung Curd - 1 tablespoon
Water
Small bottles
Kumkum
Calcium carbonate (Chunam)

We need a mixing bowl, spoon, and a few storage bottles, preferably small glass bottles to store the colors to make the colors.

Pick a Place

Before making the colors, choose a place for mixing and cover it with waste paper. Because this is going to be a color experiment and spilling on the floor is a part of it. Also, You can have a waste cloth around to clean up the spills.

This is going to be so much fun. That's why you should involve your kid to share your fun in the color-making activity. It might get messier with them but it will bring lots of smiles and memories.

Start the Adventure

Playing with colors is joyous already; now imagine creating one… Have fun…

An artistic watercolor splash with vivid pink, red, and yellow hues merging on a white background, creating a dynamic and abstract expression of color and movement

Before mixing, wash and dry the storage bottles and keep them ready. Now take the bowl and start mixing the ingredients to make colors.

Rays of Sun

Making the yellow paint is the simplest to do. Take a tablespoon of turmeric powder and add 10-15 ml of water to it. Stir it well to dissolve the turmeric powder to get the yellow paint. The gorgeous drops of sunshine are ready. Now, Store it in a bottle that you don't mind getting stained because turmeric tends to leave a stain.

Flakes of Snow

We said making homemade paints are easy peasy, isn’t it? This is another easy-to-make paint. Take a tablespoon of corn flour and add 15 ml of water to get white paint in thick consistency. Corn flour tends to thicken later so keep adding water when reusing.

Bright as Rose

Buckle up to whisk out a beautiful and nutritious paint that we wish your kids put into their mouths, so they could get the nourishment along with the fun. Take a blender and add 3-4 medium-sized chunks of beetroot and add 10 ml of water in it.

Blend them together to get the juice. Strain it to get dark rose paint. Like turmeric, beetroot leaves stains not on the container but on clothes so be mindful of the clothing when you are making colors, especially with kids around.

A Hint of Nature

A wooden bowl brimming with vibrant green spinach leaves on a dark surface, with some leaves artfully scattered, highlighting their freshness and the bowl’s rustic charm

Making the green paint is soothing to the eyes and mind, enjoy it. Take a handful of mint leaves, some coriander leaves, half a spoon of hung curd, and little water. Blend them together in a mixer. Strain it to get light green paint.

Baby Feet

The most beautiful thing in the world is the newborn's pink feet. The moment you touch it, you get to feel heaven and see a miracle. So is this color, it gives a pleasant feeling and hence it is called baby pink. To make it mix a quarter tablespoon of beetroot pulp with 1.5 tablespoons of cornflour and add 10 ml of water to it. Strain to get baby pink paint.

Yummy Creamy

Is there a child that doesn't love cream? Creams give you guilt and not this one. Mix a tablespoon of turmeric, half a tablespoon of beetroot pulp, and 2 tablespoons of cornflour in 25 ml water to get light brown paint. It suits better for coloring human skin in drawings.

Lady in Red

Let your kids paint the canvases red, hopefully not the town of course. Mix a tablespoon of kumkum, half a tablespoon of cornflour, and 15 ml of water to get red paint. You can also make the paint from a cup of pomegranate juice without adding sugar. Might not get the perfect one but would get a healthier version.

Dreamy Sunset

The sunsets are beautiful. Be it in the sky or in a bottle. Take 2 tablespoons of turmeric and add little water to make it a paste add a pinch of calcium carbonate to it and mix to get dark red colored liquid. Calcium carbonate is available in all petty shops as "Chunam".

Add desirable water to get the paint. Please note that the paint will look red but when painted looks light orange and turns bright orange sometime after painting. You can skip this color if your kid has very sensitive skin since chunam may cause irritation.

Ocean Deep

The oceans are mysterious, we never know their depth and what it holds inside. Similarly, making blue paint is also a curious trip. It might be not easy to make this color from the easily available foods in India. I used edible food color to make this paint. I mixed 20 ml of water with a tablespoon of cornflour and 2 drops of edible food color to make the blue paint.

So we come to the end of the journey, but we know that it is a beginning.

You can add or reduce the cornflour to get lighter or darker shades of the above colors. You can also explore by mixing these paints to get different shades of colors. After all, it's more the merrier.

Fun with Colors

A refreshing glass of beet juice with a whole and sliced beetroot beside it, on a textured surface, highlighting the drink’s rich, dark red color and fresh ingredients

These are homemade colors so your kids can go inventive and make the most out of them. For game-plan, these colors can be used for finger painting, watercolor painting, making play dough, and making play sand. These are from natural ingredients and most of them are edible too, so they are gentle on kid's skin.

You can now let your kid play with colors without any hesitation. Have fun with colors and make memorable messy art!