Why Natural? Synthetic colours often laden with chemicals like lead, mercury, and chromium, can cause skin allergies, eye irritation, red eyes and even long-term health issues.

Moreover, they contaminate our water sources, pollute the air, and harm street animals. On the other hand, natural colours are derived from plant-based sources, making them safe for us, our children and life on Earth. So, If you want to learn to make your colours, read through and let me know in the comments how you like it.

HOLI COLOR BASE

• Arrowroot Powder
• Cornflour
• Tapioca Starch
• Maida
• Cosmetic Kaolin Clay (White)
• You can also take a potato, tapioca, or arrowroot fresh from the ground or market. Grind it with some water in a blender, sieve through a muslin cloth and let it sit for some time. When the starch settles at the base, remove the top water and add pigments. Let it dry completely, sieve the powder for a fine texture and your colours will be ready.

A quick tip – Clay comes in all colours like white, red, green, yellow, blue, etc. If you can find the sources to buy online or locally from a pottery store or others. You can use that as it is, wet or dry. And say yes to good skin too!

PIGMENTS

Plant Derived/ Natural Pigments

Who needs chemical colours when nature has given us all the colours and pigments in flowers, leaves, clay, etc?

But how do we extract natural pigments?

For Plants / Flowers / Seeds – You can simply collect and grind it into a paste in a blender or stone pestle and sieve through a muslin cloth to get a dense-coloured liquid. (Add a little water in the blender only if needed to help it churn easily.)

Now, add your base little by little in this pigment smashing and mixing with your hands till you get the desired colour.

Dry it completely and it’s ready to use.

What colour do you want to make? Collect these colours outdoors in plants, in the market or in your kitchen!

Yellow

• Turmeric (powder or fresh)
• Marigold flower
• Calendula flower
• Amaltas Flowers
• Yellow chrysanthemum Flowers
• Black babool yellow flowers
• Marvel-of-Peru/ 4-o-clock yellow flower

Red

• Red Hibiscus
• Red rose
• Red sandalwood powder
• Semul / Silk Cotton Tree (Bombax ceiba )
• Turmeric + Lemon Juice (Add lemon juice in turmeric little by little while mixing with your hands till you get red. A chemical reaction between both makes it happen. amazing isn’t it?)
• Achiote seeds/ Annatto /Lipstick tree plant seeds (blend and extract it’s rich colour)
• Pomegranate peels
• Burans / Rhododendron flowers (If you are from Uttrakhand, you can easily find it there).
• Indian Coral trees
• Marvel-of-peru/ 4-o-clock red flower

Orange

• Palash flowers
• Haar-Shingaar flower stem
• Saffron
• Chebulic Myrobalan

Green

• Spinach
• Coriander
• Mustard greens
• Mint
• Gulmohar tree leaves
• Tomato plant leaves
• Moringa leaves, etc.

Pink

• Beetroot
• Turmeric powder+ less lemon juice
• Ice flower
• Onion peels
• Kachnaar flowers
• Phalsa
• Marvel-of-Peru/ 4-o-clock pink flowers

Brown

• Coffee/ Tea
• Brown clay soil

Purple

• Black Carrot
• Purple cabbage
• Jamun peels
• Black grape peels

Blue

• Butterfly pea flower
• Cornflower
• Blue Hibiscus flower
• Neel/ Blue indigo powder

Grey

• Amla/ Indian gooseberry – leave soaked in water in an iron container overnight to create a black colour.
• Activated charcoal powder

Food Colours/ Pigments

Alternative option

If you find the above process difficult or no ingredients are available at the moment, you can also buy food colours you like from the market. It will be more convenient and they are edible too. They usually come in yellow, blue, red, green, etc and can be easily mixed with water to obtain wet colours.

To obtain dry colours, you can take any of the bases for the holi colour given above and add the food colour to it until the desirable colour is achieved.

Leave it to dry. Then, crush it between your hands or grind it in a mixer grinder.

FRAGRANCE (Optional)

Add a few drops in the colour while mixing for an amazing fragrance.

• Rose essential oil
• Jasmine essential oil
• Lemongrass essential oil
• Sandalwood essential oil
• Lavender essential oil
• Eucalyptus essential oil
• Patchouli essential oil
• Bergamot essential oil

That’s it you all! Do try these colours this Holi and free yourself from chemicals! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or if it is helpful.