All-Natural Easter Egg Dye

Listen up my mommy friends, this post is for you! And anyone else who might be interested in some all-natural Easter time fun!

Lately I’ve been getting into using all-natural ingredients around our home. We are hoping to be blessed with another little one soon, and I figured that it might be time to start avoiding harsh chemicals and switching over to natural ingredients. This past weekend I managed to clean my entire bathroom using baking soda, vinegar, and a lemon…and it’s never looked to clean! Also, with a little tornado puppy who wants to eat everything in sight, I figure it’s best to avoid harmful ingredients.

It had never even crossed my mind that hard-boiled eggs could be dyed using natural ingredients until I came across this recipe on the Better Homes and Garden website. Maybe it’s because Paaz was all I knew, but I thought this might be more fun to try than just dropping little colorful tablets into some vinegar. Plus, I’d rather not risk dropping the fizzy tab on the ground and having Tornado Pup eat it. (Seriously….I’ve pretty much banned everything toxic to a dog from our home.) These recipes all involve a fruit, vegetable, or spice with boiling water and vinegar. Perfect for my mommy friends who have those adorable little children I adore so much!

 

I chose to use ingredients I had in my house, with the exception of beets which I purchased at the store.  It was quite simple really…just a matter of mixing the ingredient with either boiling or cold water, per the recipe, and adding 2 teaspoons of vinegar. They do take longer to turn colors than artificial dye, and the colors are much less vibrant….but I actually love that more.

I chose to make the following colors:
Frozen blueberries + water = bluish-gray
Paprika +  boiling water + vinegar = faint red-orange
Chamomile tea + green tea + boiling water + vinegar = faint yellow (the recipe states to use either chamomile or green tea…I didn’t feel like wasting four bags of either, so I used two of each)
Beets +boiling water + vinegar = faint pink.

I placed a few eggs in each mixture and then put them in the fridge for a few hours to speed up the process a bit. The recipe suggests keeping them in the fridge overnight for deeper colors, but again, I enjoyed the lighter version.

I think this would be a fun project to do with little ones, and I bet it would be even more fun to experiment with other natural ingredients found in the home!  Check out the Better Homes and Garden website for the recipes! Gotta love BH&G for their holiday tips 🙂

Have you used all natural ingredients to dye Easter eggs before? What colors did you come up with? I’d love to hear about it!