How to Naturally Dye Easter Eggs

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Dying Easter eggs is an age old traditions that children all over will take part in during the Easter season. It’s such a fun activity to do.

Who wouldn’t love to dip eggs into dye and watch them turn into gorgeous colors?

I grew up using store bought dyes and for a few years my kids have used store bought dyes as well. This year, we made the switch to naturally dyed Easter Eggs and loved it!

Why switch to naturally dyed Easter eggs?

Make Nature Part of Easter

Easter happens in the spring and why not incorporate springtime and nature into the holiday? Using ingredients you find in nature to make your dyes is a great way to keep things fresh and natural.

Health Concerns

Artificial dyes have a lot of health concerns such as behavior issues and hyperactivity. Now if you aren’t going to eat your Easter eggs than artificial dyes probably aren’t too big of a concern (outside of the fact that you are supporting their making and I imagine there are lots of concerns just with the process of making artificial dyes).

However if you ARE going to eat your Easter eggs, then you’ll want to skip the artificial dyes because they actually can creep through the shells and contaminate your lovely eggs.

Great Teaching Moment and Activity for Kids

Kids are great learners and making natural dyes is an amazing lesson for them. You use this activity to teach kids why you like to stay away from artificial dyes of course but you can also explain how plants can create dyes, how water draws out the colors, how red and blue will make purple, how cabbage juice is nature’s ph test, and so on.

How to Naturally Dye Easter Eggs

2 cups water – for each color
1 tbs white vinegar – for each color
Red – 1 cup diced beets
Yellow – 2 tbs ground turmeric
Blue – 2 cups chopped red cabbage
Hard boiled eggs

Directions:
In a small pot, bring 2 cups of water plus ingredient for desired color to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Let cool and strain.
Transfer dye to a jar (mason jars work great). You will have a bit over 1 cup of dye.
Add in white vinegar.
Carefully add an egg or two to the dye.
Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes but as long as overnight if desired. (the darker shades in the pictures are overnight; lighter shades are 30-60 minutes)
Once eggs are to your desired color, carefully pat dry. Do not rub as the dye may wipe off.

How to Make Green, Orange, or Purple Dye

I thought about trying to find natural dye ingredients for these colors and I tried a few but honestly, I like simple! So I made the 3 primary colors and then I did the classic making secondary color technique.

Green – Dye eggs in yellow. Remove and let dry then dip in the blue until you get your desired green shade.
Orange – Dye eggs in yellow. Remove and let dry then dip in the red until you get your desired green shade.
Purple – Dye eggs in red. Remove and let dry then dip in the blue until you get your desired green shade.