Try This At Home: All-Natural Easter Egg Dyes

Get ready for a whole brood of Easter puns.

Baby animals. Pastels. CANDY.
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( O_O ) !

As you can see, we’re super eggcited about Easter. Yes, because it’s the day Jesus rose from the dead (yay!) but also because it’s the holiday with the most adorable mascots and color palette. And there are always sweets. We’re all recovering from Lent over here, and the sugar-withdrawal struggle is real.

Unfortunately, it’s not Easter yet, so put down the Peep and stick to that grilled fish sandwich. In the meantime, we’ve hatched a craft idea that combines the cuteness of Easter with a fun DIY egg dye project for the fam (or the friends), minus the weird, mysterious chemicals that processed store-bought dyes are probably full of.

Yep, did you know you can make all-natural egg dyes in (basically) the entire rainbow of colors, provided you have a hefty produce budget, eggs, vinegar, a stove and a whole, whole, lot of patience? Like, a lot of patience. Because, for as many Pinterest-ready eggs you get, you’re bound to have as many fails. At least we did.

But when you get the good ones, these little babes are totally Instagramable, and that’s what we’re going for, right?

Egg-actly.

The color code:

• Raw beets make pink
  (We used a bunch and a half of beets + 2 cups water + 1 tablespoon vinegar)
• Red cabbage makes blue
  (We use ¾ of a head of red cabbage + 6 cups water + 3 tablespoons vinegar)
• Turmeric makes yellow
  (We used 3 tablespoons turmeric + 4 cups water + 2 tablespoons vinegar)
• Onion skins make bronze
  (We didn’t try this one, but it’s next on our list!)

How to do it:

Don’t skimp on the veggies, because you’ll need a lot. Chop your veggie of choice up nice and fine (remember: the more surface area for the water to get in there and suck up all that pigment, the better). Fill a generous-sized pot with the water and vinegar, giving the veggies enough room to breath while still having enough water depth to soak your eggs in. Boil your dye for 30 minutes, then boil your eggs for 20 minutes in the solution, or soak an already-boiled egg in the solution overnight.

What we learned:

Level up. Legend has it that dying eggs in one solution and then another will create luscious secondary colors. Think a red cabbage bath, followed by a turmeric bath to make green. Maybe we soaked our eggs too long in the first solution, but they just refused to take in solution two, and stayed resolutely blue or yellow. Try it yourself.

For the over-achievers. We also tried using rubber bands to create negative-space stripes. The brands either slipped off in the boiling water or stayed on to create a slightly lighter shade, but unevenly. It was a bit of a mess. Try it yourself.

Expert status. We also tried making pretty outlines of herbs on our eggs by securing dill (we’ve seen parsley done, too) onto the egg using a pantyhose to make the herbs stay in place. More mess. Leave this to the expert DIY-ers. We’re still taking baby steps. Try it yourself.

Beginner’s choice. Yellow was the easiest to make, creating a lovely golden color.

Fade to white. Pink seemed to slip off after it was out of the solution. Perhaps boiling instead of soaking would have better results.

Rustic charm. Other eggs I’ve seen have a pretty, even flush of color. Ours turned out mottled and stripy (from where there were rubber bands, although they refused to stay completely clean). They ended up having a nice rustic appeal, but it was definitely not on purpose.

Stay the course. Blue looked like a sad, ugly grey for the first couple of hours. After a night of soaking it turned into a rich, very deep, very dark sapphire. It would be lovely to find a middle ground.